Academic literature on the topic 'Weddell seal Seals (Animals) Seals (Animals)'

This chapter analyzes the scientific and diplomatic debates on the question of sealing and seal conservation from 1964 to 1972, particularly the negotiation of the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Seals. Because the Antarctic Treaty did not apply to the high seas, both scientists and diplomats noted that their 1964 conservation efforts did not cover animals, such as seals and penguins, when they were in the ocean. This gap seemed problematic when there was a push in the mid-1960s to renew commercial sealing in the Antarctic. The Antarctic Treaty parties thus committed to negotiating a treaty to cover seals in the high seas. They persisted in negotiating this agreement even when the prospect of renewed sealing lapsed, because seals and sealing became a useful subject by which the treaty parties, and scientists within SCAR, could continue to mark out their authority and positions for the Antarctic.

Jeff foster arrived at Pier 56 in the summer of 1971 eager to get started. Although just fifteen, the Bellevue native already had extensive experience with wildlife. His father was head veterinarian at Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo, and Foster himself was a skilled diver who often brought live fish and octopuses to the Seattle Marine Aquarium. When Don Goldsberry offered him a job with the seal trainers, Foster accepted, and after a quick introduction to his co-workers, he received his first assignment. “There’s a bum out back,” said one of the trainers. “Go get him out of there.” In the aquarium business, this was a serious matter. Over the years, vandals had thrown objects into tanks and even attacked captive animals. The teen made his way to the rear entrance, where he could hear dolphins and seals splashing in nearby pools. There he found a man sleeping beside a dumpster. “He’s laid out, he looks pretty big, and I give him my tough voice—my voice that’s still cracking,” laughed Foster, adding in a high-pitched squeal, “You gotta get out of here!” As he helped the derelict to his feet, Foster was stunned by his size. His hand was “like a baseball mitt,” Foster recalled. “He is like six foot six—huge, huge guy.” At first, the confused man seemed willing to leave, but as they approached the gate, he decided to take a swing at the teen. Foster managed to duck away, and he never forgot what happened next. Unknown to Foster, Goldsberry had followed behind to make sure the youngster was safe, and he now grabbed the flailing attacker before he could throw another punch. “The next thing I know this guy is just lifted up and thrown,” Foster recounted. “Don picks this guy up and tosses him easily from here to that wall.” Yet protection quickly gave way to rage. “He proceeded to kick his teeth in, kicked the shit out of him.” Fearing for the man’s life, Foster sprinted to the aquarium office, where he found a woman behind a desk, Goldsberry’s wife, Pat.

Many animals detect motions in air and water by means of specialized hair-like sensilla that respond with high sensitivity and specificity to the fluid medium motion. For a review see Humphrey and Barth (2007). Examples are the filiform hairs of arthropods such as arachnids, crustaceans and insects, and the vibrissae of seals. In the case of the arthropods the sensors are relatively small (diameter ∼ 5–10 microns, length ∼ 100 – 1000 microns). In the case of seals they are much larger (diameter ∼ 1–2 mm, length ∼ 50 – 150 mm). These sensors are generally clustered in arrays consisting of hairs