Beluga, Delphinapterus leucas, Distribution and Survey Effort in the Gulf of Alaska

Beluga, Delphinapterus leucas, distribution in the Gulf of Alaska and adjacent inside waters was examined through a review of surveys conducted as far back as 1936. Although beluga sightings have occurred on almost every marine mammal survey in northern Cook Inlet (over 20 surveys reported here), beluga sightings have been rare outside the inlet in the Gulf of Alaska. More than 150,000 km of dedicated survey effort in the Gulf of Alaska resulted in sightings of over 23,000 individual cetaceans, of which only 4 beluga sightings (5 individuals) occurred. In addition, nearly 100,000 individual cetaceans were reported in the Platforms of Opportunity database; yet, of these, only 5 sightings (39 individuals) were belugas. Furthermore, approximately 19 beluga sightings (>260 individuals), possibly including resightings, have been reported without information on effort or other cetacean sightings. Of the 28 sightings of belugas outside of Cook Inlet, 9 were near Kodiak Island, 10 were in or near Prince William Sound, 8 were in Yakutat Bay, and 1 anomalous sighting was well south of the Gulf. These sightings support archaeological and commercial harvest evidence indicating the only persistent group of belugas in the Gulf of Alaska occurs in Cook Inlet.

Kumataro Ito, Japanese Artist on Board the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries Steamer Albatross During the Philippine Expedition, 1907–1910

Kumataro Ito produced hundreds of beautiful color paintings of fishes and invertebrates during and after the 1907-10 Philippine Expeditin of the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries Steamer Albatross. The paintings are housed in the files of the Divisions of Fishes and Mollusks, United States National Museum of Natural History, and Smithsonian Institution Archives, Washington, D.C. Few of those paintings have been published in color, but many have been publishes in black and white. Two years after the expedition, Ito came to Washington, D.C., in 1912 for an extended period to render final paintings based on preliminary color sketches made during the expedition. He did not completly render all the sketches during his stay, probably because he was asked to produced a large number of black-and-white illustrations of Philippine fishes, and a few of North American fishes. Most of the black-and-white illustrations have been published. Few publications containing Ito's Philippine and North American illustrations have acknowledged him. The very little that is known about Ito's life is discussed, examples of his black-and-white and colored fish paintings are reproduced, and his previously unacknowledged illustrations in various publications are herein acknowledged. Another Japanese artist, Yasui, about whom almost nothing is known, joined the Albatross during Ito's second tour on board the ship. It appears, with few exceptions, that Yasui produced only preliminary color sketches of fishes, which, if rendered as final paintings, were done by Ito.

Os deveres do pequeno cidadão em Alma Infantil: versos para uso das escolas (1912)

Nesta pesquisa, elegemos Alma Infantil (1912) como fonte e objeto de estudo: obra escrita pela poetisa Francisca Júlia da Silva em parceria com seu irmão, o também poeta Júlio César da Silva. A pesquisa busca evocar o cenário literário escolar do entresséculos (XIX-XX) e do início do século XX, em suas particularidades, coordenando o projeto político e pedagógico que conformava as escolas no período com os temas, autores e textos que circulavam nas salas de aula, sobretudo no estado de São Paulo, onde se verifica, no período, a maior incidência de planos e ações pedagógicas. Temos por finalidade exprimir as relações entre Alma Infantil e alguns projetos de nação propostos pelo governo na Primeira República (1889-1930). Alma Infantil, publicado pela Livraria Editora Magalhães no início do século XX é livro para uso escolar, mais especificamente, livro de leitura suplementar. Este material, assim como muitos outros, estava comprometido com a moral e a ordem cívica dos primeiros anos do novo regime, com a exaltação à natureza, aos animais e às riquezas naturais do país, conforme a análise dos poemas indica. O livro dos irmãos Silva, em seus 48 poemas e quatro hinos, apresenta linguagem acessível e adaptada à leitura da criança, de fácil compreensão, conformados por um conceito de moral notoriamente verificado. Em grande parcela dos poemas, encontramos referências a uma linguagem leve, descompromissada com a rigidez e culto à forma diferentemente da que o exaltava. Outrossim, a presença dos hinos em Alma Infantil demarca ainda mais esta unidade patriótica a que o Brasil se propunha compor no entresséculos. Os temas dos hinos estudo, escola, trabalho, pátria - alinham os ideais republicanos de ordem, trabalho e progresso que vigorava no Brasil naquele momento. Sendo assim, através da pesquisa histórica que resultou neste texto, podemos afirmar por meio de análise textual e documental que Alma Infantil é obra confeccionada para uso escolar, como sua própria capa o diz, e mais, é uma legítima amostra do maquinário político educacional dos primeiros anos do regime republicano neste país.

Near optimal combination of sensory and motor uncertainty in time during a naturalistic perception-action task.

Most behavioral tasks have time constraints for successful completion, such as catching a ball in flight. Many of these tasks require trading off the time allocated to perception and action, especially when only one of the two is possible at any time. In general, the longer we perceive, the smaller the uncertainty in perceptual estimates. However, a longer perception phase leaves less time for action, which results in less precise movements. Here we examine subjects catching a virtual ball. Critically, as soon as subjects began to move, the ball became invisible. We study how subjects trade-off sensory and movement uncertainty by deciding when to initiate their actions. We formulate this task in a probabilistic framework and show that subjects' decisions when to start moving are statistically near optimal given their individual sensory and motor uncertainties. Moreover, we accurately predict individual subject's task performance. Thus we show that subjects in a natural task are quantitatively aware of how sensory and motor variability depend on time and act so as to minimize overall task variability.

An examination of spatial and temporal genetic variation in walleye pollock (Theragra chalcogramma) using allozyme, mitochondrial DNA, and microsatellite data

We used allozyme, microsatellite, and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) data to test for spatial and interannual genetic diversity in wall-eye pollock (Theragra chalcogramma) from six spawning aggregations representing three geographic regions: Gulf of Alaska, eastern Bering Sea, and eastern Kamchatka. Interpopulation genetic diversity was evident primarily from the mtDNA and two allozyme loci (SOD-2*, MPI*). Permutation tests ˆindicated that FST values for most allozyme and microsatellite loci were not significantly greater than zero. The microsatellite results suggested that high locus polymorphism may not be a reliable indicator of power for detecting population differentiation in walleye pollock. The fact that mtDNA revealed population structure and most nuclear loci did not suggests that the effective size of most walleye pollock populations is large (genetic drift is weak) and migration is a relatively strong homogenizing force. The allozymes and mtDNA provided mostly concordant estimates of patterns of spatial genetic variation. These data showed significant genetic variation between North American and Asian populations. In addition, two spawning aggregations in the Gulf of Alaska, in Prince William Sound, and off Middleton Island, appeared genetically distinct from walleye pollock spawning in the Shelikof Strait and may merit management as a distinct stock. Finally, we found evidence of interannual genetic variation in two of three North American spawning aggregations, similar in magnitude to the spatial variation among North American walleye pol-lock. We suggest that interannual genetic variation in walleye pollock may be indicative of one or more of the following factors: highly variable reproductive success, adult philopatry, source-sink metapopulation structure, and intraannual variation (days) in spawning timing among genetically distinct but spatially identical spawning aggregates.

The 1958 pearl oyster fishery, Gulf of Mannar

The continental shelf between the three and twelve fathom lines, off the Ceylon coast in the Gulf of Mannar is popularly known as the Pearl Banks. Though the area of this plateau is extensive the pearl oysters are concentrated on restricted areas known as "paars". The more productive of these are the Cheval Group of paars and the Moderagam Paar. The Peria Paar and Twynam's Paar though covering larger areas are not dependable as oyster beds. The True Vankalai, Peria Paar Karai and Muthuvarathu Paars are small in extent, but have yielded oysters on a commercial scale. Although the Ceylon Pearl Banks has been commercially fished for centuries, the first scientific investigation of its pearl oysters on an intensive scale was started by Herdman in 1902 (1902-06) and later continued by Hornell (1905-41), Shipley (1904-06), Pearson (1911-33), Jameson (1912-13), Southwell (1910-14) and Malpas (1922-39).

Development of design and construction of fishing boats in Uganda

Fishing boats and canoes varied very little in Uganda from the middle of the 19th century umil 1949. types in use being the Dug Out Canoe. up to 40 ft. in length with 4 ft. beam hollowed from trees, and "Sesse" canoes which were used on Lake Victoria; these had an obvious Arab influence. The length of the "Sesse" in recent years as from about 1912 is 28 ft., and it is used as an open fishing craft.