Sea Life

Seal Culling Begins

Today marks the beginning of seal culling season in Namibia. The practice will continue till mid-November, which is when the season ends. While it may seem a gory practice, the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine resources says that this is something that needs to be done. According to them, the culling will help to rebuild the dwindling fish stocks.

The Hake fishing industry hauls in around 140,000 metric tons every year, which represents about 12,000 jobs. According to the Ministry, the seal population which numbers in the 700,000 region is a direct threat to this industry. Roughly 10 percent of that population is targeted to be culled within the next two years. The target in numbers is 6,000 bulls and 80,000 pups. Cows are not considered for culling. The seal products that result from the culling are sold locally and to Asian markets. The seal product industry constitutes about two percent of the GDP, while the fishing industry is around six percent.

Bernhard Esau, Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources, said that reducing the number of seals culled is not an option. He pointed out that a reduction would cause job losses in the fishing industry. However, he was very keen to show the world at large that this was an above board project and that the seals were culled humanely. The pups are clubbed on the head and the bulls are shot. The minister has invited the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and Seal Alert to come with him and observe the process when he visits the site on the 13th of July.

Musk Turtle Breathes Underwater Using Its Tongue

Humans use their tongues for one purpose – and that is to taste. Unlike humans, there is one kind of turtle that uses its tongue for one other purpose than eating. It uses its tongue to breathe underwater.

A new study released recently states that Sternotherus Odoratus also known as the Common Musk Turtle breathes underwater using its tongue. How the Common Musk Turtle breathes underwater has been a much discussed topic amongst scientists. There are other types of turtles that breathe underwater, like the Australian side neck turtle. They however do not use their tongues – instead, they have a special cavity located on their rear ends that extract oxygen from the water they are in.

Egon Heiss, Zoologist, University of Vienna said that they knew the Common Musk Turtle had a particular organ for breathing underwater, but discovering it had been a long drawn out ordeal, and said they had finally discovered it quite by accident.

Incidentally, Common Musk Turtles do not use their tongues to eat. This was noticed by Heiss and his team of scientists while observing a few baby Musk Turtles gather their food. They noted that the turtles did not eat their food on land, and instead pulled it into the water before eating it. This observation made them look even closer at the Common Musk Turtle’s tongue and oral cavity.

Studies showed that the Common Musk Turtle’s tongue was tiny and fairly weak. The surface of the tongue had cells – papillae. These cells help the turtle pull in oxygen from the water.