Marine Mammals

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Marine Mammals
photos Florida FWC, NOAA
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Reptiles, Birds, Mammals

• Phylum Chordata
• Subphylum Vertebrata
• 3 Classes
• Class Reptilia
• Class Aves (birds)
• Class Mammalia

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Mammals

• Advantages over reptiles
• Endotherms, homeotherms (retain generated body
  heat and regulate it to a constant temp.)
• Skin covered with hair
• Layer of body fat
• Viviparous, placenta, mammary glands
• Large brain (relative to body size)

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Marine Mammals

• Mammals evolved 200 mya
• Some from land reinvaded the oceans 50 mya
• Breathe air
• Adaptations for diving
• Several orders

Carnivora
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Sea Otters

• Order Carnivora
• Family Mustelidae
• Second smallest marine mammal (up to 5 ft, 100
  lbs)

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Sea Otters

• No blubber, traps air in thick fur for
  insulation
• Hunted near extinction for fur til 1911
• Still treatened

http//www.turtletrack.org/Issues01/Co10202001/Art
/SeaOtterFace.jpg
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Sea Otters

• Other threats
• Oil spills
• Predators killer whales, sharks, eagles

http//www.adn.com/evos/photos/evos29l.jpg
http//www.whale-images.com/data/media/2/whale-gam
es_155.jpg
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Sea Otters

• Webbed hind feet
• Dive up to 300 ft, 5 min
• Average dive 65 ft, 1.5 min

USGS
http//www.otterproject.org/atf/cf/7B1032ABCB-19F
9-4CB6-8364-2F74F73B30137D/Otter_image4.jpg
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Sea Otters

• Dexterous front feet
• Use rocks as tools to open urchins, clams,
  mussels, abalone, crabs
• Key part of kelp communities

photos USFWS
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Sea Otters

• When otter populations decline, urchins increase
  
• Urchins overgraze, cut through holdfasts, stipes
• Kelp sent adrift, strand on beach
• Bottom left barren

http//sbc.lternet.edu/sites/biome_kelpforest.html
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Sea Otters

• Reproduction
• Breed every 1-2 yrs
• 1 pup born (3-5 lbs)
• Nurse for many months

http//www.flickr.com/photos/72825507_at_N00/43192298
2/
http//www.flickr.com/photos/mikebaird/2979351573/
in/photostream/
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Marine Otters

• Same subfamily as sea otters
• Smallest marine mammal
• (up to 3 ft, 10 lbs)
• Pacific coast of S. America

http//www.lioncrusher.com/images/range_maps/lontr
a_felina_range.gif
http//www.arkive.org/media/67/67547072-B9B4-494B-
A46E-7462CC40C79B/Presentation.Large/photo.jpg
http//www.arkive.org/media/94/94C38F72-9307-4411-
B90B-3D3D6FDFB08B/Presentation.Large/photo.jpg
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Polar Bears

• Order Carnivora, Family Ursidae
• Spend time on floating sea ice
• Thick blubber and fur to retain heat
• Eat mostly seals
• Top carnivore in Arctic food chain

AP
http//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thum
b/e/ec/Polar_Bear_2004-11-15.jpg/792px-Polar_Bear_
2004-11-15.jpg
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Polar Bears
AP
http//www.asknature.org/images/uploads/strategy/5
3ad434e8f86efc6d3285e60ee02ff3a/73626013f7ce3aa65b
f93bd58faf58f1.jpg
http//www.marinebio.net/marinescience/04benthon/a
rcimg/pb4054.jpg
http//www.marinebio.net/marinescience/04benthon/a
rcimg/pb6562.jpg
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Polar Bears

• Pregnant females dormant in maternity den until
  spring
• Usually 1-2 cubs, nurse for 2.5 yrs
• Breed every 2-3 yrs

photos USFWS
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Polar Bears

• Currently a threatened species on endangered
  species list
• Estimated 20-25,000 worldwide
• Global warming ? shrinking ice

ACIA Report, 2004, p25
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Polar Bears

• Excellent swimmers
• At risk of starvation and drowning from travel
  between distant ice packs

http//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/FilePolar_bear_
arctic.JPG
http//www.seaworld.org/infobooks/PolarBears/image
s/underwater3.gif
http//media.aftenposten.no/archive/00627/Polar_me
ltdown_13_A_627162f.jpg
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Pinnipeds

• Order Carnivora (formerly Pinnipedia)
• True seals (Phocidae) 18 species
• Eared seals (Otariidae)
• Sea lions 6 species
• Fur seals 9 species
• Walruses (Odobenidae) 1 species
• Most closely related to bears

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Pinnipeds

• Streamlined bodies, paddle-shaped flippers for
  swimming
• Predators - eat mostly fish, squid
• Elephant seals dive to 1500m, stay underwater
  up to 2 hours
• Mostly cold water, thick layer of blubber
• Rest and breed on land

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Seals vs. Sea Lions
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Seals of Long Island
Harbor seal (Phoca vitulina)
Grey seal (Halichoerus grypus)

• Males 5.5 ft, 250 lbs
• Females a little smaller
• North Atlantic
• Pacific

• Males 8 ft, 800 lbs
• Females 7 ft, 400 lbs
• North Atlantic (both sides)

http//web.anglia.ac.uk/appsci//lifesci/field_cour
ses/images/female_grey_seal_2002.jpg
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Seals of Long Island
Seal walk - Cupsogue Beach
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Seals of Long Island
Seal walk - Cupsogue Beach
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Seals of Long Island
Riverhead Foundation seal release Ponquogue Beach
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Seals of Long Island
http//www.cresli.org/cresli/images/sealmap2.jpg
http//www.newsday.com/other/special/naturalworld/
ny-nw-g1seal0111,0,6196352.graphic
http//www.cresli.org/cresli/images/Seals2000/Apri
l005.jpg
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Arctic Seals
Harp seals (Pagophilus groenlandicus)
Hooded seal (Cystophora cristata)
Spotted seal
Ringed seal (Phoca hispida)
http//www.kamogawa-seaworld.jp/graph/06/07/img/im
g_06_1.jpg
http//www.ifaw.org/ifaw/dimages/image_5142.jpg
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Antarctic Seals
Weddell seals
NOAA
Crabeater seal
Leopard seal
http//www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/shackleton/surviving/
images/leopardseal.jpeg
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Other Seals
NOAA
Hawaiian monk seal
Ribbon seal
Elephant seal largest Pinneped
http//www.virginia.edu/uvatoday/beringsea/images/
ribbon_seal_200x154.jpg
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Sea Lions and Fur Seals

• Differ from true seals anatomically and
  geographically
• True seals more widespread, many oceans
• Eared seals mostly Pacific
• Fur seals smaller
• than sea lions

NOAA
Fur seals
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Sea Lions
Steller and California sea lions
photos NOAA, USFWS
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Sea Lions
Pier 39, San Francisco
New York Aquarium
California sea lions
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Walruses

• One species, only in Arctic
• Distinctive tusks, for defense and to grab hold
  of ice
• Eats bottom invertebrates (clams)
• Stiff whiskers as feelers

photos NOAA, USFWS
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Manatees and Dugongs

• Order Sirenia (sea cows)
• Manatees (3 species)
• Dugongs (1 species)
• Stellers Sea Cow
• Entirely aquatic life
• Most closely
• related to elephants

http//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/FileTrichechus_
manatus_fg01.JPG
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Sirenians

• No rear limbs (except as embryos)
• Flattened tail, moves up/down
• Large, round body, blubber
• Strictly vegetarian (seagrass, aquatic plants)

http//asterix.ednet.lsu.edu/edtech/rainfor/manat
ee/manat2.jpg
http//www.citycliks.com/graphics/32_02.jpg
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Sirenians

• Slow reproduction
• (1 calf every few years)
• Mammary glands
• under armpits

Florida FWC
Florida FWC
http//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e
/Dugong_mother_offspring.jpg
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Sirenians

• All species endangered or extinct
• Hunted for meat, skin, blubber
• Hit by boaters (swim slow, near surface)

Florida FWC
http//farm4.static.flickr.com/3242/3150118129_172
b5efe3f.jpg?v0
Robert Rattner _at_ http//www.savethemanatee.org/man
ateeprop.jpg
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Sirenians

• Entangled in nets, lines
• Losing habitat (destruction of seagrass beds)
• Approx. 5000 manatees around Florida
• 2013 record mortality 829 (16 of population)
  due to
• red tide, unk. disease
• Normal mortality
• 300-450/year

http//4.bp.blogspot.com/_4o4dTnXsGkw/TH5sOaTmNqI/
AAAAAAAAAWE/nraq5tR6AUY/s1600/DRC-Manatee-GalwayBa
y.JPG
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Stellers Sea Cow

• Largest sirenian (25 ft)
• Discovered 1741, Bering Sea, Alaska
• Extinct since 1768

http//www.50birds.com/extan/images/extstellerssea
cow13b.jpg
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Dugongs vs. Manatees
http//media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/95/6739
5-004-C975D8AD.gif
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Dugongs

• Red Sea, Indian Ocean to Western Pacific,
  especially around Australia
• Strictly marine

http//www.wildworldweb.co.uk/holidays/RedSea3/Dug
ong20P1010173-01.jpg
http//www.greenpeace.org/raw/image_full/internati
onal/photosvideos/photos/a-gentle-dugong-near-okin
awa.jpg
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Manatees

• Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico, Amazon River,
  West Africa
• Coastal bays, rivers, warm springs, and power
  plant discharge canals (salt or freshwater)

Florida FWC
Florida FWC
http//www.nrca.org/yourenv/biodiversity/Species/g
ifs/manatee.jpg
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Manatee Surveys
http//www.learner.org/jnorth/images/graphics/mana
tee/aerial_Krispie.jpg
http//cars.er.usgs.gov/Manatees/manatees.html
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Wayward Manatees

• Sometimes migrate out of normal areas
• Chessie tagged by USGS, seen in NY, Rhode
  Island 1995 Virginia 1996, 2001
• Hudson River, August 2006
• LIS, August 2010
• Mississippi River
• near Memphis, Tenn.
• (700 miles from Gulf),
• Fall 2006