Duncan's Marine Biology Adventures (part 2)

(Sorry this post was supposed to go out last week, but I got sidetracked with Thanksgiving planning and job applications. I am going to try to get out at least one post/week in the future. Thanks for reading!)

Hey interwebers. Today we revisit the continuing adventures of Duncan, Marine Biologist extraordinaire. We left our somewhat lazy hero after I had graduated from Monroe Community College with my Associates degree in Liberal Arts and Sciences with a focus in biology. I had decided to pursue a career in marine biology because who doesn't love animals and water? Coastal Carolina University caught my eye, even though it is virtually unknown to anybody who isn't interested in marine science on the east coast, because it was at the time the third best marine science school in the United States. I moved down to SC in August, 2011 to start school. While I enjoyed my time at Coastal for the most part there were some annoyances; in particular was the fact that my major was in marine SCIENCE not BIOLOGY. This meant that while I was really only interested in ecology and zoology of marine creatures I was forced to learn about marine chemistry, geology and physics. These weren't that bad in and of themselves, but I would definitely have preferred to focus more on certain aspects of marine biology. However I did still get the opportunity to take some fun and interesting courses. My favorite class, and one of the best experiences of my life was when I got to visit Costa Rica to work with sea turtles. In order to complete my Bachelor's degree I needed to earn credits interning somewhere. In May 2012 I spent two weeks at the Pacuare Nature Reserve just north of Limon in Costa Rica. While interning there my classmates and I assisted the research team in nightly beach patrols in order to find and document nesting sea turtles. The patrols consisted of a group of us walking up and down the 7 km stretch of beach on the Caribbean coast, looking for signs of nesting turtles. When we found a turtle we would hunker down and approach from behind so as not to startle the animal. Once the turtle began to lay her eggs we would collect physiological data and record/tag the animal for future reference. When the turtle was finished and was heading back to the water, or if we found a nest that had already been laid we would determine whether it was necessary to relocate the nest. This was done if the nest was laid to close to either the surf or the vegetation, both of which are very dangerous for the eggs and hatchling turtles. If the nest location was fine then we camouflaged the nest and haul out track in order to hide the eggs from poachers. While not on patrol I worked as part of a small research team of fellow students. We performed a small project to examine nest site selection in terms of beach profiles, sand gradient, beach width, etc. I also assisted another research group that was investigating hatchling orientation by observing how they reacted to different light wavelengths.

I graduated from Coastal Carolina in May, 2013 with a GPA of 3.85/4.00 which qualified me as Magna Cum Laude. The summer after graduation I flew to New Quay in Wales to intern with the Sea Watch Foundation. The Sea Watch Foundation is a NGO in the UK focused on the conservation of cetaceans and other marine mammals around the UK and Ireland. As part of my internship there I participated in numerous land and vessel based marine mammal surveys throughout Cardigan Bay, Wales. These surveys were amazing as it was the first time I got to actually see dolphins and seals and porpoises up close. It was also great to gain experience in practical conservation work over a longer time period. I had a taste of it in Costa Rica, but the summer I spent in Wales really helped to stoke my passion for marine conservation work.On top of the experience gained I also met a ton of fantastic people who're also interested in and passionate about marine biology and conservation. Finally, my time in Wales helped to confirm in my mind my decision to pursue my masters degree in the UK. Following my internship and subsequent travels around Great Britain (I had thus-far managed to visit three of the four nations that make up the UK, all but Northern Ireland) I returned home to upstate NY for a year to save money and apply to masters programs. I applied to five universities in the UK (after considering several in the US and Australia/NZ), St. Andrews, Durham, Portsmouth, Exeter, and Plymouth. I was lucky enough to be accepted to all of them and so my final decision was based mainly upon funding. In the end I accepted a position in the Marine Science MSc program at the University of Plymouth to start in September of 2014.

Join us next time for the exciting final entry in Duncan's adventures in marine biology! Also at some point in the future I may be appearing in a podcast created by my friend Amir Fogel. Not sure what the name of this podcast is yet, or when it will start airing, but I will let you know when I get them. Thanks to anyone reading this :p

Let my Orcas go!

Hey people of the interwebs. Today instead of continuing my adventures in marine biology I thought I would take a minute to talk about some current events, specifically the much applauded changes to Seaworld's orca policies. As you may or may not be aware Seaworld recently announced that it would be ending theatrical orca shows at its parks. This move, in the wake of the public outcry following the release of the Blackfish film which documented the inhumane practices and unhealthy conditions used to capture and hold these animals, was seen as a belated but happy step in the right direction. However, while it is true that Seaworld does plan to end its theatrical orca shows in the "near" future this is not the entire story. The planed changes will only affect the San Diego park, which has seen the greatest reduction in attendance following the release of the documentary, additionally the change is not permanent. The theatrical orca shows are set to be phased out at San Diego sometime in the next year following which Seaworld plans to renovate and enlarge the whales' enclosure in time for the introduction of a new set of orca shows in 2017. These new shows will focus on the orcas' natural environment with the new tanks apparently designed to more accurately simulate the whale's natural environment. Seaworld has stated that the new shows will present a message of conservation. According to Joel Manby, Seaworld's chief executive, the changes are a direct response to customers who want to see the whales in a more natural setting.

Don't get me wrong this is definitely a step in the right direction; the use of whales and dolphins for entertainment purposes should be stopped, it is both cruel and inhumane. The idea of using these intelligent, and majestic creatures like they were your personal toys is disgusting. Zoos and aquariums are much better places for captive animals, assuming they are well regulated and conform to proper health and wellness standards for the animals. If they cannot be reintroduced into the wild then they should be allowed to live in peace in a setting as close to their natural habitat as possible. However, for creatures like killer whales this is still not sufficient. Studies on wild and captive orcas have suggested that the problem with Seaworld is not that it exploits these magnificent creatures for profit, but that they are held captive at all. Killer whales are highly social creatures with deep familial bonds who are cruelly targeted and captured while young, or if born in captivity often separated from their mother and placed in tanks with unknown whales. This leads to aggression and psychological issues as discussed in Blackfish. Orcas in captivity also display increased rates of scarring and physiological issues such as dorsal fin collapse, both of which have been suggested to result from increased stress, compared with wild animals. This suggests that whales in captivity are under greater stress or more constant stress than those in the wild, undoubtedly as a result of their confinement and the destruction of their social groups. This may help to explain why captive whales also display truncated lifespans, with 92% of Seaworld's killer whales dying by the age of 25 while the average lifespan for a wild male orca is 30 yrs, and for a female 50 yrs (the maximum lifespans are close to 100 yrs). If Seaworld values these animals' health and well-being over profits, and is focused on conservation as they say then they should release the orcas into coastal sanctuaries, or attempt to return those captured to their pods. That way these whales could finally experience a natural setting.

Sources:
http://www.theguardian.com/usews/2015/nov/09/seaworld-end-orca-whale-shows-san-diego
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/mms.12225/abstract
http://us.whales.org/wdc-in-action/captivity
http://www.freemorgan.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/visser_1999_bodyscars_on_nz_orca.pdf

Sorry for the long post/rant, but this issue really irritates me. Anyway here is a video of some orcas in the wild (where they belong) enjoy :)

link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slhmzzqv21A

Hey to anybody who is reading this. My name is Duncan Morton and I recently completed my master's course in marine biology at the University of Plymouth. I'm starting this blog to talk about what that process was like and to chronicle my search for a marine biology job. Although because that sounds kind of boring even to me what I'm mainly planning to write about are things that I see or hear about that interest me. I will try to keep it marine science related as there are a lot of interesting and key issues involving our oceans that are going on presently. However, there will probably be the occasional post about something I find cool.

To start off I thought I would talk about how I got to this point (i.e what lead me to do a master's program, why I choose marine biology, what I did my dissertation on, etc.). My family has always been big on pets. We've had 5 cats, 3 dogs, 5 hamsters, 3 rats, 4 ferrets, 3 rabbits, and a ridiculous number of fish. Recently my grandmother, my mom's mom, moved in with my parents bringing an additional 4 cats and 1 dog so that at present there are 7 cats, 1 dog, 2 ferrets and 2 rats in the house. Coming from this perhaps it is not surprising that I have always loved animals. Growing up my second passion after animals was the water. I learned to swim early on and even helped to teach swim lessons from the time I was 10. I swam competitively for my school from ages 12-18, and worked as a lifeguard from the age of 15. When I was in high school and I began to think about what I wanted to do with my life after school I was stumped. I considered being a football coach, a doctor, trainer, even an astronaut. The only thing I knew for sure was that whatever I chose to do I wanted it to be something I enjoyed. I knew a lot of people who chose careers which payed well even if they hated the job. I decided early on that I was going to do something that made me happy and worry about money after that. With this in mind I thought about what I was passionate about, and decided that since I loved animals and being around the water then marine biology made a lot of sense. It helped that science was one of my favorite subjects and that I was good at it.

Knowing what I wanted to be now I graduated high school, earned my associate's degree from Monroe Community College and transferred to Coastal Carolina University for my last two years to earn my bachelor's degree in marine science.
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So I wrote a lot more than I was expecting to and I'm not even to Plymouth yet so I've decided to make this Part 1 of Duncan's Adventures. I will continue the story sometime later this week when I have time, and hopefully post something interesting with pictures of sea turtles or something. :)