Frankenstein's Cat: Cuddling Up to Biotech's Brave New Beasts (30 page)

To many biologists, cloning
: Holt et al., “Wildlife Conservation and Reproductive Cloning”; Friese, “Enacting Conservation and Biomedicine”; Dresser, discussion, December 2010; Ehrenfeld, “Transgenics and Vertebrate Cloning.”

“is a glamorous technology…”
: Ehrenfeld, “Transgenics and Vertebrate Cloning.”

Cloning could help us maintain species
: Andrabi and Maxwell, “A Review on Reproductive Biotechnologies.”

Scientists have managed to take
: Inbar Friedrich Ben-Nun et al., “Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells from Highly Endangered Species,”
Nature Methods
8 (2011): 829–31; Ewen Callaway, “Could Stem Cells Rescue an Endangered Species?”
Nature
, September 4, 2011,
www.nature.com/news/2011/110904/full/news.2011.517.html
.

“I may not live…”
: Dresser, discussion, December 2010.

After spending years
: Details of Dresser’s activities since leaving ACRES are from Dresser, discussions, March 2011 and April 2012. .

5. Sentient Sensors

In the idyllic decades
: Information about grizzly bears in Yellowstone, human-bear conflicts, and the Craigheads’ tracking project is from Mark A. Haroldson et al., “Grizzly Bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem: From Garbage, Controversy, and Decline to Recovery,”
Yellowstone Science
16, no. 2 (2008): 13–22; Etienne Benson,
Wired Wilderness: Technologies of Tracking and the Making of Modern Wildlife
(Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010); Etienne Benson, in discussion with author via telephone, September 30, 2011.

“Beep, beep, beep…”
: This quote first appeared in Frank Craighead’s book
Track of the Grizzly
, published in 1979. I came across it in Benson’s
Wired Wilderness
(pp. 60–61).

during the 1960s and ’70s
: Gerald L. Kooyman, “Genesis and Evolution of Bio-logging Devices: 1963–2002,”
Memoirs of National Institute of Polar Research
58 (2004): 15–22.

one scientist measured
: Ibid.

But biologists and engineers stuck with it
: For a history and evolution of dive loggers see ibid.

some smaller than a jelly bean
: “Miniaturized Wildlife Tracking Tags Deployed Worldwide Collect Crucial Data,” Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, accessed April 14, 2012,
www.acoa-apeca.gc.ca/eng/ImLookingFor/ProgramInformation/AtlanticInnovationFund/Pages/LotekWirelessInc.aspx?ProgramID
.

Heavy fishing, pollution
: For more on threats to oceans and marine life, see R. A. Myers and C. A. Ottensmeyer, “Extinction Risk in Marine Species,” in
Marine Conservation Biology: The Science of Maintaining the Sea’s Biodiversity
, ed. E. A. Norse and L. B. Crowder (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2005).

Populations of marine animals
: Boris Worm et al., “The Future of Marine Animal Populations,” in
Life in the World’s Oceans: Diversity, Distribution, and Abundance
, ed. Alasdair D. McIntyre (UK: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), 315–30.

Between 2000 and 2009 … species converge
: B. A. Block et al., “Tracking Apex Marine Predator Movements in a Dynamic Ocean,”
Nature
475 (July 7, 2011): 86–90.

“When we start to understand…”
: Randy Kochevar, in discussion with author, Monterey, California, March 30, 2011.

TOPP was one of seventeen … deepwater vents
: Jesse H. Ausubel et al., eds.,
First Census of Marine Life 2010: Highlights of a Decade of Discovery
(Washington, DC: Census of Marine Life, 2010).

150,000 gallons of seawater
: “The Facility,” Tuna Research and Conservation Center, accessed March 6, 2012,
www.tunaresearch.org/about/history.html
.

In 2012, a 593-pound specimen
: “Japan Tuna Sale Smashes Record,” BBC News, January 5, 2012,
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-16421231
.

bluefin can live for thirty years
: Kochevar, discussion, March 2011.

grow to be thirteen feet … 45 miles per hour
: “Atlantic Bluefin Tuna (
Thunnus thynnus
),” NOAA Fisheries, accessed April 12, 2012,
www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/species/fish/bluefintuna.htm
.

from South America to Norway
: Gareth L. Lawson, “Movements and Diving Behavior of Atlantic Bluefin Tuna
Thunnus thynnus
in Relation to Water Column Structure in the Northwestern Atlantic,”
Marine Ecology Progress Series
400 (February 11, 2012): 245–65.

Bluefin tuna swim so fast
: Barbara A. Block, “Archival Tagging of Atlantic Bluefin Tuna (
Thunnus thynnus thynnus
),”
Marine Technology Society Journal
32, no. 1 (1998): 37–46.

Marine biologists use … reach of satellites
: Barbara Block, “Physiological Ecology in the 21st Century: Advancements in Biologging Science,”
Integrative & Comparative Biology
45 (2005): 305–20; Kochevar, discussion, March 2011.

they realized that they could … reconstruct the tuna’s path
: John Gunn and Barbara Block, “Advances in Acoustic, Archival, and Satellite Tagging of Tunas,” in
Tuna: Physiology, Ecology, and Evolution,
ed. Barbara A. Block and E. Donald Stevens (San Diego, CA: Academic Press, 2001), 178–79; Block, “Archival Tagging of Atlantic Bluefin Tuna”; Kochevar, discussion, March 2011.

To deploy the tags
: Details on the tagging procedure come from A. M. Boustany et al., “Movements of Pacific Bluefin Tuna (
Thunnus orientalis
) in the Eastern North Pacific Revealed with Archival Tags,”
Progress in Oceanography
86 (2010): 94–104; Block, “Archival Tagging of Atlantic Bluefin Tuna”; Barbara A. Block and Shana Miller, “Unveiling the Secret Life of an Ocean Giant,” in
World Record Game Fishes
(International Game Fish Association, 2007), 84–92. The researchers also blog about their experiences out on the ocean. To read firsthand accounts of catching and tagging tuna, check out
http://trccblog.blogspot.com
and
http://gtopp.blogspot.com/
.

The tag is a marvel
: The tag specs cited pertain specifically to the Lotek LTD 2310 archival tag. See “Lotek Archival Tag Series,” Lotek Wireless, downloaded March 26, 2012,
www.lotek.com/lat-geo-ext-mem.pdf
; “Locating Tuna in the Open Ocean,” Lotek Wireless, downloaded April 14, 2012,
www.lotek.com/locatingtuna.pdf
. This particular model is commonly used, including by Block and her colleagues. (For instance, they used this model in the research published as Boustany et al., “Movements of Pacific Bluefin Tuna (
Thunnus orientalis
) in the Eastern North Pacific.”)

The TOPP team, for instance … switches off
: Block, “Physiological Ecology in the 21st Century”; Kochevar, discussion, March 2011; “About TOPP,” Tagging of Pacific Predators, accessed October 19, 2010,
www.topp.org/about_topp
.

The scientists also attach … streamer tag says
: “Found an electronic tag? Contact us today, and claim your reward,” Tag-A-Giant Foundation, accessed April 11, 2012,
http://tagagiant.org/Reward.shtml
.)

They use a combination of readings
: Kochevar, discussion, March 2011.

“You think of it as this…”
: Alex Norton, in discussion with author, Monterey, California, March 30, 2011.

In the 1960s … irritation, and pain
: Benson,
Wired Wilderness
; Benson, discussion.

In some studies, for example
: Cindy L. Hull, “The Effect of Carrying Devices on Breeding Royal Penguins,”
The Condor
99, no. 2 (1997): 530–34; Sabrina S. Taylor et al., “Foraging Trip Duration Increases for Humboldt Penguins Tagged with Recording Devices,”
Journal of Avian Biology
32, no. 4 (2001): 369–72; Donald A. Croll et al., “Foraging Behavior and Reproductive Success in Chinstrap Penguins: The Effects of Transmitter Attachment,”
Journal of Field Ornithology
67, no. 1 (1996): 1–9.

In certain species of fish
: C. J. Bridger and R. K. Booth, “The Effects of Biotelemetry Transmitter Presence and Attachment Procedures on Fish Physiology and Behavior,”
Reviews in Fisheries Science
11, no. 1 (2003): 13–34.

Surgically implanted tags … and pathogens
: Many researchers have written about ways in which tags could affect wild animals. A few of the sources I consulted are Rory P. Wilson and Clive R. McMahon, “Measuring Devices on Wild Animals: What Constitutes Acceptable Practice?”
Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment
4, no. 3 (2006): 147–54; Penny Hawkins, “Biologging and Animal Welfare: Practical Refinements,”
Memoirs of the National Institute for Polar Research
58 (2004): 58–68; Roger A. Powell and Gilbert Proulx, “Trapping and Marking Terrestrial Mammals for Research: Integrating Ethics, Performance Criteria, Techniques, and Common Sense,”
ILAR Journal
44, no. 3 (2003): 259–76; R. J. Putman, “Ethical Considerations and Animal Welfare in Ecological Field Studies,”
Biodiversity and Conservation
4 (1995): 903–15; Russell J. Borski and Ronald G. Hodson, “Fish Research and the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee,”
ILAR Journal
44, no. 4 (2003): 286–94; American Fisheries Society,
Guidelines for the Use of Fishes in Research
(Bethesda, MD: 2004), available at
www.fisheries.org/afs/docs/policy_16.pdf
; Robert S. Sikes et al., “Guidelines of the American Society of Mammalogists for the Use of Wild Mammals in Research,”
Journal of Mammalogy
92, no. 1 (2011): 235–53.

It’s not easy to perform
: Kochevar, discussion, March 2011.

So Block and her colleagues … from their bodies
: Block, “Archival Tagging of Atlantic Bluefin Tuna”; Block and Miller, “Unveiling the Secret Life of an Ocean Giant”; Kochevar, discussion, March 2011.

classified as “endangered” or “threatened”
: “Loggerhead Turtle (
Caretta caretta
),” NOAA Fisheries, accessed April 11, 2012,
www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/species/turtles/loggerhead.htm
.

The loggerheads that live
: Jeffrey J. Polovina et al., “Turtles on the Edge: Movement of Loggerhead Turtles (
Caretta caretta
) Along Oceanic Fronts, Spanning Longline Fishing Grounds in the Central North Pacific, 1997–1998,”
Fisheries Oceanography
9, no. 1 (2000): 71–82.

Federal regulations stipulate … until the next year
: Jeffrey Polovina, in discussion with author via telephone, November 3, 2011.

Polovina, Howell, and their colleagues … hungry turtles
: Polovina et al., “Turtles on the Edge”; J. J. Polovina et al., “The Transition Zone Chlorophyll Front, a Dynamic Global Feature Defining Migration and Forage Habitat for Marine Resources,”
Progress in Oceanography
49 (2001): 469–83; J. J. Polovina et al., “Forage and Migration Habitats of Loggerhead (
Caretta caretta
) and Olive Ridley (
Lepidochelys olivacea
) Sea Turtles in the Central North Pacific Ocean,”
Fish Oceanography
13 (2004): 36–51; Evan A. Howell et al., “TurtleWatch: A Tool to Aid in the Bycatch Reduction of Loggerhead Turtles
Caretta caretta
in the Hawaii-Based Pelagic Longline Fishery,”
Endangered Species Research
5, no. 2–3 (2008): 267–78; Polovina, discussion.