Elephant Seals Battle for Love With Mating Songs and Bravado
Lauren Sommer, KQED Science Editor’s Note: This story won a national Edward R. Murrow Award last year for Use of Sound. We bring it back to you as our Valentine from KQED Science.
A male northern elephant seal calling at Año Nuevo State Reserve. (A. Friendlaender)
Love is in the air on California beaches this time of year, when northern elephant seals arrive by the thousands for breeding season. Males make plenty of noise at Año Nuevo State Reserve, north of Santa Cruz, but it sounds more like a chorus of motorcycles than the sultry sounds of Annie Lennox.
Now, researchers at UC Santa Cruz are decoding this complex communication system and learning how males use it to boost their reputation.
Elephant seals spend most of the year alone in the Pacific Ocean, so there’s plenty of action packed into the two months they’re on land every winter. “That’s mating behavior,” says naturalist Lisa Wolfklain, pointing at two elephant seals in a sea of hundreds of males, females and pups.
Male elephant seals are the size of an SUV — fifteen feet long and 4,000 pounds. They’re known for their proboscis, the huge, fleshy nose that hangs over their mouth. There are plenty of available females this time of year, but most males will strike out. The dating scene is controlled by alpha males.
“The alpha strategy is to be dominant over a group of females, the harem,” says Wolfklain. “And they want to have the first right to mate.”
You can spot the alpha males right in the middle of their groups of 10 to 100 females. The other males, known as betas, are on the outskirts, just watching, waiting for their chance.
“So this guy’s coming in,” says Wolfklain, pointing at one beta male moving quickly toward a female. The alpha male perks up and snorts a warning with customary bravado. Sometimes the fight ends there, but not this one.“Ooh, now they’re hitting with their heads,” the commentary continues, as the two lunge at each others’ chests. A few strikes seem to be enough for the beta male and he retreats.These fights can be bloody and all the while, other males are taking advantage and sneaking in. It adds up to a very stressful time for male elephant seals.It’s All About Reputation“It’s not advantageous for males to fight all the time,” says Caroline Casey, a researcher at UC Santa Cruz. She says fights can be risky. “Sometimes they can result in death and we’ve seen that,” she says.Elephant seals also don’t eat while on land, so they need to conserve energy. Casey says, as with humans, one way to avoid fighting is communication. But until now, no one was really sure what the males were saying to each other. So, she and her colleagues have been studying a patch of beach with about 50 males.“We have come up with this ranking system where we assign each male a score,” she says. It’s similar to systems used in professional sports, where the males win or lose points with every fight. Casey and her team also recorded the males’ calls and found remarkable differences.One beta male, X579, has a call that ends in a flourish. “His call, to me, is my favorite,” she says. “He always has this really lovely note at the end of it.”X579 was a beta male with a lot of competition. “He tends to vocalize and challenge everybody right when he gets there,” Casey says. He challenged GL, an alpha male with a very short, staccato call.“That is what’s so incredible,” Casey says. “All of the animals sound completely different from one another.” What’s more, Casey’s team found that each male seems to use the same call year after year, whether he has a harem or not. It’s their signature call – and they flaunt it.“A larger, more dominant animal will come up to a smaller animal, maybe beat him up a little bit,” says Casey, “call at him before and after, like, ‘Hey, this is me. I’m Bob. Don’t mess with me.'”It’s all about spreading your reputation around. “That’s called associative learning and that’s very unique among marine mammals,” Casey explains. “That means that every male has the potential to be learning every other male based on their acoustic signature at that site.”These complex communication systems have been studied in songbirds and other animals, but Casey says less is known about marine species. “I think it’s just a piece of larger puzzle in understanding how these animals breed and how they’re going to survive.”A century ago, elephant seals were hunted to near extinction for their blubber. Fewer than 100 lingered off the coast of Mexico. With protective laws in place, today there are more than 150,000 northern elephant seals — and growing.That’s good news for Casey’s loner elephant seal X579. This year, he’s an alpha male for the first time. As for the others, there’s always next year.
Read the original post here.
Hitch in North Coast marine sanctuary plans delays unveiling
Kamilah Motley of Washington, D.C., takes in the sweeping view of the Sonoma Coast, north of Bodega Bay, Monday Jan. 20, 2015. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat)
Last-minute details related to expansion plans for two adjoining marine sanctuaries off the North Coast were still being hammered out between federal agencies Tuesday, delaying publication of a final rule, officials said.There was no indication of a hitch significant enough to derail the expansion proposal, which was developed over the past two years under the direction of President Barack Obama.It was unclear, however, just what was holding up the process, representatives with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.A spokesman for the National Marine Sanctuaries program said last week that the legal consultations underway between various agencies are typically privileged, though there have been reports that some of the delay, at least, relates to discussions over U.S. Coast Guard operations within sanctuary boundaries.But most parties following developments said they doubted there was any cause for alarm.“I’m hearing that the very top brass at the Coast Guard and the NOAA are working on this, and there will be a good solution,” said retired Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey, who championed coastal protections and sanctuary expansion legislation for two decades before her 2013 retirement.The current expansion proposal developed by the Obama administration would more than double the combined area of the two sanctuaries, putting an additional 2,769 square miles of ocean off-limits to oil, energy and mineral exploration or extraction. It would also extend wildlife protections and conservation efforts across a vast stretch of nutrient-rich habitat, from Bodega Head to Manchester Beach on the southwest Mendocino Coast.The additions would create a 350-mile band of protected coastal waters reaching north from the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary on the Central Coast.“We’re enthusiastic about expanding the Gulf of the Farallones and Cordell Bank (National Marine Sanctuaries) so we’re just trying to make sure we check everything off the list and make sure it can happen as quickly as we can,” NOAA spokeswoman Keeley Belva said.The final management plan was released in December, triggering its circulation among federal agencies for a 30-day period. That period has been extended by continued talks.
Read original post: Press Democrat | You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.
Thousands of fiery red crabs wash ashore in Newport Beach
A pelagic red crab encounters a seashell on Balboa Island on Wednesday morning after thousands of the tiny crustaceans came ashore with the high tide. (Don Leach / Daily Pilot)
Drawn north by warm ocean waters, thousands of candy-red crabs rarely seen in coastal Southern California have washed ashore in Newport Beach.The tiny red pelagic crabs came ashore with the high tide this week, scampering across the sands, bobbing in the shallow waters and adding a splash of color to the beachfront.“They look like baby lobsters,” said Kevin Kramp, a Balboa Island resident who spotted a cluster of the crustaceans relaxing in the shade of a dock. “Someone get the butter.”The crabs, known as Pleuroncodes planipes, are about 4 inches long, have three small legs on each side of their bodies and two pincers in front, much like a miniature lobster. Their tails are segmented, causing them to swim backward.The crabs more often inhabit the warm waters along the lower west coast of Baja California, experts say, and are believed to spend the majority of the year hiding on sandy ocean bottoms.However, during the spring, the crabs travel in dense schools and occasionally wash ashore, said Southern California Marine Institute director Daniel Pondella II.But this marks the first time in years that Pondella has heard of them being seen in Southern California."This is the first warm year we've had in quite awhile," he said. "It could just be a sign of the warm water we're currently experiencing."Some experts estimate that warm southern currents may distribute the crabs into Southern California every six to 10 years.A thick blanket of the fiery red crabs surfaced in the late '90s, and again several years later in the Channel Islands and oceanographers at the time saw them as a possible indicator of an advancing El Nino weather pattern.Their arrival puts them in league with other nonnative animals seen off the Southern California coast in recent years, such as blue marlin, whale sharks, wahoo, yellowfin tuna, manta rays and by-the-wind sailors – a blob-likejellyfish that skims along the surface of the ocean.Newport Beach resident Darren Zinter initially thought the crabs were tiny frogs because of how close they were swimming to the surface of the water. Zinter grabbed one to get a closer look before setting it free."I've never seen these things before," Zinter said. "It's incredible."
Original story: Hannah Fry | http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-red-crabs-newport-beach-20150122-story.html
Official unveiling next week for North Coast marine sanctuary expansion
Kamilah Motley of Washington, D.C. takes in the sweeping view of the Sonoma Coast, north of Bodega Bay, Monday Jan. 20, 2015. The unveiling of the expanded Cordell Bank and Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuaries will take place next week. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat) 2015
Last-minute consultations were underway in Washington this week in advance of the expected publication Tuesday of final plans for expansion of two adjoining national marine sanctuaries off the North Coast.Reports of a few lingering operational questions on the part of Coast Guard officials should not impede implementation of long-sought protections for the swath of wildlife-rich waters offshore of Sonoma County, federal sanctuary personnel said.“So far, the information I have is we are not anticipating any delays,” said Maria Brown, superintendent of the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary.The proposed move, announced by the Obama administration in December 2012, will more than double the size of the combined Cordell Bank and Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuaries, extending federal protections north along the Sonoma Coast to Point Arena in southern Mendocino County.The action will fulfill a four-decade quest to ban energy and mineral exploration and extraction off that stretch of coastline, extending federal protection to an additional 2,769 square miles of ocean.The final rule on the expansion is expected to be published in the Federal Register on Tuesday, Jan. 27, triggering a 45-day review by Congress and California Gov. Jerry Brown before the area is officially included in sanctuary boundaries. Sanctuary officials earlier had said the rule would be published Jan. 20.Matt Stout, communications director for the National Marine Sanctuary System, said the expansion is the agency’s largest undertaking of its kind short of creating a new sanctuary. But he said strong support for the plan among lawmakers suggested smooth sailing ahead.“This expansion has grown out of the will of Congress to see something happen here,” Stout said. “We’ve had nothing but absolutely fantastic support from all members of Congress. And the local delegation is incredibly vocal and supportive, so we wouldn’t anticipate any challenge.”You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @MaryCallahanB.
Read original story: The Press Democrat
California drought could end with storms known as atmospheric rivers
California's drought crept in slowly, but it could end with a torrent of winter storms that stream across the Pacific, dumping much of the year's rain and snow in a few fast-moving and potentially catastrophic downpours.Powerful storms known as atmospheric rivers, ribbons of water vapor that extend for thousands of miles, pulling moisture from the tropics and delivering it to the West Coast, have broken 40% of California droughts since 1950, recent research shows.
"These atmospheric rivers — their absence or their presence — really determine whether California is in drought or not and whether floods are going to occur," said F. Martin Ralph, a research meteorologist who directs the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego.The storms, which flow like massive rivers in the sky, can carry 15 times as much water as the Mississippi and deliver up to half of the state's annual precipitation between December and February, scientists say. Though atmospheric rivers are unlikely to end California's drought this year, if they bring enough rain to erase the state's huge precipitation deficit, they could wreak havoc by unleashing floods and landslides.Scientists using a new type of satellite data discovered atmospheric rivers in the 1990s, and studies since then have revealed the phenomenon's strong influence on California's water supply and extreme weather.This month, a group of government and university scientists, including Ralph, are launching a major field experiment to better understand atmospheric rivers as they develop over the Pacific. Through the end of February, some researchers will fly airplanes above storms as they pass through, while others will monitor them from ships hundreds of miles off California. As the storms make landfall, the scientists will collect data with ground-based instruments."We're going to measure the heck out of them," Ralph said.Scientists will use the information to try to improve atmospheric river forecasts, including where they will hit hardest and for how long. That could help communities prepare for flooding and allow water managers to make better use of storm runoff.These atmospheric rivers -- their absence or their presence -- really determine whether California is in drought or not and whether floods are going to occur.- F. Martin Ralph, a research meteorologist who directs the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego.California usually needs about five good atmospheric rivers each winter to fill reservoirs, stimulate spring vegetation growth and build snowpack to healthy levels, said Michael Anderson, a climatologist for the California Department of Water Resources. But how much the storms boost the state's water supply depends on the characteristics of each one, including how cold it is, whether it makes landfall toward the north or south, and whether the precipitation falls mostly as rain near the coast or as snow in the mountains.Jay Jasperse, chief engineer for the Sonoma County Water Agency, calls atmospheric rivers "our water supply up in the air." The agency, which operates two reservoirs in the Russian River Valley, one of the state's most flood-prone watersheds, has been seeking more precise forecasts to make better decisions about releasing water from reservoirs to accommodate storm runoff or conserving it to use as drinking water."We want to better handle these short, intense rainfall events," Jasperse said.If atmospheric rivers fail to arrive, California could be in serious trouble. That's what happened last winter, when a ridge of high pressure lingered off the West Coast for months, blocking storms and intensifying the drought.An atmospheric river broke through last February but didn't bring enough rain to make a big improvement. In December, a strong atmospheric river drenched Northern California, but much of it fell as rain near the coast rather than snow in the mountains. That means the state will need several more big storms by the end of next month to build up its snowpack, which in the Sierra Nevada remains at less than half of normal.As much as Californians might hope for a series of atmospheric rivers to sweep in and end the three-year drought, experts warn that so much rain at once could bring devastation.California's most severe storm event on record was caused by a series of atmospheric rivers that began in December 1861 and poured rain for weeks. The storms caused such extensive flooding in the Central Valley that the state Capitol was temporarily moved from Sacramento to San Francisco.Ten years ago, an atmospheric river brought record-setting rain to Southern California, causing a mudslide that killed 10 people in the Ventura County beach town of La Conchita.Atmospheric rivers are expected to grow stronger over the century as global warming increases the amount of water vapor that can be lifted out of tropical oceans and pushed to higher latitudes.A 2011 simulation by the U.S. Geological Survey found that a hypothetical megastorm — an atmospheric river event so strong it happens only once every 100 to 200 years — could be more catastrophic than a major earthquake, over several weeks bringing 10 feet of rain and hurricane-force winds, widespread flooding, landslides and $300 billion in property damage.Dale Cox, a USGS project manager who oversaw the disaster scenario, said atmospheric rivers "provide us water, but they are also a major source of our calamity.""Everybody's hoping for them," he said, "but we don't want too many."tony.barboza@latimes.com
Read original post: http://www.latimes.com/
President Obama signs discharge permit exemption for commercial fisheries
Yesterday, President Obama signed into law the "Howard Coble Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Act of 2014," exempting small fishing vessels from the EPA's National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) discharge permit requirements. The law extended the exemption provision for three years on the very day that the EPA's NPDES permit requirements would have taken effect.The regulation was intended to prevent fuels, toxic chemicals, or hazardous waste from entering the water. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) told the Alaska Journal of Commernce that requiring a permits for fishermen to hose down a boat is overkill - especially when recreational boats, including mega-yachts - are exempt from the rule."We want to abide by environmental regulations that make sense," Murkowski told the Journal, "But I don't think any of us believe it should be a requirement for a fishermen who has had a good day out on the water, and they are cleaning up the boat, and hosing slime and maybe some fish guts off the deck and that then becomes a reportable discharge to the EPA.... Let's use some common sense here."Read more about the extension from the Alaska Journal of Commerce here View the full Act signed by the President here
Unusual Species Highlight West Coast Cetacean and Ecosystem Survey
The research ship Ocean Starr returned to San Diego Wednesday, completing NOAA Fisheries’ first comprehensive survey of whales, dolphins and porpoises and the marine ecosystem off the West Coast in six years. Highlights of the four-month survey included unusual marine mammals and birds drawn by warm ocean conditions, and the first offshore tests of an innovative new system for remotely counting marine mammals through sound.“You don’t know what you will find until you are out on the ship, which is what makes it so important,” said Jay Barlow, chief scientist of the California Current Cetacean and Ecosystem Assessment Survey that stretched from California north to Washington. “This has been a very interesting and surprising survey because we’ve seen species we wouldn’t expect, which gives us information about their distribution as well as about current ocean conditions.”The Survey led by the Southwest Fisheries Science Center identifies and counts cetaceans, seabirds and marine turtles using high-powered binoculars and towed listening arrays. The team also uses a series of specialized nets and oceanographic sampling gear to survey microorganisms that provide important clues about ocean conditions as well to monitor the physical environment through which the ship is traveling. In some cases researchers take tiny biopsies from whales and dolphins for genetic studies of population structure, foraging habits and health.Scientists use the survey results to assess numbers of whales and dolphins and trends in their abundance, which helps determine the degree of protection the species may need.Unusual species sighted included pygmy killer whales seen for the first time off California and warm-water seabirds such as band-rumped storm petrels seen for the first time in the Northeast Pacific. The survey also sighted sei, blue, fin, humpback, killer and short-finned pilot whales. In one instance the crew could hear a particularly loud chorus of singing humpback whales in the open air on deck.The abundance of sei whales was a surprise, with more sightings of this species than the last five surveys combined from 1991 to 2008.The Survey included the first offshore tests of the Drifting Acoustic Spar Buoy Recorder (DASBR), a pioneering system developed at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center to record the calls and other sounds of marine mammals while drifting the open ocean. Crews recover the DASBRs by following a GPS beacon and later acoustic analysis can distinguish the number and density of different species of marine mammals in surrounding waters.The successful launch and recovery of several DASBRs over the course of the survey helps pave the way for longer-term deployment of the devices that cost less than $5,000 each. DASBRs drift in the open ocean and avoid the engine noise of similar arrays towed behind ships. That allows them to collect more data at a lower cost, supplementing traditional surveys that require expensive ship operations.More information can be found on the Southwest Fisheries Science Center and California Current Cetacean and Ecosystem Assessment Survey web sites.View San Diego ABC Channel 10 News 
and CBS Channel 8 News reports on the California Current Cetacean and Ecosystem Assessment Survey.A selection of photographs from the four-month West Coast cetacean and ecosystem survey can be viewed on flickr.com.
Read original post here.
Squid harvest has been bountiful in Monterey Bay
Fans of calamari have much to be thankful for this holiday season.The squid fishery in California remains robust, and this year’s catch has been unusually strong in Monterey Bay. In a typical season only about 20 percent of market squid are caught off Northern California. But this squid season - which runs from April to March - more than half of the state’s catch have come from north and central coast waters.“We really had quite a banner year,” said Monterey harbormaster Stephen Scheiblauer.By initial estimates, at least 75 percent of the northern California squid catch came from waters in and around Monterey Bay. Scientists and squid fishermen do not fully understand the reason for this flip.“For Monterey, it was amazing,” said Diane Pleschner-Steele, executive director of the California Wetfish Producers Association.There have been other seasons where northern California outshone southern California in squid hauls. But, since 1980, all of those years have preceded or fallen during El Nino climate shifts, which bring warm water to the California coast, starting with southern California and moving north. It’s believed squid follow the cooler water.“These squid really respond to ocean conditions,” said Pleschner-Steele.The state is not currently in an El Nino pattern. But, it is possible that recent El Nino-like shifts in ocean conditions drove market squid further north.“The last couple of years, especially in northern California, have been good for squid,” said Neil Guglielmo, captain of the 70-foot fishing vessel Triumphal.Since squid season began April 1, commercial boats have hauled nearly 60,000 tons of market squid through northern California ports, with a dock value of approximately $38.3 million. This is the largest squid season north of Point Conception in history and more than double the previous record set in the 2002-2003 season. This year, Eureka reported its first squid landings.“We fished squid this year where we never fished before,” said Guglielmo.For much of this season, Guglielmo took the Triumphal from its home port near Ventura up the coast to Monterey and points further north to haul in squid. He reported squid as far north as Crescent City.“We just followed them up there,” said Guglielmo. “There was so much squid.”This season was also a record for Monterey Bay, with an estimated 45,000 tons of squid caught in its waters, according to marine biologist Briana Brady with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.These record hauls also bring welcome economic benefits to ports. The local squid industry supports approximately 1,500 seasonal and full-time jobs, according to Scheiblauer. Ten squid fishing boats are based in Moss Landing and Monterey. In addition to landing fees at wharfs and the dock value of catches, the squid season brings economic benefits in the form of room and board for crew, fuel for boats, ice, cold storage facilities, transportation and processing for each boat’s catch. The Monterey area includes three resident buyers for squid.“They’re still a big part of our culture and economy,” Scheiblauer said.Ample food supplies and undisturbed spawning grounds help sustain market squid along the California coast. But, based on past squid fishing seasons, their numbers can still fluctuate along 10-15 year cycles, according to Brady.Market squid are relatively small, often measuring about a foot in length, and prefer to eat small invertebrates, plankton or each other. Their short 6-10 month lifespan makes it difficult for biologists to estimate the size of the entire market squid population off of California to manage the fishery sustainably.Instead, beginning in the last decade, regulators crafted a squid fishery management policy around a handful of core regulations. No more than 118,000 tons of squid can be harvested in California waters during the annual season. This limit was based off of annual squid harvests in the late 1990s and early 2000s.“We’re happy with that maximum cap,” said Pleschner-Steele. “It’s a good, conservative number.”The state also uses a limited-entry permit system for squid fishing to control the number of fishing boats in California waters. In addition, marine protected areas in southern California and Monterey Bay keep approximately one-third of squid spawning grounds along the coast off limits to fishing. Finally, no commercial vessel may fish for squid between noon Friday and noon Sunday. This weekly moratorium gives squid in non-protected areas opportunities to spawn, according to Scheiblauer.As of Nov. 20, the statewide catch for market squid is nearly 115,000 tons. Since the maximum squid harvest cannot exceed 118,000 tons, this season is drawing to an early close. Under a voluntary co-management agreement between the squid fishing industry and Fish and Wildlife, larger fishing vessels ceased harvesting squid last month so smaller boats can “mop up” the remaining allotment of squid.Based on reports from squid fishermen, this year there will still be plenty of squid left behind. But, in the wake of this season’s unusual squid bounty for northern California, no one is willing to predict what might be in store for next year. In two previous El Nino cycles, desolate squid harvests in northern California followed one or two years of largesse.“You could have a boom year like this year and next year there’ll be nothing,” said Scheiblauer.But, even after those turbulent oscillations, the squid fishery stabilized around a sustainable mean. That long-term trend gives others cause for cautious optimism.“If the water doesn’t go crazy,” said Guglielmo, “I think we’ll be fine.”James Urton can be reached at 726-4453.
Read original article here.