Whaling continues despite a global moratorium, and the methods of slaughter used are a controversial welfare issue. If a whale is not killed instantly by an explosive harpoon, the Japanese use electric lances as a secondary killing device.

Video footage was obtained which documented the sequence of events in Japanese whaling operations, including the harpooning and application of electric lances to seven whales. A minimum time to death of each whale was estimated. To achieve immediate insensibility using electrical stunning, the electrodes must span the brain. This video revealed that electrodes tend to be placed between the pectoral and dorsal fins, and on the same side of the whale. In this case only a small proportion of current would pass through the brain, and ventricular fibrillation is unlikely. Previous work has shown that the currents used were likely to be 50-100 times too small to cause cardiac fibrillation or cerebral dysfunction.

A humane death cannot be achieved with inappropriate placement of lances and inadequate current application. A more effective secondary killing method is necessary.

Electrocution of an animal is inhumane if it is not rendered instantaneously insensible by the application of sufficient current density within vital centres of the brain. Application of electric current which does not achieve this, is likely to cause severe pain. The humane aspects of electrical lancing have aroused widespread concern and debate.

For an electrically lanced whale of the size of those currently hunted, previous research has indicated that the current densities produced in the heart and brain are unlikely to reliably render the animal insensible or stop its heart. This study supports these findings and demonstrates that the presence of salt water/immersion may further reduce current densities. Evidence for the failure of the electric lance includes the necessity for multiple and prolonged applications of electric current.

Reasons for the failure of the electric lance include non-optimal current injection sites, insufficient current injected, the presence of salt water, and the trauma caused by the explosive harpoon. The efficacy of the electric lance may be falsely exaggerated for reasons associated with blood loss and misdiagnosis of death. All evidence clearly indicates that attempts to stop the heart by electrocution will cause severe pain to an already traumatized animal.

We suggest that the use of the electric lance is clearly inhumane, and are pleased to announce that its use in Japanese whaling operations was reportedly discontinued as from 1997.

Japanese whalers use the electric lance as a secondary method of killing minke whales (Balaenoptera acutorostrata). The lances are dropped into the body, and currents varying between 2.2 and 14. OA, with a mean of 6.8A, are applied.

When currents of 5A were applied to the carcasses of dead whales, varying in size from 1.8 to 15.7m in length, no current densities induced in the target organs were sufficient to cause either insensibility (10mA cm−2 in the brain), or to cause ventricular fibrillation (0.5mA cm−2 in the heart), except in a few cases where electrodes were specifically placed to span the heart. When electrodes were placed in positions normally used in whaling operations, no current densities were produced which would have been sufficient to cause brain and cardiac dysfunction.

Further investigations on changes in current density with time post mortem after application of a controlled current of 5A showed, during a 60 hour period, a fourfold increase in the current density in the heart, and more than a twofold increase in the brain. Thus contrary to previous criticisms, if these studies had been carried out on live animals, all current densities would have been below threshold values.

There are no records of signs of epileptic form seizure, which are associated with an effective electrical stun, in whales subjected to the electric lance.

It is concluded that the electric lance as used in whaling operations is ineffective and likely to cause extra pain and suffering to an already distressed animal.

Recently, the method by which Japanese and Norwegian whalers kill minke whales has come under scrutiny on welfare grounds. Whales are still caught with a grenade tipped harpoon fired from a cannon. The harpoon is targeted to strike the animal in the thorax, though the pattern of harpoon strikes is variable and some can even be struck in the tail. Once the whale is harpooned, it is winched to the ship and if not dead, attempts are made to kill it either by electrocution or with rifles. Some studies indicate that less than 30 per cent of animals are killed instantaneously, though best practice can achieve 50 per cent of animals killed instantaneously but with wounded animals surviving for up to one hour. To kill any wild animal humanely, immediate insensibility must be induced. Whilst in principle the methods used on whales could induce immediate insensibility, there are indications that neither harpooning nor the secondary killing processes, like electrocution or rifle bullets, are achieving this in an acceptable proportion of the animals taken. Comparison of the killing processes used on minke whales with killing processes used on other animals, indicated that there are several areas where improvements could increase the proportion of whales killed instantaneously and reduce the suffering of wounded animals. Whilst harpooning may remain the favoured method of taking whales, and some improvements have been made in the number of whales killed instantaneously, the equipment has evolved little from that originally developed by the Norwegians in the Nineteenth Century. As currently practised few people would consider the current methods employed by the whaling industry to be humane.

Intergovernmental organisations, formal arrangements between governments of states, nations or countries, have a key role in global affairs, including animal disease control and animal welfare standard setting. They have advantages over countries that act by themselves, for instance their standards can be recognised under international treaties and apply across or outside of normal country boundaries and they can consider impacts at a broader or global scale rather than having to focus only on those occurring in one country.

The gulf between ethical propositions of animal welfare and the scientific basis of wildlife conservation has, at times, impeded a practical working relationship between the two (Harrop 2003). Indeed, quite often the two disciplines are capable of looking in different directions. The conservationist fixes on the species and its population status whilst the welfarist focuses on any animal, regardless of its conservation status, that is phylogenetically sophisticated enough to be capable of suffering. In consequence, welfare components are rare in international wildlife management law and are restricted to being subordinate to conservation objects (Harrop 1997, 2010). Nevertheless, the two disciplines are moving closer in many ways with the development of scientific indicators of welfare and also the need to refine the principal drivers of conservation strategies which must ultimately derive from an ethical objective. In this connection, the recent review of the CBD's strategy at Nagoya founded its new targets on a vision of ‘Living in Harmony With Nature’ (Harrop 2011c). Such an achievement would probably be a first for humanity and an utterly impractical aspiration. However, I would like to construe this vision, with the freedom of poetic licence, as conceiving both a materially and ethically harmonious future for humans and animals.

The Right Whale Sighting Advisory System (RWSAS) is a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries program designed to reduce collisions between vessels and critically endangered North Atlantic right whales. The vessel speed restriction that is part of the RWSAS presents navigation stakeholders with numerous challenges, owing to concerns about increased risks of ship grounding and collisions within ports. In this paper, we present a multi-methodology framework for assessing the impact of the vessel speed restriction on navigational safety. Empirically, we base our discussion in a first-order analysis of ship grounding risk for the Charleston Entrance Channel. Our analysis proceeds in three parts. We begin by using fault and event tree analyses to assess a relevant set of grounding-related event progression and failure probabilities. The influence of alternative vessel speed restrictions on ship grounding risk are then explored via a Bayesian network model that utilises the previously specified fault and event tree models for its partial specification and enumeration. Our analysis suggests that the speed restriction can, under certain reasonable assumptions, be seen to adversely impact the risk of ship grounding accidents in the Charleston Entrance Channel. We conclude with a summary of our findings and recommendations for future research.

How did ancient communities around the Mediterranean exploit the presence of whales in their seas? Given that the whales currently present in the region are seldom found near the coast, it seems probable that ancient whale exploitation would have been restricted to stranded animals. The authors explore, however, the possibility that additional species migrated seasonally through the Strait of Gibraltar to visit coastal calving grounds, which could have supported an organised whaling industry. Classical literature provides a number of descriptions suggestive of coastal encounters with whales. New methods of whale bone identification will shed light on which species were previously present in the Mediterranean and thus on the probability of ancient whaling. This article is one of two on ancient whaling in the current issue, and should be read in conjunction with that by Darío Bernal-Casasola and colleagues.

The beaching and stranding of whales and dolphins around the world has been mystifying scientists for centuries. Although many theories have been proposed, few are substantiated by unequivocal statistical evidence. Advances in the field of animal magnetoreception have established that many organisms, including cetaceans, have an internal ‘compass,’ which they use for orientation when traveling long distances. Astrobiology involves not only the origin and distribution of life in the universe, but also the scientific study of how extraterrestrial conditions affect evolution of life on planet Earth. The focus of this study is how cetacean life is influenced by disturbances in its environment that originate from an astrological phenomenon – in the present study that involves solar flares and cetacean beachings. Solar storms are caused by major coronal eruptions on the Sun. Upon reaching Earth, they cause disturbances in Earth's normally stable magnetosphere. Unable to follow an accurate magnetic bearing under such circumstances, cetaceans lose their compass reading while travelling and, depending on their juxtaposition and nearness to land, eventually beach themselves. (1) This hypothesis was supported by six separate, independent surveys of beachings: (A) in the Mediterranean Sea, (B) the northern Gulf of Mexico, (C) the east and (D) west coasts of the USA and two surveys (E and F) from around the world. When the six surveys were pooled (1614 strandings), a highly significant correlation (R2 = 0.981) of when strandings occurred with when major geomagnetic disturbances in Earth's magnetosphere occurred was consistent with this hypothesis. (2) Whale and dolphin strandings in the northern Gulf of Mexico and the east coast of the USA were correlated (R2 = 0.919, R2 = 0.924) with the number of days before and after a geomagnetic storm. (3) Yearly strandings were correlated with annual geomagnetic storm days. (4) Annual beachings of cetaceans from 1998 to 2012 were linearly correlated (R2 = 0.751) with frequency of annual sunspot numbers. Thus, consistently strong statistical correlation evidence indicates that an astronomical phenomenon – solar flares – can cause cetaceans to change their behaviour and become disoriented, which eventually causes them to swim onto a shore and beach themselves.

Carcasses of whales provide much valuable information on their natural history. However, some specimens cannot be identified in the field due to the advanced state of decomposition. In this study, the DNA was extracted and the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene was amplified by polymerase chain reaction and sequenced for four carcasses of possible mysticeti (GEMM: 075, 088, 135 and GEMARS: 1302). A blast search using the nucleotide–nucleotide basic local alignment (blastn) search tool was conducted using the generated sequences. Samples GEMM 075 and GEMARS 1302 showed 98% identity to one sequence of Balaenoptera acutorostrata. Samples GEMM 088 and GEMM 135 showed 99% identity to sequences from Balaenoptera edeni and Megaptera novaeangliae, respectively. A neighbour-joining tree was generated using sequences from GenBank from all species of balaenopterid that occur on the coast of Brazil. The results showed that all carcasses analysed were correspondent to species from the family Balaenopteridae already recorded in Brazil.

An initial inventory of the dolphins and whales occurring in Guinea's coastal waters is documented primarily from specimens and photographic evidence obtained from strandings and by-catches. Seven species are fully validated, four odontocetes, Tursiops truncatus, Sousa teuszii, Stenella frontalis, Kogia breviceps and three balaenopterid whales: Balaenoptera brydei, Balaenoptera acutorostrata and Megaptera novaeangliae. Another three reported species (Globicephala macrorhynchus, Steno bredanensis and Delphinus delphis) are insufficiently supported but thought to be valid. Small cetaceans landed as by-catch and a stranded whale were used for human consumption, but no evidence of substantial takes, directed or by-catch, was found. However, concern is raised about even minimal takes of the vulnerable Atlantic humpback dolphin. The seasonal presence of three confirmed humpback whales, two strandings (July and September) and a sighting (October), is synchronous with the species' southern hemisphere wintering/breeding season in low latitudes. We hypothesize that these whales may comprise the north-westernmost range of the population that breeds/overwinters in coastal waters of the Bight of Benin, northern Gulf of Guinea.

Rapid growth in demand for tourist interactions with cetaceans in the wild constitutes a challenge to management. Short-term animal behaviour changes can have long-term biological consequences for individual animals and populations. This paper reviews the whale-watching management context, describing the interplay of the macro (global), meso (national/regional) and micro-level (local/site specific) policy, planning and management settings. Here, an integrated and adaptive management model based largely upon the delineation and monitoring of limits of acceptable change (LAC) parameters is proposed to address current shortcomings in the long-term sustainable management of whale-watching activities. Although no integrated management framework currently exists, a comprehensive management approach must be developed and applied in the interests of the long-term sustainable management of tourist interactions with cetaceans in the wild. The proposed management model highlights the importance of integrating multiple stakeholder perspectives in a way that is both research-informed and adaptive. Beyond tourist interactions with cetaceans, this management framework could be applied to a wide range of wildlife management contexts.

The substrate demands of lactation must be met by increased dietary intake or by mobilization of nutrients from tissues. The capacity of animals to rely on stored nutrients depends to a large extent on body size; large animals have greater stores, relative to the demands of lactation, than do small animals. The substrate demands of lactation depend on the composition and amount of milk produced. Animals that fast or feed little during lactation are expected to produce milks low in sugar but high in fat, in order to minimize needs for gluconeogenesis while sustaining energy transfers to the young. The patterns of nutrient transfer are reviewed for four taxonomic groups that fast during part of or throughout lactation: sea lions and fur seals (Carnivora: Otariidae), bears (Carnivora: Ursidae), true seals (Carnivora: Phocidae) and baleen whales (Cetacea: Mysticeti). All these groups produce low-sugar high-fat milks, although the length of lactation, rate of milk production and growth of the young are variable. Milk protein concentrations also tend to be low, if considered in relation to milk energy content. Maternal reserves are heavily exploited for milk production in these taxa. The amounts of lipid transferred to the young represent about one-fifth to one-third of maternal lipid stores; the relative amount of the gross energy of the body transferred in the milk is similar. Some seals and bears also transfer up to 16–18 % of the maternal body protein via milk. Reliance on maternal reserves has allowed some large mammals to give birth and lactate at sites and times far removed from food resources.

Climate change is now known to be affecting the oceans. It is widely anticipated that impacts on marine mammals will be mediated primarily via changes in prey distribution and abundance and that the more mobile (or otherwise adaptable) species may be able to respond to this to some extent. However, the extent of this adaptability is largely unknown. Meanwhile, within the last few years direct observations have been made of several marine mammal populations that illustrate reactions to climate change. These observations indicate that certain species and populations may be especially vulnerable, including those with a limited habitat range, such as the vaquita Phocoena sinus, or those for which sea ice provides an important part of their habitat, such as narwhals Monodon monoceros, bowhead Balaena mysticetus and beluga Delphinapterus leucas whales and polar bears Ursus maritimus. Similarly, there are concerns about those species that migrate to feeding grounds in polar regions because of rapidly changing conditions there, and this includes many baleen whale populations. This review highlights the need to take projected impacts into account in future conservation and management plans, including species assessments. How this should be done in an adequately precautionary manner offers a significant challenge to those involved in such processes, although it is possible to identify at this time at least some species and populations that may be regarded as especially vulnerable. Marine ecosystems modellers and marine mammal experts will need to work together to make such assessments and conservation plans as robust as possible.

Studies of animal culture have not normally included a consideration of cetaceans. However, with several long-term field studies now maturing, this situation should change. Animal culture is generally studied by either investigating transmission mechanisms experimentally, or observing patterns of behavioural variation in wild populations that cannot be explained by either genetic or environmental factors. Taking this second, ethnographic, approach, there is good evidence for cultural transmission in several cetacean species. However, only the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops) has been shown experimentally to possess sophisticated social learning abilities, including vocal and motor imitation; other species have not been studied. There is observational evidence for imitation and teaching in killer whales. For cetaceans and other large, wide-ranging animals, excessive reliance on experimental data for evidence of culture is not productive; we favour the ethnographic approach. The complex and stable vocal and behavioural cultures of sympatric groups of killer whales (Orcinus orca) appear to have no parallel outside humans, and represent an independent evolution of cultural faculties. The wide movements of cetaceans, the greater variability of the marine environment over large temporal scales relative to that on land, and the stable matrilineal social groups of some species are potentially important factors in the evolution of cetacean culture. There have been suggestions of gene-culture coevolution in cetaceans, and culture may be implicated in some unusual behavioural and life-history traits of whales and dolphins. We hope to stimulate discussion and research on culture in these animals.

Morphological modification of the cetacean vertebral column for axial locomotion was one of many changes that occurred during and after the invasion of aquatic habitats by the ancestors of living whales. These modifications resulted in a column that can be divided into neck, chest, torso, and fluke structural and functional units. Variations in these units allow subdivision of living whales into three morphological groups that reflect differences in regional flexibility of the column and of locomotor style. Both odontocete and mysticete cetaceans exhibit trends toward reduction of relative centrum length in the neck and torso, restricting the flexibility of the column with increasing adaptation to aquatic lifestyles. Mysticetes and physeterid odontocetes retain the archaeocete pattern of constant vertebral shape along the torso, which acts as an undulatory unit. The location of secondary sites of reduced centrum length in non-physeterid odontocetes subdivides them into subgroups, one with reduced posterior, and the other with reduced anterior, torso flexibility. The relationships between particular osteological patterns and swimming styles in living taxa are used to support predictions of swimming style in fossil species after adoption of a fluke in the late Eocene.