Guest essay by Mike Jonas
The UK’s public broadcaster, the BBC, reported on 7 December 2017 that:
Narwhal escape: Whales freeze and flee when frightened
Scientists who fitted heart rate-monitoring tags to Arctic narwhals have discovered a strange paradox in how the animals respond to threats.
When these tusked whales are frightened, their hearts slow, but at the same time they swim quickly to escape.
Scientists say the response could be “highly costly” – because they exert themselves with a limited blood supply.
The findings are published in the journal Science.
They raise questions about how the enigmatic “unicorns of the sea” will cope with increasing human intrusion on their Arctic habitat.
Historically, narwhals have not come into contact with much human disturbance, because they live mainly hidden among Arctic sea ice. But in recent decades, as the ice has declined, this is changing.
“Shipping and exploration for oil and gas is moving into the narwhals’ world,” said lead researcher Dr Terrie Williams, from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
The article continues, but its basic message is clear: evil oil exploration and human interference will give narwhals heart failure.
As so often happens with BBC articles, especially those that report on things in the journal science, it immediately triggered my BS indicator. How can Narwhals have survived for millions of years if they react this way to stress? For example, if a pod of orcas comes past would a narwhal just die?
A quick search led me to Cool Antarctica [that might be the wrong end of the planet, but I wasn’t going to spend a lot of time on this]:
Narwhal – Facts and Adaptations – Monodon monoceros
[..]
Diving physiology (physiological and anatomical) – Whales and seals have a number of adaptations that allow them to dive deep beneath the sea for extended time periods, narwhals can dive to 1,500m (4,900 feet) and stay submerged for up to 25 minutes.
· The lungs are collapsed lungs on diving with only the minimum of air held in the respiratory system. This prevents any retained air (or more specifically the nitrogen in that air) from being forced into the blood under pressure at depth and coming out again on resurfacing so resulting in the “bends” which can be damaging or even fatal.
· Bradycardia, the slowing down of the heart considerably from the normal rate. Blood is directed only towards the vital organs such as the brain and heart and to the swimming muscles and those associated with catching prey. The rest of the body is largely bypassed for the duration of the dive to retain oxygen for immediately necessary purposes only.
· Large amounts of myoglobin in the swimming muscles to store oxygen for use during a dive. Myoglobin is a large protein molecule similar to haemoglobin that carries oxygen in the blood. Haemoglobin gives up its oxygen before myoglobin does, so once the haemoglobin source of oxygen is exhausted, then myoglobin gives up its oxygen to the muscles enabling them to work efficiently for longer. large amounts of myoglobin in diving animals makes their muscle a deep red colour.
· Oxygen loading and ridding of carbon dioxide before a deep and long dive. Long deep breaths are taken while at rest before diving to clear dissolved CO2 from the blood and load up haemoglobin and myoglobin with oxygen before the dive to enable a longer period before the next breath.
The first thing that springs out is that the behaviour which the BBC reported with “Scientists … have discovered …” was already well-known.
The second thing is that this physiological behaviour is brilliant for narwhals’ survival.
I didn’t need a third thing. If a narwhal comes across a human – even an evil oil driller – the narwhal will do just fine.
Footnote. I know absolutely nothing about narwhals. I’m simply someone that likes to check stuff before accepting it. I freely acknowledge that I might have completely misunderstood everything, in which case I would be very grateful for any correction. I’m always happy to be proved wrong – it’s a lot better than remaining wrong.
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“When these tusked whales are frightened …”
I was curious to find out how you could frighten a whale with a built-in sword long enough to shish kebab at least half a dozen divers. So I looked in Wikipedia and found this: “Narwhals can live up to 50 years. They are often killed by suffocation when the sea ice freezes over.”
Now if that is not a clear case for accelerating global warming I don’t know what is!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narwhal
From the web:
Terrie M. Williams, PhD is a comparative wildlife physiologist at the University of California- Santa Cruz. She is the Director of the Center for Marine Mammal Research and Conservation at UCSC. For the past 30 years her research has investigated the physiology of large mammalian predators.
“astounding” in the quote “We’re riding the back of a narwhal for days with this technology and it’s just astounding to me,” could refer to what comes earlier in the sentence. Dr Williams has seen this kind of pattern before: https://news.ucsc.edu/2015/01/dive-response.html.
Some humans have on occasion reported to me personally anxiety in reaction to *unusual* loud noises. I have no direct reports from narwhals. Loud noises that occur repeatedly cease to be unusual. The reaction may then change from anxiety to irritation. Subjectively I find anxiety more stressful than irritation.
If we measure the impact of oil exploration activities on local mammals when that activity starts then we might observe a strong measurably harmful fear response. It would be wrong to assume the effect persists indefinitely over the life of the subjects. Once the subjects get used to it, the response may drop from anxiety to irritation, as seems to be the case with small children and fireworks for example.
How are marine mammals in the Gulf of Mexico and in the eastern North Sea coping with oil exploration and exploitation activities these days?
I’m looking out for a proper explanation of the cause of the skeletal condition of the poor polar bear shown in the Guardian as starving due to,guess what.
I was using my phone when I last posted, so couldn’t add the link to the Guardian story. Here it is:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/dec/08/starving-polar-bear-arctic-climate-change-video
Everything I know about narwhales I learned from Buddy the Elf
“Historically, narwhals have not come into contact with much human disturbance, because they live mainly hidden among Arctic sea ice. But in recent decades, as the ice has declined, this is changing.” How many times have we heard this sad story only to find out that wild life adapts to their new enviironment. Spotted owls. Bald eagles, etc. Let’s see what happens. What ever happens regarding the ice is beyond our control.
I am sure that the BBC followed their internal procedures before publishing this BS. I understand that CNN also follows strict internal procedures before releasing misleading stories.
Well, if IPCC can do it why not everyone else,eh?
Here’s a great documentary about Climate Scientists.