John E. Reynolds III - Biology of Marine Mammals

1999 by the Smithsonian Institution
All rights reserved

Copy editor: Danielle Ponsolle
Production editor: Duke Johns
Designer: Janice Wheeler

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Biology of marine mammals / edited by
John E. Reynolds III and Sentiel A. Rommel.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p.).
eISBN: 978-1-58834-420-5
1. Marine mammals. I. Reynolds, John Elliott, 1952
II. Rommel, Sentiel A.
QL713.2.B54 1999
599.5dc21

98-27808

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data available

For permission to reproduce illustrations appearing in this book, please correspond directly with the owners of the works, as listed in the individual captions. The Smithsonian Institution Press does not retain reproduction rights for these illustrations individually, or maintain a file of addresses for photo sources.

v3.1

My introduction to marine mammal science and policy occurred in the autumn of 1974 when I took a class taught by Dan Odell at the University of Miamis Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. At the time little did I appreciate the rare opportunity I had to take one of the few such courses in existence. Even today there are so few formal courses on the subject that a survey carried out by the Society for Marine Mammalogy showed that the majority of marine mammalogists with Ph.D.s have never taken one.

Between 1975 and 1980 I worked as a teaching assistant in Dans course. Although my primary responsibility was teaching marine mammal anatomy laboratories, I began to consider how I would teach different aspects of marine mammalogy; my musings crystallized in 1980 when I was hired by Eckerd College and was charged with precisely that task.

Development of a coherent course that dealt with both science and policy was hindered in 1980 by lack of a comprehensive textbook. The same holds true as I write this in 1998, despite the existence of more and more books on marine mammals. Some contain excellent species accounts; others are highly technical discussions of particular topics; a few are appropriate for use as texts, except that they deal with only a subset (e.g., cetaceans) of the marine mammals or with only those species in a particular geographic area; many are nontechnical coffee-table books with stunning photographs but inadequate text to be useful for students. In short, people who teach, or want to teach, marine mammalogy continue to be frustrated that a comprehensive textbook for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students is still unavailable.

This deficiency befuddles many marine mammalogists. The field itself matured remarkably during and after the 1970s. Marine mammal science historically involved a lot of field observations, some excellent anatomical studies, and some physiological investigations. The first Marine Mammal Conference, held in 1975 in Santa Cruz, California, attracted only some 150 scientists. A decade later, the field had grown sufficiently that the Society for Marine Mammalogy was created, along with its own publication, Marine Mammal Science. Topics covered in the journal still address traditional scientific questions (e.g., estimates of abundance, causes of mortality, physiological adaptations, social behavior, functional anatomy, stock discreteness, and effects of human activities), but do so using technology (e.g., telemetry, polymerase chain reaction, electron microscopy, geographic information systems) that allows greater resolution. The 11th Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals, held in 1995 in Orlando, Florida, attracted some 1500 participants, an order of magnitude more than the conference two decades earlier.

The growth of scientific research has been paralleled in terms of policy and conservation. In 1972 the Marine Mammal Protection Act was adopted by the U.S. Congress. The Act was noteworthy both for its focus on marine mammals and its approach to management from an ecosystem point of view. This and other legislation (e.g., the Endangered Species Act of 1973) provide a legal framework for conserving and managing marine mammal stocks and habitats. Over the years recovery plans, which consider both science and socioeconomics, have been developed for a number of endangered or threatened species. A 1994 workshop sponsored by the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission articulated a set of guiding principles for the worldwide conservation of marine mammals and other living natural resources.

In addition the lay public grew increasingly interested in marine mammals during the past three decades. Marine mammals have become symboliceven mystical. Marine zoological parks and aquaria display marine mammals and develop educational and conservation messages for the public; people who might never see an ocean, and yet as voters could impact issues involving marine mammals, can see and learn firsthand about these animals. Television documentaries feed the appetite of a public that wants to know more about marine mammals and how to save them. Special interest groups have taken up the cause over the years; for example, such groups contributed to efforts to establish a moratorium on worldwide commercial whaling.

Despite the whirlwind of scientific advances, promulgation of policy, and public interest, there has continued to be a dearth of college-level courses to either groom future marine mammal managers and scientists or to enlighten future professionals in related fields (e.g., marine ecology, fisheries biology, epidemiology) for whom an overview of marine mammalogy would be useful. The few existing courses have been handicapped by the lack of a comprehensive text.

Biology of Marine Mammals provides a straightforward, integrated approach to understanding these animals. Most chapters consider topics one would expect in a biology textbook, including functional morphology, physiology, sensory biology, energetics, reproduction, communication, behavior and ecology. A chapter that is perhaps less typical, but which is very useful for students to understand marine mammal biology, is the final chapter on toxicants and their possible effects on marine mammal health.