#cetacean management

[orcinus-veterinarius]

Omg, in relation to your commerson's reblog: I got to meet the Aquatica commersons recently, and I was Shook! I work with Bottlenose, so I was not prepared for how tiny they are! The one we got to interact with was in his forties (!!!) and he was smaller than a bottlenose calf. It blew my mind!

Juan!!! How exciting that you got to meet him! I can’t believe how old he is… I don’t believe Commerson’s have ever been documented living longer than their early to mid-20s in the wild.

For those interested, here’s a short video from a few years ago introducing Juan!

[mammalidentifier]

im sorry seals molt? my association with that word is insects so i am confused and intrigued

They do! I’d say most species of animals sloughs off “old” parts of their bodies at some point of their lives in some capacity. The word “molting” is used as a catch-all term for this process, although exactly what body part they shed and how they do it varies from animal to animal. Arthropods grow an entire new exoskeleton and shed the old one, but for most other animals, this process only involves shedding the outermost layer of their bodies, the pelage and/or their first layer of skin. Reptiles are quite famous for this because they sometimes manage to come out of their old skins and leave them almost fully intact as if they were kigurumi pajamas:

Mammals tend to mostly only shed fur or hair, growing thicker fur during colder months and losing it in favor of shorter fur during warmer months. How obvious this is depends on the climate, though. It’s quite perceptible in mammals that live in the arctic whose fur changes color depending on the season:

But even the difference between the summer coats and winter coats of domestic dogs can be palpable if you live in places with colder climates!

(I’m quite fascinated by this because I was born and raised in a tropical country and my dogs look the same all year round heh)

But back to the seals. Pinnipeds don’t really use their fur to keep warm like other mammals do, but they still have it, and they have to shed their old coats and grow new ones accordingly, which they do once a year!

In elephant seals, this process is so sudden and so extreme it’s called catastrophic molting. They don’t only lose their fur, but also a layer of dead skin all at once and this forces them to stay on land for a full month without swimming (and therefore, without hunting and eating) until the process is fully done. Because molting requires redirecting blood flow towards the skin instead of to their vital organs as usual, if they swam in the cold waters they’re usually accustomed to while molting, they’d freeze!

Bonus fun fact: despite having lost their fur during the evolution process, cetaceans like whales and dolphins also go through a molting process where they lose a layer of dead skin, which they scrape off by rubbing against rocks and rolling on sand banks.

It’s been recently discovered (as of 2020!) that the reason whales migrate annually from arctic waters to tropical waters is the exact same reason elephant seals spend a month on land: to molt! It’s much easier for a whale to keep warm while shedding its skin in warm waters than it is in cold waters.

[local-hellhound-steals-spaghetti]

Let's talk about zoo animal welfare for a second...

(And I want to preface this by saying I have a 4 year Bachelor degree in Animal Science (focusing in welfare and behaviour with a major in Canine and Equine Science) before I got sidetracked into zoo animals and did 3 internships working with wild canids, ungulates and marine mammals - this involved both hands on behaviour modification/desenitisation as well as hands off behavioural observation and welfare study. I worked for 2 years as a marine mammal specialist and worked specifically in facilities to improve husbandry, behavioural training and welfare practises.

I also worked in a facility in the Asia Pacific, working to improve welfare standards for bottlenose dolphins and continued to work with cetacean welfare researchers after this. I also did a course in zoo management, husbandry and welfare and this involved working in an accredited zoo facility learning things like exhibit design, behaviour management and husbandry with multiple species.)

So a few points to say about zoo animal welfare when discussing zoo standards and practises:

The average person does not have the expertise to do behaviour observation and welfare evaluation in zoo animals - that's why when the general public visits a zoo and says "the animal looks sad" it's worth being skeptical of that claim. But it doesn't mean a gut feeling about a zoo's quality can be completely invalid. Just that it might be worth researching further or seeking more information.

However, with experience, it is possible to analyse behaviour in the context of welfare. And context to that behaviour is always important (for example, Moo Deng showing stress related behaviour towards the specific context of being touched or followed around by her keeper - very much an indication of poor handling practises)

Poor animal husbandry and welfare is not limited to specific countries or regions, however it can be more normalised and accepted under the influnce of cultures and laws. Or even just the culture of the zoo itself such as the "this is the way we've always done it" places.

Being an accredited zoo is a start to good welfare, but it doesn't make any sort of welfare concern obsolete. And accreditation is supposed to ensure that welfare concerns are addressed but because they are mostly run as a volunteer based organisation, they often don't have resources to check into every concern (unless it's a government funded organisation)

A zoo contributing to conservation research is great, but not if it is at the expense of the animals' welfare - welfare should always be prioritised, with research and conservation efforts to follow.

Welfare is a state that is in flux. So a negative welfare state can move into positive welfare state under different influences.

There are multiple factors that influence zoo animal welfare: enclosure/habitat, expression of natural behaviour, guest interaction, diet, enrichment, water quality, hygeine ect. It'll rarely just be one factor, though it does depend how salient that factor is.

Just because a keeper or management of a zoo have been there for a long time, doesn't mean they can't be criticised - it is possible to be still using outdated practises and believing in methodologies and management practises that need updating - that's the whole point of continued education

Having limited resources can often impact welfare. Giving a facility the resources they need to improve is a good start to improving welfare.

Even if an animal is being handled in an inappropriate way for a short time, that doesn't mean that can't have long term implications for welfare eg. if every time your dog jumped on you when you got home and you smacked him in the face once before going on with your day, that doesn't mean that your dog won't learn negative associations with your arrival just because it was one time.

Best practise husbandry of zoo animals involves:

Use of positive reinforcement based voluntary husbandry and health care

All interaction based on choice and voluntary interaction that is reinforced with primary reinforcement such as food

Mostly hands off approaches for the species that require them (ungulates, large primates, large carnivores)

Relatively stable social groups with aggression only in specific situations/contexts that are normal for the species

Back areas for animals to rest outside of public view

Species appropriate habitats to meet species specific behaviour requirements

Five freedoms of welfare being met but goes above and beyond the bare minimum

Poor zoo animal husbandry involves animals:

Being forced into anything such as presentations, education programs, medical procedures/gating

Any use of physical punishment such as chasing, slapping, pushing or poking - negative reinforcement such as bull hooks are also fairly outdated in handling species like elephants

Being excessively handled, chased and touched/restrained for no reason (eg. for social media videos)

Showing signs of avoidance and aggression constantly towards their keepers

Have constant conflict happening in their social groups

Are living in enclosures that are not suitable for their specific specific needs - size is only one factor in this. Substrate, habitat design, water quality ect. are also things to consider.

Are too close to the public/at risk from the public

Have no areas to retreat from the public/rest away from potential stressors

Have no enrichment program/no daily enrichment

Those are all flags that there could be some poor welfare happening and that a zoo is not prioritising welfare

Okay there's the ramble of the day done. Feel free to ask questions for further clarification if needed.

[monstatron]

SUNILA ARKANS

“ Sunila is the last of a lineage of powerful animans. She's one of the few remaining cetaceans that dares to expose herself amongst the the rest of animan society. She can often be found engaging with others through street fighting, a fun pass time and a good source of income for her. If you encounter be on edge... Well, not too on edge. She's one of the most hospitable animans out there! Even if she has a sharp, sassy attitude, she makes good company. In addition, she’s a trusted ally of Obasi. For the most part she’s here to keep the peace. “

my orca girl sunila! :3 managed to get her new ref done before artfight!

that’s right, she’s in the blade in the city universe. she’s a guard that’s a trusted ally of the phantoms and sunila is often seen lumbering around safehouses and clubs, keeping a watchful eye over activities in the area. it’s her job to keep others safe— phantom or not.

[treason-and-plot]

“I saw you from my roof, when I was scanning the sea for cetaceans with my telescope,” says Warren.

“What?” says Cookie.   

“Cetaceans. Whales and dolphins,” says Warren.

“Obviously I know what cetaceans are, Warren,” says Cookie. “I just don't understand what you mean when you say you saw me. Saw what, exactly?"

“I saw you sitting on the sand, crying,” says Warren. His kind, pale green-blue eyes are fixed on her face, and for one terrifying and thrilling moment she thinks he is going to reach out and touch her, caress her cheek, or maybe even take one of her hands in his. But the moment passes, leaving her skin tingling with a dizzying combination of relief and regret. “The sight of such a beautiful woman alone and crying tore at my heartstrings. I knew I had to jump in my speedboat and come down here straight away to try and help you. "

His chivalrous words make Cookie feel like bursting into tears again, but she manages to get a grip on her composure. She gives him a sweet and demure smile and shrugs dismissively.

“I’m touched by your concern, Warren, but I’m afraid you’re mistaken,” she says. “I wasn’t crying. I was just sitting on the sand enjoying the view. I often come down to this little beach when I’m in the mood for some solitude. It’s one of my favourite spots.”

Several creases appear on Warren’s bronzed forehead.

“I know when someone is distressed, Cookie,” he says. “I don’t even have to see their tears. I can sense it. I can sense it in animals too. That’s why they call me the whale whisperer. I have a gift, an intuition. I can tune in to human and animal needs and feelings. And right now I can sense that you’re in pain. Deep, deep pain. I’m right, aren’t I?”

“No,” says Cookie quickly, stepping backwards. “You are one hundred percent not right, Warren. I’m perfectly fine. And I don’t believe in any of that new age nonsense, so you’re wasting your breath. Anyway, I have to get home now. Raj will be wondering where I am."

"Cookie," he says gently. "Please let me help you."

"For the last time, I don't need help!" she says, panicked and furious, and turns and walks away from him up the sand as fast as her heels will allow her to.

[foxbirdy]

hi!

just saw your pictures of you doing some marine biology fieldwork and i just wondered if you have any stories about the experience that you would like to share. Im in 1st year uni right now and i have no idea what im gonna specialize in other than “science!!” but i work on boats for my job right now (tallships, very cool stuff) and so marine environment work really appeals to me. If you have the time, I would love to get a picture of what the work you’re doing entails.

(What does the day-to day of marine biology research look like? What kind of stuff are you studying/information are you gathering? Whats it like? Is it awesome? feel free to answer none of these also)

thank you!!

OH, I'm jealous - it's a dream of my mine to get to work on a tallship. & I love to talk about this stuff!

In all honesty, the day-to-day changes pretty dramatically depending on what project work is available. Right now, as a student, a lot of what I'm involved in ties into coursework or research that's happening at the university! I volunteer with a couple different labs, and there's a huge variety of stuff to get in on. For example:

Last Saturday, I spent about six hours pulling otoliths and gonads out of eighty invasive roi, taape, and toau caught by local spearfishermen. Otoliths are the ear bones of fish, and similar to the rings of a tree, they have ringed annuli that can give a lot of information about the life history of the individual species. We cast these otoliths in resin, and then cut cross-sections to look at them under the microscope. The hope is that this information will help us understand when these species become reproductive, and how to control their populations.

The last several Fridays, I've been involved with an effort to collect some water quality and plankton data after a lot of heavy rain. This work was out on the boats, and we used deep and shallow drogues, YSI, light meter, secchi disk, and a couple plankton nets, moving out from the swollen rivermouth and into deeper, saltier water.

Last month, I spent a lot of time on invertebrate snorkel surveys, mostly looking for presence/absence in the nearshore. Next Tuesday, I'll be doing fish surveys in the same location. The Wednesday after I'm hopping on a wetlands restoration project & removing invasive bull grass, and a night snorkel afterwards. Next Friday is a lab day, working to process the plankton samples we've collected, and I'll be in the coral nursery afterwards. That's the really fun thing about university - there's so much different work going on, all the time!

In the summers, outside of school, that work is just as varied. I've really enjoyed having jobs that allow me to do a little bit of everything, and thus far, my supervisors have been very supportive of me in that. Here's some other projects I've gotten to work on, all within just one position:

Servicing passive monitoring systems! These are pictures of my replacing a SEABIRD logger, which has been taking a water temperature measurement every thirty seconds for the past 360 days. This helps conservation managers track heatwaves in sensitive ecosystems. We prepped new loggers with batteries and SD cards and waterproof tape to prevent biofouling, and then used snips and zipties to make the switch.

Scientific fishing! This helps get life history and population data for our target species, large pelagic fish. We collected biopsy samples, placed tags, and released primarily ahi, but also ono, and mahi. (Full disclaimer: this picture is from a subsistence fishing trip and not a scientific one, where people generally have too many things in their hands & are moving too quickly to take pictures. He was a very delicious dinner for our crew, though.)

Other marine tagging! I got to assist with bluewater cetacean tagging of several different dolphin and small whale species, and shark tagging for galapagos, blacktip reef, grey reef, and dusky sharks. Cetacean tagging was done with an air rifle, not easy at high speeds on the boat. Shark tagging was more hands-on, as we had to manually apply the tags.

Coral reef monitoring! The mission of these surveys was to track coral health through heat stress events, and to identify harmful species. I'm looking under the coral head in these pictures for crown-of-thorns starfish, one of the most urgent species threats to reefs in the Pacific.

This is the bastard. Notice the dead coral around him.

Oh I'm about to smack into the photo limit, huh. Please hold!

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from Inside Climate News:

An estimated 90 percent of all traded goods travel by sea, where vessels tap into a vast network of shipping routes that connect even the most far-flung places. 

But humans aren’t the only ones traversing vast distances across these marine highways. A new study found that shipping occurs in more than 90 percent of whale ranges, where the animals can often get hit—becoming what scientists grimly refer to as “ocean roadkill.” By combining shipping and whale distribution data, the researchers pinpointed the areas with the highest risk of whale-vessel collision for several species. They discovered just a small fraction of these hotspots have any collision protection measures in place. 

“There’s just extremely high overlap of shipping traffic with whales,” said study co-author Briana Abrahms, a wildlife biologist at the University of Washington. “These whales are just having to contend with an incredibly, incredibly busy ocean, and shipping traffic is a leading cause of mortality for several whale species.” 

Shipping, cruise and fishing vessels fatally strike an estimated 20,000 whales around the world each year. Scientists say this is likely an underestimate because vessels could unwittingly hit a whale whose body sinks to the seafloor before it is recorded.��Climate change could be increasing vessel strike risk as ocean warming and marine heatwaves push whales closer to human activity.

There is a bright spot. Research shows that low-speed zones and shipping reroutes can help keep whales out of danger, while reducing emissions and improving air quality for people. And a little protection could go a long way: Expanding these management measures across an additional 2.6 percent of the ocean could mitigate the highest-risk collision hotspots, according to the study. 

Whales are some of the most well-traveled cosmopolitans of the sea. For example, humpbacks can swim around 5,000 miles each year during their seasonal migration. Yet the exact hang-out spots or routes that different cetacean species use on their journeys are still largely a mystery. 

To help change that, the researchers collated more than 435,000 whale sightings from a variety of sources, including government surveys, scientific tagging studies, whale-watching citizen scientists and even historic whaling records. They focused on four globally ranging species: fin whales, sperm whales, humpbacks and blue whales—the largest mammals on Earth. 

The scientists then inputted this deluge of data into a predictive model, and created some of the first comprehensive worldwide maps for where these ocean giants spend their time.

Now, scientists can “take a really global look at where these animals are in the ocean where we haven’t really always had eyes on in the past,” Abrahms said. 

[tanadrin]

Do you think it's possible there's a planet with multiple stable sentient species who interact? Or would such a situation inevitably end up with one getting wiped out or the two hybridizing

Well, they could only hybridize if they were closely related, like humans and Neanderthals. And IIRC there's some evidence that humans and Neanderthals/Denisovans probably weren't all that interfertile to begin with, with most coding Neanderthal alleles getting weeded out of our genome.

I think it would be very difficult for two sentient species that shared overlapping niches to survive. H. sapiens and Neanderthals were both smart, seem to have both had language and culture, and had similar levels of technological sophistication, but the latter had a much lower population and so couldn't really compete when their cousins invaded their territory. And maybe some of this is a function of the wider human clade's tendency to engage in warfare and ecologically disruptive hunting--there's a big wave of megafauna extinction that seems to have followed the expansion of human populations all over the globe--but I'm not sure how many species of big-brained tool-users any niche could support.

But I do think that species with very different niches could coexist peacefully, at least long enough to work out that species in other niches were sentient, and to develop the ethical frameworks necessary for coexistence. If there were superintelligent squid, they wouldn't ever compete directly with humans for habitat (though we might have eaten a fair few by accident). We have also managed (just!) not to render extinct cetaceans, which are fairly intelligent, or our close cousins the chimpanzee. I could also imagine a science fictional scenario where two intelligent species were in some kind of important symbiotic or commensalist relationship that would stabilize their coexistence.

I think the other tricky thing though would be timing. It took a long time for the genus Homo to develop intelligence. AFAICT the australopithecines were closer to chimpanzees in terms of intelligence than they were to us; H. erectus was a lot smarter, but probably didn't have language; it's not until 700,000 to 200,000 years ago you get human species that are more fully developed in terms of their intelligence, and that feels like a super narrow window in terms of evolution for another intelligence species to also emerge. Because once you do get intelligent tool-users who spread over most of the globe, they seem likely to me to start to modify their environment in profound ways, like we have. So if another intelligent species doesn't already exist, the circumstances in which it is likely to arise after one species comes to prominence are going to be very different--more of an uplift scenario, maybe. Like I think if we discovered a group of chimpanzees with rudimentary language tomorrow, we would do our best not to fuck with them, but we would inevitably have some kind of impact on their existence for better or worse, right?

Maybe your best bet for multiple sentient species would be to have a reason that the first species (singular or plural) that arose didn't come to dominate the entire planet--they were aquatic, and so never mastered fire; or they were otherwise highly restricted in the biomes they could inhabit; or they were small in number like the Neanderthals, but could retreat to refugia in mountains and forests rather than be wiped out; or they were a diverse clade like early humans, but they also spread out very rapidly, and were subsequently isolated by climate conditions. Like, imagine Denisovans (who were already in Asia) had crossed the Bering Strait land bridge to the Americas, and then sea levels rose cutting them off until the Age of Discovery. If you had a planet that didn't effectively have a two supercontinents like Earth, you might have many more opportunities for related-but-geographically-divided species to develop (though that doesn't avoid the problem of what happens when they meet each other and start competing then).

[lurkdragonstuff]

I'm an atheist and a philosophical materialist. I don't think there's anything more to the universe than what can be observed and measured. Disagree if you want, that's fine, but take as read that this is where I'm coming from.

As you can imagine, this makes it very strange to me that my brain thinks I'm a dragon.

I have been trying to square this circle for years. Since around the 2000's, when I first made contact with the Internet, I would look in on the otherkin community, and the draconic community nested inside it, and I would think, man. I wish I could believe that. I wish I could believe that souls were real, and that I had one, and that it was a dragon, and that's why I was so odd. For quite a while, I just explained it as a furry fandom thing. Sure, yes, my fursona is feral, but ferals are furries, too. This is still true! I'm still in furry fandom, and my dragonself still acts as my fursona. But they are also, in a deeper sense, me.

I'm a secular pagan. I don't think gods exist, and I don't think magic is literally real. I can't really cast a curse on shitty charities. The moon's a big shiny rock. It doesn't care if I roar at it when the sun reflects off it just so and I can see the whole of its tidally locked face.

But my dragon brain doesn't know that. It likes the big shiny rock. It likes little shiny rocks, too. It likes to light things on fire, and considers this a sacred act, both bringing destruction to noxious things and bringing honour to things worthy of it. It likes to growl and hiss when things annoy it. It likes to collect things, to have a hoard. It likes to range around its territory, keeping an eye on what's around in what season. It finds it frustrating that its wings don't seem to work at all, and its other limbs barely better. It wants its tail back. It wants its fire breath.

I'm autistic. Sometimes speaking is hard, and I growl and hiss when things annoy me. I like to collect things related to my special interests; I have a sprawling collection of cetacean, Nintendo, and SEGA figurines, as well as lots of little animal figures. Plushies, too, and videogames, and books. I do wildlife photography, as well, marking who's around in what seasons. This is, to my frustration, limited a lot by waning energy because of chronic health problems.

If backed into a corner, to say what I really believe, of course I'm a human. It is in my DNA, expressed in a bipedal body plan, five fingers on the forelimbs only, nails and not claws, no wings, no muzzle, no tail, short neck, skin and fur instead of scales. Not even any horns. I find this frustrating, but it is what it is. I also find it frustrating when people call me 'she' and not 'they', and that really there is no feasible gender presentation that would guarantee that strangers would use the right word. The best I can hope for is that people will read the 'they/them' button on my hat, or otherwise call me 'he'. Still wrong, but at least novel.

I honestly think my draconic identity developed when I was younger as a way to explain why I was so weird. I have never been normal. I will never be normal. As an adult, I have fancy words like "autism" and "anxiety and depression secondary to post-traumatic stress disorder" and "seasonal affective disorder" to explain why I'm abnormal.

But a part of my brain, I think the same one that still believes in magic and deities even though I don't, tilts its head, then grins a sharp grin and says, "Cool story, bro. I'm still a dragon."

I generally have, for any given of my eccentricities, the philosophical materialist explanation (generally that I am either brainweird in some way or another or am playing pretend for placebo purposes to manage executive function etc.) and the dragon explanation (generally what the pretend play revolves around). But - and this is hard to explain - it isn't exactly playing pretend, either. It's me.

When I'm pretending to be Link, either playing a Zelda game or writing Zelda fanfic, Link isn't me. I might be inhabiting him as an actor, but he isn't me. When I play Animal Crossing, and I'm playing a character named after me, that's closer. It's me but greater. Me but more. Me existing in a life I wish I could have.

When I put on my mask, when I sit and daydream about the multiverse-hopping shenanigans I get up to, when I hiss at someone startling me by getting into my space, that's me. I'm not a dragon, I'm a human wearing a mask, daydreaming, hissing because "back the fuck off!" isn't allowed in the workplace.

Yeah. Cool story, bro.

I am still a dragon.

[spongebob-connoisseur]

Guess what I got! The recording scripts for all of the episodes of Spongebob season 13!! Gang gang

I got it from some guy from YouTube. He said this was leaked on internet archive and Nick tried to scrub it clean off the interwebz. He managed to salvage some and he gave me a link. His account was gone before I had an opportunity to say thank you, so now I have it. I'm sharing it here because idgaf if my account gets taken down lol. But also no one checks tumblr anyways.

I made sure to print out the Slappy Daze recording script because idgaf about the other episodes tbh. I only care about my beloved Peter Lorre fish's day in the limelight <3 I put it in this plastic slip and keep it in a nice binder. It's my most prized possession besides Slappy's character sheet. I also have the Squidferatu script as well.

To be honest a lot of these scripts are pretty similar to the final product of the episode. There are some minor differences like Slappy wasn't originally in the script for There Will Be Grease. Instead it was supposed to be some nerdy fish asking if everything juice will make him sound more manly. Bless whoever snuck Slappy in there because you all remember me tweaking for a week when the episode came out because I was so happy Slappy got a part in the song lol.

Also the episode Upturn Girls was originally titled City Cetaceans.

Slappy Daze is pretty near identical to the final product tbh. Nothing really changed besides a few words. I am fascinated by the fact that the first draft is dated as being July 30th 2021. By that point I already fully and completely developed Slappy brain worms and was already considering watching Lorre's movies to get my fix cuz the airings of the Patrick show were frustrating. Ahh the good ol days <3

I also do believe Slippy (Slappy's female counterpart) was made for Slappy Daze originally though. The episode gives a physical description of Slippy which makes me think she just made for the moment. I think she was added to Mid-Season Finale in The Patrick Star Show episode afterwards but Mid-Season Finale aired first. Nickelodeon actually did mess up with this episode and released it on DVD before it officially aired. Now the pieces are coming together. This is only interesting to me lol.

Spongebob fans are such h8rs fr. Where else would you find THE original dreamy haired emo boy Cesare the Somnanbulist working as an assistant for the primary care physician fish Dr. Caligari? I would LOVE for Cesare to rid me of my allergies😤😤

Squidferatu actually has the most differences between the script and the final product. Plus plenty of interesting details. Squidferatu actually has two scripts, part one and part two.

The first and most important detail to me is the fact that Slappy is still named "Laszlo". You've seen Slappy's character sheet where it mentions he was formerly named "Laszlo" (obviously a reference to Peter Lorre's birth name Laszlo Löwenstein).

But in the Squidferatu scripts you can actually find the EXACT moment where his name changes from Laszlo to Slappy. It all has to do with one specific gag.

These both are the same scene. The left side is from Squidferatu part 1 and the right is Squidferatu part 2.

I do think they absolutely fumbled the name Laszlo. There are enough cartoon characters named Slappy. Laszlo is much much cuter and brings the Lorre reference full circle but oh well.

I also keep forgetting to mention but the villager in Squidferatu who begs Spongebob and Squidward not to go to the castle was intended to be the same villager in the 1931 Dracula who warns Renfield, who actually was based on a villager from the 1922 Nosferatu who warns Thomas Hutter. This character respawned in 3 different pieces of media. I think he's the true star of this episode lol.

There is also the fact that carriage driver in Squidferatu is confirmed to be Nosferatu! I feel like this fact is obvious enough if you're familiar with Dracula media (1922 Nosferatu, 1931 Dracula, or even just reading the book) the count is always the carriage driver duh

Also the fact that in this episode he hisses like a vampire, is strangely humanoid, and briefly has the Nosferatu™ eyebrows which fully gives it away. Unfortunately the folks on the SB wiki do not agree >:((

The first time I saw the carriage driver I said "ohh he kinda bad" and you know what? I'm not retracting my statement. He IS a baddie. I'm tired of lying to myself otherwise.

Anyways this caused me to come up with a headcanon that Nosferatu is broke and likely does not pay Slappy. I mean that explains why Nos has taken on shifts at the Krusty Krab, but also explains why Slappy is working 2 jobs in The Patrick Star Show. I imagine property taxes on a castle really drains a vampire's family fortune. I'm getting off topic.

There are some extra gags that didn't make it into the episode.

There's also the fact that we've been robbed of Erik from the Phantom of The Opera giving the audience a cute wink uwu

[local-hellhound-steals-spaghetti]

It's captivity with ~marketing~

And SEA LIFE continues to get inunandated with angry comments on their videos of their belugas because of this marketing.

Aafter deliberately alienating themselves from the industry, talking down to accredited facilities and making all these promises about belugas swimming "free" (see: in a sea pen) - the whales are still in the "temporary" care pool after 4 years - because they are consistently failing to acclimitise to the sea pen.

What does that look like? It looks like two whales refusing to station, unable to eat from the stress and developing stomach ulcers (also likely from the stress). It looks like thousands of dollars poured into a "intermediate habitat" that still failed to help the whales acclimate.

At least they even have an indoor care pool to look after them in! Whale Sanctuary Project doesn't even have an indoor care pool in their building plans. And they want to take on even more potentially vulnerable whales with genetic and health issues (Marineland Canada belugas).

I feel bad for the Beluga Sanctuary staff because it's not their fault that Merlin, a multi million dollar company, set them up for failure for the sake of marketing/jumping on a misinformed bandwagon and getting donations from a misinformed public.

Little Grey and Little White are doing well in their care pools - despite that facility being significantly smaller than their tank in China. And these poor whales are going to continue to be moved back and forth from the sea pen even though they have consistently shown an inability to adapt.

For their sake, I hope they do. Because this "sanctuary" doesn't seem to be willing to just let these whales live where they feel comfortable and safe.

They are going to continue to force them into an environment they are struggling to be in for the sake of appeasing the public, which was sold a lie that their welfare would magically improve in a sea pen.

I always get a good laugh reading comments celebrating an animal being “freed from captivity!” when it moves to sanctuary.

That is still captivity, my guys.

[a-minke-whales-tale]

Wow! Reading about your whale suit project is truly inspiring! I can relate to it in a way, in the sense that I wish so dearly that I could return to the woods. I have mobility issues too that make it impossible for me to do so. I hope so much that you are able to achieve your dream, or at least get to partially return to the water.

Thanks friend, I hope very much I can return to the water. I do think I can. In a way being a whale I am quite lucky. I cannot well walk on the land and walk with forearm crutches, but in the water I could move freely and it is wonderful. I also think in a way, taking a human body and forcing it back into a cetacean shape is easier than for most other animals.

We are immersed in water which does make certain aspects like food intake and air intake difficult, it makes a lot of others things easier. Water has a much higher heat capacity and greater conductivity than air. Wearing a shirt in 16-18 degree air is plenty warm enough, but in 16 degree water you are really recommended a wetsuit. But this means we have much more ability to pad ourselves out with material to form our shape better. We can have 10 or more cm of thickness, and can still function perfectly fine thermally. But also being sea creatures our body and all that extra weight is supported by the silicone. I will be around 300-360kg once fixed and am currently around 90kg (and an 'ideal' weight for me is around 65kg). In the sea it is a lot to move around, but in the end it is mostly just additional inertia. But on land, that amount of weight would be unmanageable.

Additionally, the shape of a cetacean body is actually quite manageable for a human body. I imagine if you have looked at my profile you have seen this image.

This concept drawing what I would look like is drawn around my own body. There are some differences to a standard minke body, but unless you knew a lot about whales, you really might not notice. The main things are a slightly higher fineness ratio, and much larger flippers (and the fact that I will be perpetually the size of a month old calf). But if you are not someone who has a pretty significant interest in marine biology and cetaceans, you probably aren't terribly likely to know what a minke whale is, let along that my flippers are bigger than they should be.

Human bodies conform pretty well to a cetacean shape, we have arms that become flippers, and legs that become our tails. Compared to many other creatures our bodies bend in the right way and we do not have a huge amount of additional movement we could not generate from our own bodies. In addition some of the strongest muscles in our backs and buttocks are used to hold up our torsos, in this configuration instead they become our tail following more or less that same motion fully motile humans use all the time. And indeed there are even sports which functionally do this namely mermaiding and finswimming/freediving.

Compare this to trying to make a canid body (just because they are the most easily abundant and my companion is a canid). Covering yourself in fur would be hot in a lot of climates, your back legs would be much longer than your front legs, your torso would be too short, nothing could control your ears or tail, your body would struggle to support the weight in this hunched over position, and with the shape of the neck some additional headpiece would be needed which would have to be supported by the user (which is true for myself as well, but I can use the water to hold myself and the necks of mysticetes at least are fixed).

The things that were done to us were terrible, but in a way, I am quite lucky as I can really see a path forward for fixing a cetacean body, that would be very difficult with most other animals. And I do really believe that someday, I will swim again, I will swim free, and swim forever.

[local-hellhound-steals-spaghetti]

Let's learn cetacean aggression precursors!

Here's a fun experience I managed to captured when I was doing a sea pen check on scuba while the dominant male and female (J and Layla) pair were getting agitated. Lots of signature whistling, rapid and sharp turning and circling, syncing movements, very minor pec flaring.

Here that honking noise? That's a dolphin cuss word. They started circling very close to me after this so I slowly ascended and left their lagoon. It was hard to determine if it was towards each other or towards me but I didn't want to hang around to find out. I was very new at this point and was still building my relationship

This was a facility that had very lax protocols around scuba (no buddy, crappy gear, dive with the dolphins it's totally fine!!!) - it was very dangerous!

[leggerefiore]

A silly idea for MerMay:

You get gifted a bottle of perfume that contains ambergris (a substance that comes from sperm whales) and decide to try it. How would it affect merfolk?

It would be funny if different species had different reactions from smelling it. For one species, they might think this means you’ve been marked/scented by another merfolk already, but another smell it and think it’s like a distress signal.

And (of course) one species immediately assumes it’s a pheromone signaling fertility, because of course it does.

cw: sexual mentions in Grimsley's section, pokehybrid au, mermen,

characters: Emmet, Volo, Grimsley, Ingo

▽Eelektross Emmet△

○ As Eelektross would likely have to produce a similar substance due to how they can eat many indigestible things, his first thought is that a pokemon has eaten you and, hopefully, vomited you back up. There's likely been horror stories about Wailords accidentally doing so.

○ Expect him to awkwardly sniff you over before pulling you tightly into a hug and looking around as if something were coming to attack you. After he manages to calm down from his momentary panic slightly, Emmet asks if you experienced something life changing with a cetacean recently, obvious distressed still. You turn to him with a confused expression and reply you have not.

○ “Darling, you smell like a digestive fluid,” he whispers like whatever supposedly ate you and somehow erased your memory lingered nearby. You pull away from him with bold laughter, staring at the worried Eelektross hybrid with a hysterical expression. His yellow patches of flesh glowed with light electricity, obviously ready to protect you.

○ “I think that's the best yet worst way someone has ever said my perfume stinks,” you told him. Emmet gasped. He was now pondering why humans would spray digestive fluid on themselves. A defence mechanism? He could not be sure. “... Ah, it's the ambergris in it, isn't it? That's why you think I got swallowed by a Wailord,” you realised.

○ Emmet really wasn't a fan of the perfume, alas. He is still not completely certain it was not some human defence mechanism against marine life.

💫Milotic Volo📜

⭐️ Milotic hybrids also recognise it as a digestive fluid scent, not as they contain it themselves, but as when Wailord drops happen in the deeper parts of the ocean, the scent mixes in with the stench of death. That is why he hops onto a similar concern that you were eaten by a Wailord (or, much to an improbable horror, an Eelektross). Well, until he recalls how the scent would cling to Mistress Cogita, too.

⭐️ He likely tugs you into the water and pulls you under with him, whether you are in swimming attire or not, to wash off the heavy scent from you. The ambergris overpowered whatever scent the perfume was actually meant to be in his senses. You likely are confused by the sudden embrace and dip into the ocean, but let it happen, as Volo wasn't exactly know to be easily evaded.

⭐️ He places you back on the shore and gives you an icy glare, a reminder that he preferred to take the siren route rather than be a beautiful, helpful water visage. “That perfume you wore,” he explained, “Smelled like someone vomited on you.” You gasped. His harsh words stung, and he obviously took note as he reached out to grab you. “It was the ambergris in it, not whatever sugar sweet delicacy or floral and herby notes it claimed it had,” he corrected himself, feeling admittedly a bit guilty about upsetting you.

⭐️ “... You still manage to be the evil fish I first met,” you sighed and leaned against him. Water dripped from you. You pressed your face into his nape as he took to floating in the water with you on top of him, golden hair floating behind him beautifully. “You don't like that scent?” you asked him, unsure as to why he had strong opinions. His face scrunched up as he had to explain his preferred krill had been coated in it for a while due to a picky Eelektross. You laughed.

⭐️ You have to take a bath in the ocean if you wear it around him. He claims it gives him a headache and bad memories associated with a certain bite mark on the upper part of his tail.

♠️Sharpedo Grimsley❤️

♤ Sharpedo hybrids, unfortunately, are the ones who take it as a horny thing. Grimsley approaches the shore where you sat to greet him with an odd smile on his lips. You thought little of it until he grabbed your wrist and pulled you into the water, swimming away from the shore as fast as he could. It was mostly deserted, but there were one or two people who took notice of the “Shark Attack” and freaked out over you being whisked away, assumably to be eaten.

♡ This was not so uncommon for Grimsley, as there were times he grew tired of humans asking him endless questions about his species. That and he enjoyed a good thrill, and there was nothing like having someone try to “rescue” you from a terrifying man-eating hybrid. When you end up far away from the shore, he slows down and leans over you.

◇ “Oh, man, I didn't think normal humans had a mating season,” his voice was teasing, “You must have wanted to gamble whether I would take you on the beach or not.” You gazed at him with a confused expression, causing him to also grow a bit confused. You obviously had come to him reeking of pheromones to mate, right? He didn't understand why you looked so confused. “You are emitting pheromones,” Grimsley told you boldly.

♧ “... My perfume makes Sharpedos horny, got it,” you said to yourself and him, causing him to nearly lose his grasp on you. His mouth fell open, exposing his sharpened teeth for a moment before it closed. You sighed, “Uh, I think unless flowers have this effect on you, it was probably the ambergris, right?” Grimsley felt even more horrified at your words. Had he been aroused by the scent of Wailord digestive fluids? It… It was honestly not the worst thing that had got him hard.

♤ Grimsley demands you wear it whenever you meet for a night together. In fact, he requests the bottle itself for unknown reasons.

bonus joke:

▲Incomplete Eelektross Ingo▼

● You had entered his office to bring the humanoid fish man a surprise lunch. It was admittedly all run-of-the-mill for you two. A kiss and light conversation were expected, but not him suddenly pulling you into his chest while breathing heavily. You could feel even his gills pulsing on his chest. What had brought out this sudden behavioural shift in him?

● You tried to pull away, but he only held you tighter. The scent that came from you was familiar to Ingo. Something that he knew from his time in the water. His brain rushed with terrifying scenarios of a visit to a beach turning into you getting claimed by some horrifying fish hybrid. What if you loved them more than him, as they were proper hybrids unlike him?

● “D-dearest,” he stuttered out, gazing deeply into your eyes, “Did another hybrid claim you?” Your heart had clenched at his pathetic tone before bleeding into complete confusion. Claimed? By another hybrid? You certainly did not recall anything like that, and you told him just that. “You smell of another hybrid!” he cried, burying his face into your shirt. You realised then.

● “Ingo, that's my perfume,” you corrected him, “I think it had ambergris in it.” He turned his head up to you before going back to take another sniff of your shirt. His face was stiffer than it even usually was as the gears turned in his head. Soon, he politely released you and walked back to his desk, where he hung his head in shame. As much as you wanted to giggle at his overreaction, you felt a bit bad seeing him in such a state.

● Ingo politely requests you not wear it around him, too embarrassed about the reaction he had to it. He will never forgive himself for mistaking a digestive fluid for a mating smell.

[tauforged]

finally decided how the “whales” in whalefall are gonna look. giant space-dwelling megafauna of unknown origin, their ‘skin’ is a translucent, jelly-like membrane, allowing them to absorb the interstellar radiation they subsist on directly through the skin, and allowing their skeletons and organs (most of which are vestigial by now) to be seen right through it. with their massive blind eyes visible through closed eyelids, useless vestigial limbs hanging limp as they travel from orbit to orbit, bioluminescent organs shuddering and pulsating within as they convert raw energy into nutrients by a process not yet understood by science, they almost look like enormous, over-developed fetuses as they drift around in space. yet, the name of ‘interstellar whale’, though surely in reference to a passing resemblance to the cetaceans of earth, is also a nod to their most baffling feature — their “song”. it’s not yet known how they produce the incredibly powerful sound waves that are able to travel across the reaches of space, a form of communication between individuals that allows them to keep in touch even across solar systems, but their haunting alien melodies have baffled and bewitched us from the very first day they were discovered.

this, as well as their bizarre appearance combined with their mysterious and seemingly improbable existence makes the “whales” a strong point of fascination for mankind - so much so, that what started off as sporadic scientific research expeditions has long since evolved into entire spacefaring societies focused on tracking and studying these celestial behemoths in an attempt to understand how they manage to live so placidly in the cold vacuum of space.

^ (this was just for my own reference so i could get the tooth structure worked out in my head. their mouths are practically useless now, and they don’t seem to react to their surroundings in any noticeable way - at least, not on a scale that we could comprehend.)

[aromantictendi]

Prodigy Season 2 thoughts:

This took me forever to get up, but overall really loved this season. So glad I managed to get a hold of it in a way that supported the show, hopefully it helps them get another season.

A few specifics:

Likes

I thought Maj'el was a great addition to the main cast. I appreciate with so many major female Vulcan characters in Trek now, they all still have such different personalities.

I loved sailing the protostar ship. One of my favourite Trek tropes is linking space travel with ocean sailing.

On a similar note, the whale navigation scene through the wormhole. Also the whales in general, I love how prodigy has handled cetacean ops in an actual serious way.

Glimpses of the Voyager mirror universe 👀

Great return for Wesley in general. I really like the slight of hand with the rubber tree people. We know Chakotay's connection to them, but Wesley joined the travelers through a connection on Dorvan V which is the same planet Chakotay is most likely from. While Journey's End and the Voyager Rubber Tree people episodes were a bit problematic, I kind of like linking the linking of the Rubber Tree people and the Travelers in Trek lore. (On a similar note thank you for finally giving Chakotay a real life tribe to connect him to.)

I'm slightly obsessed with the Tuvix universe.

Dislikes

Zero's corporeal body arc. I didn't hate it, and it could have been worse, but I always bristle at the idea that being human and experiencing things the way humans do is the objective best way. Even when we're introduced to the Medusans in TOS and Kollos melded with Spock, they loved the various sensations but hated the isolation and loneliness.

Still not finding out Dal's origin story (who made you?). Honestly other than Gwyn, there's still a lot we don't know about most of the character's backgrounds. Please give us more seasons!