Frankenstein's Cat: Cuddling Up to Biotech's Brave New Beasts (31 page)

Since December 2006, that’s what
: Details about the program are from Polovina, discussion; Howell et al., “TurtleWatch”; “EOD TurtleWatch,” NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, accessed March 12, 2012,
www.pifsc.noaa.gov/eod/turtlewatch.php
.

Since the program began
: Polovina, discussion.

the overexploited tuna populations
: Barbara A. Block et al., “Migratory Movements, Depth Preferences, and Thermal Biology of Atlantic Bluefin Tuna,”
Science
293 (August 17, 2001): 1310–14.

Since the early 1980s
: Lawson, “Movements and Diving Behavior of Atlantic Bluefin Tuna.”

International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas
: Information about how ICCAT manages Atlantic bluefin tuna is from Block et al., “Migratory Movements, Depth Preferences, and Thermal Biology”; Barbara A. Block et al., “Electronic Tagging and Population Structure of Atlantic Bluefin Tuna,”
Nature
434 (April 28, 2005): 1121–27; Charles H. Greene et al., “Advances in Conservation Oceanography: New Tagging and Tracking Technologies and Their Potential for Transforming the Science Underlying Fisheries Management,”
Oceanography
22, no. 1 (2009): 210–23; Kochevar, discussion, March 2011.

more than 90 percent since 1970
: Andreas Walli et al., “Seasonal Movements, Aggregations and Diving Behavior of Atlantic Bluefin Tuna (
Thunnus thynnus
) Revealed with Archival Tags,”
PLoS One
4, no. 7 (2009).

smaller than the eastern one
 …
more stringent
: Greene et al., “Advances in Conservation Oceanography”; Randy Kochevar, in discussion with author via telephone, October 31, 2011.

“Well, when we started tagging…”
: Kochevar, discussion, March 2011.

Their tracking data reveals
: Block et al., “Migratory Movements, Depth Preferences, and Thermal Biology”; Block et al., “Electronic Tagging and Population Structure”; Walli et al., “Seasonal Movements, Aggregations and Diving Behavior”; Greene et al., “Advances in Conservation Oceanography”; Kochevar, discussions, March and October 2011; Steve Teo, in discussion with author via telephone, October 21, 2011.

and points the way
: Kochevar, discussion, March 2011; Teo, discussion; Block and Miller, “Unveiling the Secret Life of an Ocean Giant.”

Block’s team, for instance
: Mark Shwartz and Ken Peterson, “Study: Better Protections for Bluefin Tuna Needed,” Stanford News Service, April 27, 2005,
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2005/may4/tuna-042705.html
; Andrew C. Revkin, “Tracking the Imperiled Bluefin from Ocean to Sushi Platter,”
New York Times
, May 3, 2005,
www.nytimes.com/2005/05/03/science/earth/03tuna.html?pagewanted=all
.

spend their lives in one
: Information about elephant seal habitat, and scientists’ difficulty getting to it, is from Michael Fedak, in discussion with author via telephone, November 17, 2011; and J. Charrassin et al., “Southern Ocean Frontal Structure and Sea-ice Formation Rates Revealed by Elephant Seals,”
PNAS
10, no. 33 (2008): 11634–39.

more than a mile
: J. Charrassin et al., “New Insights into Southern Ocean Physical and Biological Processes Revealed by Instrumented Elephant Seals,” in
Proceedings of OceanObs ’09: Sustained Ocean Observations and Information for Society
2 (Venice, September 21–25, 2009).

“they might as well be going off…”
: Fedak, discussion.

Eager to learn more
: Ibid.

Between 2003 and 2007 … 102 elephant seals
: Charrassin et al., “New Insights into Southern Ocean.”

As of 2010, 28 percent … 53 percent
: Exploitation percentages come from Fisheries and Aquaculture Department, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations,
The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture
(Rome: FAO, 2010), 8.

Whenever an elephant seal … back to the lab
: Ibid.; Fedak, discussion.

“except stuck on something hairy…”
: Fedak, discussion.

As the numbers started
: Ibid.

“These guys needed this data…”
: Ibid.

Oceanographers are now using
: Ibid.

Among other things, tagged elephant seals … faster than expected
: Laurie Padman et al., “Seals Map Bathymetry of the Antarctic Continental Shelf,”
Geophysical Research Letters
37, no. 21 (2010): 1–5; Donna Hesterman, “Elephant Seals Improve Maps of Antarctic Seafloor,” University of California, Santa Cruz, October 15, 2010,
http://news.ucsc.edu/2010/10/seal-maps.html
.

Today, marine mammals
: M. A. Fedak, “The Impact of Animal Platforms on Polar Ocean Observation” (paper under review); Michael Fedak, e-mail message to author, April 3, 2012.

the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System
: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, “National Ocean Observing System to See Marine Animal Migration, Adaptation Strategies,” March 4, 2011, available at
http://gtopp.org/images/stories/press_releases/03-04-11_Marine_Tagging.pdf
; Kochevar, discussion, March 2011.

Ice melt is just the beginning
: For more on the effects of climate change on the ocean and the organisms that live there, see J. A. Learmonth et al., “Potential Effects of Climate Change on Marine Mammals,”
Oceanography and Marine Biology: An Annual Review
(2006): 431–64; Christopher D. G. Harley et al., “The Impacts of Climate Change in Coastal Marine Systems,”
Ecology Letters
9, no. 2 (2006): 228–41; R. Schubert et al.,
The Future Oceans—Warming Up, Rising High, Turning Sour
(Berlin: German Advisory Council on Global Change, 2006); FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department,
The State of World Fisheries
, 115–120; K. Cochrane et al., eds.,
Climate Change Implications for Fisheries and Aquaculture: Overview of Current Scientific Knowledge
(Rome: FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department, 2009).

These shifts are already
: Camille Parmesan, “Ecological and Evolutionary Responses to Recent Climate Change,”
Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics
37 (2006): 637–69.

As waters warm
: Allison L. Perry et al., “Climate Change and Distribution Shifts in Marine Fishes,”
Science
308 (June 24, 2005): 1912–15.

there have been shifts … fewer calves
: Learmonth et al., “Potential Effects of Climate Change.”

For example, scientists have used tags … conditions are like there
: M. Biuw et al., “Blubber and Buoyancy: Monitoring the Body Condition of Free-Ranging Seals Using Simple Dive Characteristics,”
Journal of Experimental Biology
206 (2003): 3405–23; Fedak, discussion.

“We can then run models … happen to the beasts?’”
: Fedak, discussion.

“We’re making colleagues…”
: Ibid. See alsoMike Fedak, “Marine Animals as Platforms for Oceanographic Sampling: A ‘Win/Win’ Situation for Biology and Operational Oceanography,”
Memoirs of the National Institute for Polar Research
58 (2004): 133–47.

Ocean Tracking Network
: Details on the Ocean Tracking Network are from
An Evolution in Ocean Research
, downloaded April 12, 2012,
http://oceantrackingnetwork.org/images/brochure.pdf
; Ocean Tracking Network,
Annual Report 2010–2011
, available at
http://oceantrackingnetwork.org/AR_2010-2011.pdf
; “Ocean Tracking Network,” Dalhousie University, accessed April 2, 2012,
http://oceantrackingnetwork.org/
; “About the Project,” Dalhousie University, accessed April 2, 2012,
http://oceantrackingnetwork.org/aboutproject/index.html
; “Ocean Monitoring,” Dalhousie University, accessed April 2, 2012,
http://oceantrackingnetwork.org/aboutproject/ocean.html
; “Underwater Innovation: Canadian Technology at the Forefront,” Dalhousie University, accessed April 2, 2012,
http://oceantrackingnetwork.org/aboutproject/technology.html
; “OTN South Africa Phase I Deployments Complete,” Dalhousie University, accessed April 12, 2012,
http://oceantrackingnetwork.org/news/safdeploy.html
; “Halifax Line Is Now OTN’s Longest Listening Line,” Dalhousie University, accessed April 12, 2012,
http://oceantrackingnetwork.org/news/hfx166.html
.

A team of Hawaiian biologists
: Kim N. Holland et al., “Inter-animal Telemetry: Results from First Deployment of Acoustic ‘Business Card’ Tags,”
Endangered Species Research
10 (2009): 287–93.

A number of other labs
: Emily L. C. Shepard et al., “Identification of Animal Movement Patterns Using Tri-axial Accelerometry,”
Endangered Species Research
10 (2010): 47–60; Nicholas M. Whitney et al., “Identifying Shark Mating Behaviour Using Three-Dimensional Acceleration Loggers,”
Endangered Species Research
10 (2010): 71–82; John P. Skinner et al., “Head Striking During Fish Capture Attempts by Steller Sea Lions and the Potential for Using Head Surge Acceleration to Predict Feeding Behavior,”
Endangered Species Research
10 (2010): 61–69.

“pop-up” satellite tag
: Block, “Physiological Ecology in the 21st Century,” 308; Kochevar, discussion, March 2011.

These tags are bigger, heavier
: John Gunn, “From Plastic Darts to Pop-up Satellite Tags,” in
Fish Movement and Migration,
ed. D. A. Hancock et al. (Sydney: Australian Society for Fish Biology, 2000), 55–60. Additional price and size information came from comparing archival and pop-off products offered by Wildlife Computers, a leading tag manufacturer. (See
www.wildlifecomputers.com/default.aspx
.)

Block, who piloted the use
: Barbara A. Block et al., “A New Satellite Technology for Tracking the Movements of Atlantic Bluefin Tuna,”
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA
95 (August 1998): 9384–89.

A Canadian company
: “NanoTag Series Coded Radio Transmitters,” Lotek Wireless, Inc., accessed April 14, 2012,
www.lotek.com/nanotag.htm
.

In 2010, researchers reported
: M. Wikelski et al., “Large-Range Movements of Neotropical Orchid Bees Observed via Radio Telemetry,”
PLoS One
5, no. 5 (2010): e10738.

a group of Swedish scientists
: Mercy Lard, et al., “Tracking the Small with the Smallest—Using Nanotechnology in Tracking Zooplankton,”
PLoS ONE
5, no. 10 (2010): e13516.

“
We’re tracking everything … All the time”
: Benson, discussion.

“Wildlife managers needed…”
: Ibid.

“
Do we really think…”
: Ibid.

TOPP researchers, for instance
: “TOPP,” Tagging of Pacific Predators, accessed April 3, 2012,
http://topp.org/
.

a loser male … named Jonathan Sealwart
: “Jon Sealwart Everybody!! Today, Can Loser Males Have Hope Too??” Tagging of Pacific Predators, accessed April 3, 2012,
www.topp.org/blog/jon_sealwart_everybody_today_can_loser_males_have_hope_too
.

“You see conservation organizations…”
: Benson, discussion.

“[G]iving an animal a name…”
: S. Borkfelt, “What’s in a Name?—Consequences of Naming Non-Human Animals,”
Animals
1, no. 1 (2011): 116–25.