Doing something different

Eye of a dolphin

Happy Greek Easter 2013!

Dolphin Biology People: Kostas

Konstantinos (Kostas) Papalexis – here portrayed with Silvia in front of his Galaxidi shop – is a friend who helps us solve the logistical problems we face on an almost daily basis.

Recently, as our usual mooring place was taken by some other guy (with whom we did not want to argue), Kostas helped us find the perfect mooring spot for our inflatable, just besides his own boat. He even dove in still-cold waters to make sure the anchoring holds.

Kostas owns the bakery situated in the main square of Galaxidi, where he delivers bread, pastries and pitas. He also runs a well-equipped nautical shop offering services to divers and sailors. Additionally, Kostas co-manages with wife Chrisoula two of the best hotels in town: Hotel Ganimede and Hotel Miramare.

Over the years, Kostas has become a key collaborator and a friend we can trust whenever we are desperately looking for help – or when we simply feel like having ouzo mezedes in good company.

Imagination

Just let imagination lead... reality will follow through.

-- Michael Hedges (1953–1997)

(photo G. Bearzi)

On a golden sea

When possible we love staying out until late, as the Gulf of Corinth turns into copper and gold.

At dusk, striped dolphins stop socializing and show little aerial behaviour. Their groups become looser and the animals start performing longer dives, presumably in search of their prey – deepwater squid migrating vertically and getting closer to the surface as light dims.

Where Chinese vessels fish

Pew Charitable Trusts: China foreign fishing is largely unreported

Nature: Detective work uncovers under-reported overfishing

Original article:
Pauly D., et al. 2013. China's distant-water fisheries in the 21st century. Fish and Fisheries doi:10.1111/faf.1203


For those who are interested in the global and regional implications, there are a number of documentaries reporting the consequences of overfishing by foreign fleets along the coasts of Africa (and elsewhere). These include The End of the Line, The Damned of the Sea and the more recent Planet Ocean.

Love After Love

The time will come
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other's welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

-- Derek Walcott (born 1930)


(Photo by G. Bearzi, Northern Evoikos Gulf, Greece, October 2010)

Artisanal fisherman in Italy - 1

MPA of Sinis Peninsula, Sardinia, Italy, February 2011 (photo S. Bonizzoni)

This fisherman shows what a bottlenose dolphin did to his gillnets to take away a cuttlefish.

They paved paradise...

I wrote 'Big Yellow Taxi' on my first trip to Hawaii. I took a taxi to the hotel and when I woke up the next morning, I threw back the curtains and saw these beautiful green mountains in the distance. Then, I looked down and there was a parking lot as far as the eye could see, and it broke my heart... this blight on paradise. That's when I sat down and wrote the song.

-- Joni Mitchell (in the early 1970s)

Artisanal fisherman in Greece - 8

Argolikos Gulf, Greece, June 2012 (photo S. Bonizzoni)

This fisherman complained about damage to his trammel nets caused by bottlenose dolphins and sea turtles.

Acoustic deterrent devices ("pingers") are sometimes used to scare dolphins away from the nets and prevent depredation. However, most of the interviewed fishermen reported that besides being expensive pingers only work for some time, but they soon become useless or end up attracting dolphins. In other words, sooner or later the dolphins habituate or adapt to noise and acoustic devices may turn into "dinner bells".

Artisanal fisherman in Greece - 7

Argolikos Gulf, Greece, June 2012 (photo G. Bearzi)

Not everybody can be beautiful

Not everybody can be beautiful, but among dolphins an unusual rostrum is no reason to be sad. This striped dolphin with a malformed beak seemed to be doing fine, bowriding a lot, actively socializing with other group members, and jumping as shown in this photo.

(Photo by S. Bonizzoni, Gulf of Corinth, Greece)

Chris Jordan: turning powerful statistics into art

Artist and photographer Chris Jordan portrays our culture through supersized images that capture almost unimaginable statistics.

Jordan's work shows the power and potential of art in telling stories that are unlikely to be thoroughly understood – or to make a difference – as long as they are only told by science journals. Science is good, but more than science is needed for reaching out to meaningfully large audiences. Such endeavour takes imagination and creativity, as well as someone able to convey the message in a passionate way.

See how passionate and creative Jordan can be in the 11-min presentation that can be watched HERE.

Planet Ocean

An absolutely stunning new documentary film directed by the author of HOME, Yann Arthus-Bertrand, together with Michael Pitiot.

http://www.yannarthusbertrand.org/en/films-tv/planet-ocean

NGOs or schools that wish to organize a free screening of the film Planet Ocean can contact the GoodPlanet Foundation: anne.lelay@goodplanet.org

Artisanal fisherman in Greece - 6

Argolikos Gulf, Greece, June 2012 (photo G. Bearzi)

This artisanal fisherman told Silvia that in the past bottlenose dolphins used to be transient, but because of fish farm development in recent years they have become more resident. Dolphins now feed around the fish farm cages most of the time, and they cause more damage to trammel nets.

While this man had a broken wrist, he had no choice but keep fishing with his small wooden boat. He blamed the marked decline of fish on industrial fishing by large purse seiners and trawlers.

Artisanal fisherman in Greece - 5

Argolikos Gulf, Greece, June 2012 (photo G. Bearzi)

This fisherman, age 43, reported that fisheries catches have decreased dramatically as a consequence of overfishing. In addition, due to the Greek economic crisis, many people who formerly had another job resorted to fishing to feed their families. He called for increased monitoring and implementation of the existing laws as a solution to solve the problem of overfishing, which negatively affects him and his colleagues.

Plastic beach

On a beach on Midway Atoll* (or anywhere else)

Watch the short (2:26) video HERE.

* Midway is right in the middle of the North Pacific Ocean.

Daniel Pauly on shifting baselines

In this 9-min presentation, fisheries scientist Daniel Pauly tries to explain the concept of shifting baselines he first described in 1995.

With his trademark humor, Pauly describes how each time a baseline drops we call it the new "normal". By doing so, we lose sight of how rich the marine environment really used to be.

Additionally, Pauly points out that some present-day scientists are likely to dismiss anecdotal information from the past, because they don't see it as "scientific" according to their present-day standards. Memory of the past is thus progressively lost, to the point that in the end what we aim to preserve and sustain is – in Pauly's words – "miserable leftovers": the remnant icons of a profoundly depleted marine biodiversity.

Watch his presentation HERE. Please note that his name is Pauly, not Pauley (!).

Coastal bottlenose dolphins can adapt to increased human impact

This recent article looks like an important contribution. It suggests that changes in the behaviour of bottlenose dolphins does not automatically or necessarily imply an impact in terms of population health or dynamics. In this study, dolphins were able to somewhat tolerate a 6-fold increase in vessel traffic, no biologically-significant response being observed as a consequence of increased disturbance.

Indeed, coastal bottlenose dolphins are known to be resilient and opportunistic. They often adapt to changes in human activities and modify their behaviour accordingly. What this study should not suggest is that these results may be extrapolated to any cetacean species, any area, or any kind of human impact.

You can read the full article HERE.

Artisanal fisherman in Greece - 4

Argolikos Gulf, Greece, June 2012 (photo S. Bonizzoni)

This fisherman is showing some of the holes made by bottlenose dolphins in his trammel nets.

Artisanal fisherman in Greece - 3

Argolikos Gulf, Greece, June 2012 (photo G. Bearzi)

Please note the fluffy blue shark. We think it tells a story.

Dolphin biology and guitar music

My first album, "i-o", was released today.

While I was in Texas as a visiting scientist I purchased a baritone guitar with 8 strings. Its rich sound got me started and prompted experimentation with music composition. Back in Italy, I wrote more songs and strived to learn digital editing and mixing. But, wait a minute. Is a dolphin biologist ever supposed to engage in such unscientific and naive activities? Let alone one who, like me, can't sing and has no music competence? I don't know. What I do know is that as long as I was super-busy with scientific and management work my guitars collected plenty of dust. I never sung anything, not even under the shower. At some point, priorities shifted. Or maybe I ended up feeling that there was still time to try something new, defective as it may be.

HERE you can listen to the album (*).

(*) Listening is free; download of CD-quality, lossless audio files for a small fee.

Many thanks to Stefano Giungato at StoneTracks Production for his highly professional mastering.

Artisanal fisherman in Greece - 2

Argolikos Gulf, Greece, June 2012 (photo G. Bearzi)

Artisanal fisherman in Greece - 1

Argolikos Gulf, Greece, June 2012 (photo G. Bearzi)

While overfishing is a known tragedy in today's oceans, there is still a kind of small-scale fishing that would deserve to be protected. In fact, artisanal fishermen in Greece (and elsewhere) are often themselves the victims of inconsiderate, misregulated and oft-illegal fishing by large commercial fleets.

The art of communicating (dolphin) science

My sister and DBC collaborator Maddalena Bearzi recently talked about "The Art of Communicating Science" at the 2013 Southern California Marine Mammal Workshop. The Youtube video of her presentation can be watched HERE. Maddalena recently wrote a popular book titled "Dolphin Confidential: Confessions of a Field Biologist". That's one place where she shows she can get her message through.

On the subject of science communication and addressing the public without being soporific, you can find another interesting video HERE. It is pungently called Death by PowerPoint.