Shark or Dolphin? A gentle reminder to keep an eye out when in the surf

 

Clarence Valley Independent, 10 March 2021:

This shark swam among surfers at Pippi Beach, Yamba, for 20 or so minutes. Seemingly surfers were oblivious to the shark’s presence. Image: Jesseaphoto.com

It was just like any other day at Pippi Beach, Yamba, on Saturday February 27; the sun was shining, the waves were breaking and the wind was favourable … as a shark swam among surfers for at least 20 minutes – and no one noticed or, if they did, they didn’t care.

Surf and ocean orientated photographer Jesse Jennings captured the extended moment on camera.

Jesse says she has lived in Yamba “for the last year or so” and she that particularly likes flying her drone around Pippi Beach and Yamba Point at its northern end.......

Read the full article here.

More of Jesse's ocean and surfing photographs at 

https://www.jesseaphoto.com/

While we were sleeping Norway took a big step towards a sustainable future

Cetaceans

Cetaceans evolved from land mammals approximately 50 million years ago. While thoroughly adapted to sea life, they retain some traces of their evolutionary past. Cetaceans bear live young and feed them milk, investing heavily in the upbringing and development of each offspring. Cetaceans live long, mature late, reproduce slowly and engage in complex social relationships. They are capable advanced activities including echolocation and long-distance communication, which provide them with sophisticated tools to perceive and understand their environment. A complex respiratory system allows them to spend long stretches under water, but they must surface regularly to breath air.

The spectacular leaps of whales and dolphins above the water’s surface, as well as the sounds some species use to communicate and function underwater, fascinate humans. In many communities, there are significant cultural connections between cetaceans and humans. [CMS website]

The 10^th Convention on Migratory Species (COP10) has been meeting in Bergen, Norway between 20-25 November 2011 with little fanfare in the Australian media.

The Migratory Wildlife Network has representatives attending the convention and reports that Norway removed its reservation to the CMS Appendix listing of a number of cetacean and shark species. This whaling nation’s reservation still remain on some cetaceans, but this step forward can only be seen in a positive light.

Background:

Implementation of Resolution 8.22 on Human-Induced Impacts on Cetaceans

Global Programme of Work for Cetaceans

Further Steps to Abate Underwater Noise Pollution for the Protection of Cetaceans and Other Biota

Review of Article IV Agreements already concluded: Pacific Cetaceans 

Photograph found at Google Images

One of the reasons so many people choose to live on the NSW North Coast

Dolphin in flying leap
Photograph taken by Matt Deans
just south of Split Solitary Island off Coffs Harbour
in December 2010
Published in The Daily Telegraph
Click on photo to enlarge

Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill 2010: when 'we told you so' is hopelessly futile and any penalties imposed on polluters not enough to satisfy

The U.S. Public Broadcasting Service is running a meter calculating the amount of oil now devasting the marine environment, sea creatures both large and small, bird life, foreshore and estuary ecosystems for hundreds of miles along the Gulf of Mexico thanks to British Petroleum and partners.




PBS 'The BP Spill's Impact on Wildlife'
Watch
Listen
Transcript
WARNING: Some images are distressing

UPDATE on 30 May 2010:
There is some talk that BP executives are pressuring the mainstram media and organizations involved in the oil spill clean-up not to give regular accounts of numbers of wildlife killed or rescued and not to give a daily reckoning of the amount of oil still leaking into the Gulf of Mexico.
The fact that PBS paused its meter (above) on 28 May 2010 seems to lend credence to this claim.

Dolphins at play, Iluka NSW

Photographs by Mike Litzow displayed at his blog

Once In A Lifetime.

The adventures of Mike, Alisa and young Elias on the sailboat Pelagic.

Bottlenose dolphins say, "The Clarence River is a nice place to live,"

Not so long ago this site carried a report titled Yamba - a nice place to live about Yamba being a very friendly place for humans.

Now, Christine Fury, a researcher with Southern Cross University’s Whale Research Centre, has found that Northern Rivers bottlenose dolphins agree - the most popular place for them to live is the Clarence River,which runs through Yamba, Maclean and Grafton.

Ms Fury, who has been studying local estuarine dolphin populations for three years, has uncovered some fascinating facts about our warm-blooded mammalian cousins.
SCU reports that Ms Fury's study provides the first published data on Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins in Australian estuaries.

Ms Fury estimates that about 71 dolphins live in and around the Clarence River compared to about 34 dolphins in the Richmond River.

“The Clarence River is the most popular because it is the largest estuarine river system in NSW and therefore has a greater volume of water. It also has less urban and agricultural development. Both these factors mean the water quality is better,” Christine said.

“Dolphins are the top predators in the river systems, so the cleaner the water, the more fish in the river and the better the ability to sustain a bigger dolphin population.”

During her 2,000 hours on the rivers observing dolphins, Christine found that a dolphin’s favourite fish is mullet, or whiting as a second choice.

The mothers teach their calves how to catch fish, but it takes three to four years for the youngsters to become proficient at catching their own dinner and they are supplemented with their mother’s milk until that age.

Once weaned, the juveniles leave their mothers and hang out in mixed-sex pods, learning from each other and spending a lot of time in play.

As the males get a little older, they break off into pods of three or four, working collectively to catch fish and mate with females using an uncommon herding manoeuvre.

Mothers and their calves, and female pods, escape the more aggressive sexual attention of the males by entering the shallower waters of river tributaries, where the males generally do not follow as they prefer to remain in the deeper, main channels, where they can assert their dominance.

Also, the tributaries have smaller fish, which are easier for the calves to catch and eat. Fish are swallowed whole, head first, after first being either stunned by a tail flap or bitten. Dolphins will often flip a fish into the air and then catch it head-first so as to be able to swallow it properly.

Like humans, dolphins have distinct personalities. Research shows the more gregarious, inquisitive and curious dolphins prepared to stray furthest from mum have the best chance of long-term survival.

Diligent and informed management of future increased environmental disturbances will be needed to ensure the long-term survival of these dolphin populations, Christine said.

You can read the full research paper at http://www.publish.csiro.au/nid/126/paper/MF08109.htm