Exploring Dynamics of Abundant Dolphin Populations Under Uncertainty
Our co-founder Dr. Erin Ashe’s latest publication, Minding the Data-gap Trap, has been published in Frontiers in Marine Science.
Yes, we must focus on endangered species, but we mustn’t lose sight of the apparently common species that are under the radar. We risk losing those species through neglect and apathy. Biodiversity conservation needs to protect the abundant species that hold ecosystems together, and also the rare species we can’t afford to lose. Turns out, you can use what you know about basic life-history of data-poor species, and the threats they face, to prioritize species for research funding and management actions.
This interdisciplinary paper was published with colleagues from IUCN, Curtin University, Cornell University Cornell Lab of Ornithology, University of St Andrews, Arizona State University, Brookfield Zoo, and Smithsonian.
An account from a field biologist turned statistician
By Marena Salerno Collins
It’s 5 a.m. and the sun has just started rising. We jump in the car with our coffees and mentally prepare ourselves for a full day on the cliff. A cooler of sandwiches, a fully charged computer, hats, sunscreen (reef safe, of course), our equipment, camp chairs, and a constantly buzzing VHF radio. We hear that the southern resident killer whales (SRKW) will be heading south past Lime Kiln and we are eager to catch them at our site just down from Landbank on the west side of San Juan Island in Washington State.
Fast forward 10 hours and, despite our best efforts to avoid it, we are sunburnt, thirsty and, for those of us who spent most of the day looking through binoculars, dealing with temporary blurred vision. There is a sense of accomplishment in the car on the way home after a full day like this one. We all feel some combination of tired, happy, curious, excited, and hungry. This was a good day in the field. It was full of mental challenges, problem-solving, pushing the boundaries of physical stamina and team accountability. It left me feeling drained but inspired, sleepy but full of life, and most importantly, spending the day with the SRKWs always motivates the marine conservationist in me.
Days in the field are days collecting the data, but what happens after you have the data? This is a question I asked myself almost daily when in the field. What will happen to each one of these data points? What impact can the project have without the analysis? As an organization, Oceans Initiative is expert in bridging this gap but so far, my part in analyzing data had been limited by my lack of quantitative education. It turns out that I wanted that education. I wanted to personally see the whole process through, from data collection, to analysis, and onto publication. This, along with the encouragement, support and advice from Oceans Initiative’s leadership team, is what led me to the graduate program I am currently in—a Statistical Ecology Master of Science at the University of St. Andrews. The University of St. Andrews, world-renowned for its marine science department and the home of the Centre for Research into Ecological and Environmental Modelling (CREEM), is a mecca for some of the most influential people in conservation science.
Compared to the field days, my days as a graduate student are challenging and inspiring in drastically different ways. Instead of being on the side of number input (or data collection), I am now on the side of statistical output. If I put my data points in, use what is significant, leave out what isn’t, correct for bias, scale for accuracy, and model for the best representation, what is the output? For those of you with any sort of mathematical or statistics background, you will know that it is all about the three-component machine—input-process-output—or what we like to call the “algorithm of the analysis.” Learning about the intricacies of processing data has also helped me as a field biologist because now that I know how to use the data, it is clearer to me how we should be collecting it.
There are still days that I miss the field and I hope to work on more projects that include long hours in the sun with magnificent creatures. However, for now, I am inspired by the big picture of why, as scientists, we do what we do and the power of data, data analysis, and the endless potential in the field of ecological statistics.
Like the whales we study, the Oceans Initiative team is highly mobile and migratory. We divide our time between getting our feet wet in the field, wherever our work is needed, and using our science to inform smart decisions to conserve wildlife. Covid-19 required us to hit pause on most of our travel plans this year, but it was a bit of a treat. We slowed down, and tried to improve our local conservation impact. With all of the time we saved on travel, we took the time to look inward to think strategically about the kind of work we want to do in the coming years, when a vaccine is in widespread use.
We are proud of the real-world impact our conservation science has, but some of it can feel pretty abstract at times. After all, you can’t see noise in the ocean. It will take years before the orcas we study start to show us—through increased births and longer lifespans—that our efforts to protect the whales’ habitats are paying off. So it was a real joy this year to work on projects that use carefully engineered sound signals to scare seals away from eating endangered salmon. We could see the conservation benefit of our work in real life, in real time. Five years from now, we hope that the offspring of some of the Chinook salmon we helped make it to their spawning grounds return as prey for endangered orcas.
Of course, time is the constraint here. As we work to get the whales more salmon, and quiet enough conditions to hunt, climate change is making our job harder every year. In 2021, we are strengthening our work to climate-proof recovery of belugas, dolphins, killer whales, and marine predators around the world. Our work is showing that we can save species by removing as many stressors as we can now, in order to build their resilience to buffer effects of climate change.
At Oceans Initiative, one of our core values is Optimism. We actively cultivate hope, focus on solutions, and acknowledge conservation successes. I am proud of our scientific accomplishments and our team’s optimism that carried us through 2020. With your support, I am hopeful that we can celebrate even more conservation wins in 2021 and beyond. Thank you for supporting our efforts to keep our oceans clean, quiet, and full of life.
SUMMARY A group of partners working to improve salmon stocks have deployed a newly developed device on the west side of the Ballard Locks that uses underwater sound to keep harbor seals away from this salmon migration bottleneck. If effective, the device may help salmon populations in jeopardy by reducing predation without harming marine mammals.
STORY The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Oceans Initiative, with support from Long Live the Kings, University of St Andrews, Genuswave, Puget Sound Partnership, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Muckleshoot Indian Tribe, and other partner organizations have deployed a Targeted Acoustic Startle Technology (TAST) on the west side of the Ballard (Hiram M. Chittenden) Locks. The TAST is intended to keep harbor seals away from the fish ladder allowing salmon to reach the Lake Washington Ship Canal from Puget Sound. Seals and sea lions are known to linger at this migration bottleneck and consume large numbers of salmon returning to the spawning grounds. If successful, the device may help recover dwindling salmon runs, without harming marine mammals.
“We are always looking for new innovations to help the environment,” said USACE spokesperson Dallas Edwards. “We are excited to see the results of this study.”
Every salmon and steelhead originating from the Sammamish or Cedar river must pass through the Ballard Locks twice during its life, once as a young smolt and again as an adult. With limited routes to get through the locks, salmon are funneled through a small area. This makes an easy meal for some marine mammals that use this human-made obstacle to their advantage.
Over the past 50 years, observers have also seen a spike in marine mammals near the locks, compounding the significant habitat declines over the past century across the watershed. This combination of factors has led to the lowest returns of salmon and steelhead in history, resulting in fishery closures and populations on the edge of extinction.
During the summer and fall salmon migration, the area is being monitored by scientists from Oceans Initiative, a Seattle-based marine conservation research nonprofit. The scientists are observing marine mammal behavior when the device is on and comparing that with their behavior when the device is off.
“Everyone at Oceans Initiative is excited to see whether this benign use of acoustic technology can protect endangered salmon, without harming seals,” said Laura Bogaard, who is leading data collection at the Locks. “During the first week of observing with the TAST on, it feels like the seals have shifted away from the fish ladder compared to observation days when the TAST was off. We are keen to see if this observation is also reflected in our data when it comes time for analysis.”
If the device is effective at reducing the presence of marine mammals at the Locks, it may then be deployed at other locations in Puget Sound, giving resource managers a sorely needed tool to prevent marine mammals from consuming large numbers of salmon and steelhead at migration bottlenecks.
Designed at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, the TAST uses sound to startle animals and induce a flight response, causing the animal to leave the area, with the intention of training the animals to keep away altogether. It produces short sounds that are unexpected and startling, but does not lead to hearing damage, as is often the case for other acoustic methods. This helps to maintain its effectiveness much better over time. Recently, a Scotland-based company, Genuswave, brought the device to market after a number of peer-reviewed articles showed positive results.
Prof Vincent Janik, the Director of the Scottish Oceans Institute and one of the developers of the system remarked: “My colleague Thomas Goetz and I came across this very specific acoustic method after testing many commercially available devices and generally aversive sounds on seals. The reactions in our tests were in stark contrast to the habituation we saw in response to all other sounds. Seals avoided the area of exposure more and more over time, even when freely available food was presented next to the device.”
The TAST deployed at the locks is a marked improvement over similar devices used in the past. Some other devices using noise to deter marine mammals have seen very limited success and rely on high-volume sounds that risk damaging the hearing of marine mammals. The TAST being deployed at the Locks emits sound at volumes that do not harm seals or sea lions, and at frequencies outside the hearing range of salmon and other marine mammals, such as whales.
Marine mammals are notorious for eating fish at the Locks thanks to Herschel, an 800-pound sea lion that, with other sea lions, was a significant factor contributing to the decline of the nearly extinct steelhead population in the watershed. Almost every strategy available, including other acoustic devices, has been used to separate marine mammals from salmon at the Locks, but none have proven successful. While Herschel hasn’t returned to the locks since the 1980s, other sea lions appear annually, and smaller harbor seals are now seen camping in the fish ladder to intercept returning fish.
If the Locks are reopened this summer to the thousands of tourists who visit each year, they may be able to see the device in action or see scientists observing marine mammals in the area. Operation of the device should not affect visitors to the locks.
The effort to deploy and evaluate the TAST at the locks is made possible through a grant from the Puget Sound Partnership to build on the findings from the Salish Sea Marine Survival Project, an international research effort led by the salmon recovery nonprofit, Long Live the Kings and their Canadian co-leaders, the Pacific Salmon Foundation.
On Thursday, April 16, we have a very special guest, Sophia Trinh, joining our Virtual Marine Biology Camp. Sophia has very generously offered to lead a free ocean-themed painting class for kids of all ages. In this hour-long session, we’ll be learning to paint the iconic killer whale!
Sophia Trinh is an American-Vietnamese watercolor artist from Seattle, Washington. She started painting at the age of four and soon developed a love for watercolors. Today, Sophia’s work is a synthesis of creativity, and imagination, science, and geometry. She is inspired to use art as a tool to engage others, and communicate ideas. Sophia’s hope in sharing her art with the world is that others will be encouraged to find space in their lives for art and creativity. You might enjoy following Sophia on Instagram.
In addition, Sophia has kindly agreed to donate an original painting of an endangered North Atlantic right whale (shown above) to Oceans Initiative. Oceans Initiative works with colleagues at New England Aquarium and NOAA to try to help protect these endangered whales by reducing impacts of ocean noise, ship strikes, and entanglement in fishing gear. We invite you to make a donation to support our conservation mission. Sophia will select the winner of the painting.
Visit our Get Involved page to make a tax-deductible donation in the USA.
Our Canadian friends and neighbours may make a tax-deductible donation here.
Whether you donate or not, please know the art class is free, like all of the sessions we’ve done so far. We hope to see you online Thursday, April 16, at 11 am (Seattle time) for this very special ocean-themed painting class with Sophia! Watch for updates, as we identify the best free platform to use, so you can watch Sophia live on Thurs. Please have ready your watercolor paints, paintbrushes, paper, and a rag or towel. We can’t wait to see what you create!
