Moreton Bay, Queensland, Australia: An example of the co-existence of significant marine mammal populations and large-scale coastal development

Recent analyses assert that large marine vertebrates such as marine mammals are now 'functionally or entirely extinct in most coastal ecosystems'. Moreton Bay is a large diverse marine ecosystem bordering the fastest growing area in Australia. The human population is over 1.6 million and increasing yearly by between 10% and 13% with resultant impacts upon the adjoining marine environment. Nonetheless, significant populations of three species of marine mammals are resident within Moreton Bay and a further 14 species are seasonal or occasional visitors. This paper reviews the current and historical distributions and abundance of these species in the context of the current management regime and suggests initiatives to increase the resilience of marine mammal populations to the changes wrought by the burgeoning human population in coastal environments. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

NYC women demonstrate against family protection act

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

Passive Acoustics: A Multifaceted Tool for Marine Mammal Conservation

Marine mammals exploit the efficiency of sound propagation in the marine environment for essential activities like communication and navigation. For this reason, passive acoustics has particularly high potential for marine mammal studies, especially those aimed at population management and conservation. Despite the rapid realization of this potential through a growing number of studies, much crucial information remains unknown or poorly understood. This research attempts to address two key knowledge gaps, using the well-studied bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) as a model species, and underwater acoustic recordings collected on four fixed autonomous sensors deployed at multiple locations in Sarasota Bay, Florida, between September 2012 and August 2013. Underwater noise can hinder dolphin communication. The ability of these animals to overcome this obstacle was examined using recorded noise and dolphin whistles. I found that bottlenose dolphins are able to compensate for increased noise in their environment using a wide range of strategies employed in a singular fashion or in various combinations, depending on the frequency content of the noise, noise source, and time of day. These strategies include modifying whistle frequency characteristics, increasing whistle duration, and increasing whistle redundancy. Recordings were also used to evaluate the performance of six recently developed passive acoustic abundance estimation methods, by comparing their results to the true abundance of animals, obtained via a census conducted within the same area and time period. The methods employed were broadly divided into two categories – those involving direct counts of animals, and those involving counts of cues (signature whistles). The animal-based methods were traditional capture-recapture, spatially explicit capture-recapture (SECR), and an approach that blends the “snapshot” method and mark-recapture distance sampling, referred to here as (SMRDS). The cue-based methods were conventional distance sampling (CDS), an acoustic modeling approach involving the use of the passive sonar equation, and SECR. In the latter approach, detection probability was modelled as a function of sound transmission loss, rather than the Euclidean distance typically used. Of these methods, while SMRDS produced the most accurate estimate, SECR demonstrated the greatest potential for broad applicability to other species and locations, with minimal to no auxiliary data, such as distance from sound source to detector(s), which is often difficult to obtain. This was especially true when this method was compared to traditional capture-recapture results, which greatly underestimated abundance, despite attempts to account for major unmodelled heterogeneity. Furthermore, the incorporation of non-Euclidean distance significantly improved model accuracy. The acoustic modelling approach performed similarly to CDS, but both methods also strongly underestimated abundance. In particular, CDS proved to be inefficient. This approach requires at least 3 sensors for localization at a single point. It was also difficult to obtain accurate distances, and the sample size was greatly reduced by the failure to detect some whistles on all three recorders. As a result, this approach is not recommended for marine mammal abundance estimation when few recorders are available, or in high sound attenuation environments with relatively low sample sizes. It is hoped that these results lead to more informed management decisions, and therefore, more effective species conservation.

Molecular cloning and expression of leptin in gray and harbor seal blubber, bone marrow, and lung and its potential role in marine mammal respiratory physiology

Leptin is a multifunctional hormone, produced predominantly in adipocytes. It regulates energy balance through its impact on appetite and fat metabolism, and its concentration indicates the size of body fat reserves. Leptin also plays a vital role in stretch-induced surfactant production during alveolar development in the fetus. The structure, expression pattern, and role of leptin have not previously been explored in marine mammals. Phocid seals undergo cyclical changes in body composition as a result of prolonged fasting and intensive foraging bouts and experience rapid, dramatic, and repeated changes in lung volume during diving. Here, we report the tissue-specific expression pattern of leptin in these animals. This is the first demonstration of leptin expression in the lung tissue of a mature mammal, in addition to its expression in the blubber and bone marrow, in common with other animals. We propose a role for leptin in seal pulmonary surfactant production, in addition to its likely role in long-term energy balance. We identify substitutions in the phocine leptin sequence in regions normally highly conserved between widely distinct vertebrate groups, and, using a purified seal leptin antiserum, we confirm the presence of the leptin protein in gray seal lung and serum fractions. Finally, we report the substantial inadequacies of using heterologous antibodies to measure leptin in unextracted gray seal serum.

Data Protection and Computer Misuse Act Reference List

This is the reference lists for the resource set we have produced for the INFO2009 Assignment 2 Group Poster.

Data Protection and Computer Misuse Act Poster

This is the poster about the resource set we have produced for the INFO2009 Assignment 2 Group Poster.

Data Protection and Computer Misuse Act Poster (PDF Version)

This is the poster about the resource set we have produced for the INFO2009 Assignment 2 Group Poster.

Low genetic diversity in a marine nature reserve: re-evaluating diversity criteria in reserve design

Little consideration has been given to the genetic composition of populations associated with marine reserves, as reserve designation is generally to protect specific species, communities or habitats. Nevertheless, it is important to conserve genetic diversity since it provides the raw material for the maintenance of species diversity over longer, evolutionary time-scales and may also confer the basis for adaptation to environmental change. Many current marine reserves are small in size and isolated to some degree (e.g. sea loughs and offshore islands). While such features enable easier management, they may have important implications for the genetic structure of protected populations, the ability of populations to recover from local catastrophes and the potential for marine reserves to act as sources of propagules for surrounding areas. Here, we present a case study demonstrating genetic differentiation, isolation, inbreeding and reduced genetic diversity in populations of the dogwhelk Nucella lapillus in Lough Hyne Marine Nature Reserve (an isolated sea lough in southern Ireland), compared with populations on the local adjacent open coast and populations in England, Wales and France. Our study demonstrates that this sea lough is isolated from open coast populations, and highlights that there may be long-term genetic consequences of selecting reserves on the basis of isolation and ease of protection.

Sponge halogenated natural products found at parts-per-million levels in marine mammals

Several unknown, abundant brominated compounds (BCs) were recently detected in the blubber of dolphins and other marine mammals from Queensland (northeast Australia). The BC were interpreted as potential natural products due to the lack of anthropogenic sources for these compounds. This study investigated whether some of the BCs accumulated by diverse marine mammal species are identical with natural BCs previously isolated from sponges (Dysidea sp.) living in the same habitat. Isolates from sponges and mollusks (Asteronotus cespitosus) were compared with the signals detected in the mammals' tissue. Mass spectra and gas chromatography retention times on four different capillary columns of the isolates from sponges and mammals were identical in all respects. This proves that the chemical name of the compound previously labeled BC-2 is 4,6-dibromo-2-(2'-dibromo)phenoxyanisole and that the chemical name of BC-11 is 3,5-dibromo-2-(3',5'-dibromo-2'-methoxy)phenoxyanisole. Using a quantitative reference solution of BC-2, we established that the concentrations of the brominated metabolies found in the marine mammals are frequently >1 mg/kg. The highest concentration (3.8 mg/kg), found in a sample of pygmy sperm whale (Kogia breviceps), indicates that BC-2 is a bioaccumulative, natural organohalogen compound. This is supported by the concentrations of the BCs in our samples being equal to the highest concentrations of anthropogenic BCs in any environmental sample. The quantitative determination of BC-2 in blubber of marine mammals from Africa and the Antarctic suggests that BC-2 is wide-spread. These results are direct proof that marine biota can produce persistent organic chemicals that accumulate to substantial concentrations in higher trophic organisms.

Miocene marine mammals from Portugal. Paleogeographical and paleoecological significance

Neogene marine mammals are still incompletely known in Portugal. However, a general overview of the geographic and stratigraphic distribution of marine mammal localities in the Miocene of Portugal is already possible. An attempt of correlation between the trends shown by these distributions and the horizontal and vertical environmental shifts is presented. In general, sirenians occur in deposits representing shallow, warm, low energy aquatic environments; while cetaceans are more frequent in more open, deep and temperate marine environments.

Un contrat pédagogique : l'entente sur mesures volontaires dans l'application de la Loi sur la protection de la jeunesse

"Thèse présentée à la Faculté des études supérieures en vue de l'obtention du grade de Docteur en droit (LL.D.)"

Publicité sur Internet et Protection du consommateur

La cyberpublicité abonde sur Internet. Bandeaux publicitaires, fenêtres pop-up et « pourriels » font partie du quotidien des internautes. Pourtant, bien qu’il puisse sembler que l’anarchie y soit la règle, la publicité sur le web est encadrée, comme elle l’est d’ailleurs dans les médias traditionnels. Nous analyserons la législation qui s’applique au Québec à la publicité sur Internet : il s’agit de la Loi sur la concurrence, adoptée par le légistaleur canadien, et de la Loi sur la protection du consommateur que l’on doit au législateur québécois. Ces deux lois laissent cependant quelque chose à désirer puisqu’elles ne régissent que le contenu du message et non les formes qu’il prend sur Internet, et qu’elles ne tiennent pas compte non plus de la situation créée par la nature particulière de ce média. Pour garantir aux cyberconsommateurs une protection similaire à celle dont ils bénéficient à l’égard des autres médias, il faudra créer de nouvelles sources normatives. L’adéquation des normes avec la réalité reste toujours l’idéal à atteindre.

Study of baleen whales’ ecology and interaction with maritime traffic activities to support management of a complex socio-ecological system

Thesis written in co-mentorship with Robert Michaud.