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---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Debangini Ray <debangini@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, Apr 20, 2023 at 2:11 PM
Subject: Fwd: Did you ever spot a sea serpent? 🐉
To: <meet.yeti@xxxxxxxxx>
Dear Murali,
Could you please share the second issue of NJS with the YETI network?
Thanks :)
________
Hi folks!
Please find the second issue of the Dakshin Marine Flagships newsletter, *Not
Just Soup: shark stories, turtle tales & more*, below. Anyone interested
can subscribe here: https://forms.gle/j6mFWYLeGCECLsn8A and there is an
option to download it as well.
We hope you enjoy it, feel free to leave suggestions or send contributions
to marineflagships@xxxxxxxxxxx.
Warmly,
Debangini
Whether it is our overactive human imagination at work or deep mistrust
towards beings yet unknown to us, we still believe that sea creatures
View this email in your browser
<https://mailchi.mp/449615284b9c/do-fish-like-being-in-schools-13510901?e=e41d18f619>
Download Not Just Soup_Issue 2
<https://dakshin.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u=677915ebb9148461f5173f6ae&id=3aa8a2472b&e=e41d18f619>
Dear Reader,
*“The way of water has no beginning and no end. Our hearts beat in the womb
of the world. Water connects all things, life to death, darkness to light.
The sea gives and the sea takes.”*
I recently had a wonderful cinematic experience in a movie theatre where I
watched *Avatar: The Way of Water*, which is where the above lines are
from. It led me to take a brief dive down memory sea and recall the
wonderful legends and tales I had read as a child, at a time when krakens
and sea serpents slithered into my imagination often. I daresay they
continue being objects of fancy for many kids today.
Whether it is the overactive human imagination at work or our deep mistrust
towards beings yet unknown to us, we still believe that sea creatures that
look straight out of a Jules Verne book exist. If we dive deeper to uncover
the origins of these legends, we may find that two of the largest
invertebrates in the world – the colossal squid and the giant squid, along
with giant oarfish, are amongst the most elusive marine creatures that live
under the sea even today. Maybe these were misidentified as scary sea
monsters in the past when we had very little clue about undersea dwellers.
We will attempt to reintroduce you to some of these creatures through our
newsletter and try to demystify them through the lens of marine science. We
may not share as close a bond with marine creatures today as the reef
people of the Metkayina clan from the fictional world of Pandora
<https://dakshin.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u=677915ebb9148461f5173f6ae&id=eb4506f73b&e=e41d18f619>
(*Avatar*) do with the Tulkun
<https://dakshin.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u=677915ebb9148461f5173f6ae&id=70142c8bb3&e=e41d18f619>*,
but *let us not forget our origins and ties with the sea.
We hope this issue of *Not Just Soup* will hit you like a fresh gush of
sparkling sea waves. Let us know if we have added enough sea salt for your
taste.
*"For when the sea serpent swivels her meandering tail*
*Pearl pink scales shining in the pale moonlight*
*The waves make way for her and so does the whale*
*All in awe of her spellbinding grace and might."*
~Debangini
The Indian Ocean has a great sea snake diversity and one of its most common
inhabitants is the hook-nosed sea snake, also known as the beaked sea
snake. It is a rather large, highly venomous snake that can grow up to
190cm, though the average size is about 100-120cm. The name originates from
its unique snout which has a beak-shaped rostral scale curved downwards.
With a slightly bluish-grey or olive-green upper body covered with several
dark bands and a yellowish-white underside, it has a typically flat and
oar-like tail.
The hook-nosed sea snake is a habitat generalist, so it inhabits mangrove
forests, upstream of rivers, shallow open seas, river mouths, estuaries and
coastal lagoons, where its preferred prey, catfish, occur in high
abundance. You may find it over soft substrates such as mud and sand. This
snake is a frequent by-catch (*which is one of the biggest threats to sea
snakes*) in various fishing gear used along the Indian coasts.
*Sources:*
1. *Rao, C. (2017). How Life Came a Full Circle for the Snakes That Call
the Ocean Their Home. The
Wire.
https://thewire.in/environment/sea-snakes-maharashtra-fish-stock-wildlife-protection-act-great-barrier-reef
<https://dakshin.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u=677915ebb9148461f5173f6ae&id=11aacbe30b&e=e41d18f619>*
2. *Sekar, S. (2019). Threatened and undocumented sea snakes of
India. Mongabay-India.
https://india.mongabay.com/2019/03/threatened-and-undocumented-sea-snakes-of-india/
<https://dakshin.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u=677915ebb9148461f5173f6ae&id=971cfe06f7&e=e41d18f619>*
3. *Hook-Nosed Sea Snake (Hydrophis schistosa). (n.d.). Indian Snakes.
Retrieved April 6, 2023,
from http://indiansnakes.org/snakedetails/hook-nosed%20sea%20snake
<https://dakshin.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u=677915ebb9148461f5173f6ae&id=3d8b61d5ae&e=e41d18f619>*
*Photograph: Chetan Rao*
*Tell us about your current work.*
I'm a PhD student at the Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute
of Science, Bengaluru. I study human-induced behaviour change in coral
reef-associated fish in the Andaman Islands. I also help out with the
Sharks and Rays program at Dakshin Foundation. My interests lie in how
humans and animals interact, and how that shapes ecosystems.
*What has your journey been like till this point? *
My research has led me to various places from forests to shores and under
the sea, in pursuit of butterflies, birds, snakes and fish. It has been a
largely positive and rewarding journey so far. I have been fortunate to
have the freedom and support to pursue questions that deeply interest me
and to work in places with welcoming communities that taught me so much. I
am also grateful for the invaluable friendships I’ve created along this
journey.
*What are some of the challenges you have faced along the way or continue
to face?*
I find the work that I do challenging yet rewarding; from spending long
hours behind the computer screen to waiting patiently for the forest
department to issue permits, the challenges that my colleagues and I face
are quite varied. The work can also make you feel isolated at times but
having the excellent company of fellow scientists and field staff has been
helpful.
*Advice you would want to give to those who want a career in marine
research and conservation? *
Based on my experience so far, I’ve found that conducting ecological
research in India has become more challenging. Nevertheless, I would
encourage anyone interested in marine research to follow their curiosity,
ask many questions and be persistent.
*You can find Shawn @cheesesnakes on Instagram and Twitter. You can visit
his website **shawn.cheesesnakes.net*
<https://dakshin.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u=677915ebb9148461f5173f6ae&id=dcac2afbc2&e=e41d18f619>*
to
know more about his work.*
Every year, sea turtle researchers and the frontline staff in India wait
with bated breath to witness the mass nesting, or *arribada*, where tens of
thousands of olive ridley sea turtles nest synchronously. Female olive
ridleys arrive *en masse* on the beach during this time and scramble away
to find a spot to nest, while teams of researchers, field staff and forest
department personnel gear up to begin the hourly census that continues into
the early hours of the next day. The long, gruelling, sleepless nights of
carrying out the counts are interlaced with the grandeur sight of a beach
packed with turtles glistening with moonlight bouncing off their carapaces.
This year in Rushikulya, one of India's largest mass nesting sites, the
*arribada* began in February-end, lasting over 8 days!
*Photographs: Chandana Pusapati and Bipro Behera*
1. Seahorses are awful swimmers.
2. Giant squids have two giant hearts.
*Artwork: Prabha Mallya*
The bicolor parrotfish *(Cetoscarus bicolor) *is a 90cm long fish that can
be mainly found in the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, the Pacific as well as in
Australian and Indonesian waters. Like all parrotfishes, it shows varying
degrees of habitat preference and utilisation of coral reef habitats. This
species can eat large amounts of algae (relative to their size) from rocks.
Full-grown males (in terminal phase) are blue-green with pink markings.
Females (in initial phase) are dark purplish to reddish brown, peppered
with black spots below, with a large pale yellowish area below the dorsal
fin. Like many other wrasses, the bicolour parrotfish changes sex and
colour during its life cycle.
*Note*: Some authors consider *C.bicolor* to be restricted to the Red Sea
and refer to the Indian Ocean population as *C.ocellatus, *although there
is no formal taxonomic study that separates the two yet.
*Sources:*
1.
*Comeros-Raynal, M. T., Choat, J. H., Polidoro, B. A., Clements, K. D.,
Abesamis, R., Craig, M. T., Lazuardi, M. E., McIlwain, J., Muljadi, A.,
Myers, R. F., Nañola, C. L., Pardede, S., Rocha, L. A., Russell, B.,
Sanciangco, J. C., Stockwell, B., Harwell, H., & Carpenter, K. E. (2012).
The likelihood of extinction of iconic and dominant herbivores and
detritivores of coral reefs: The parrotfishes and surgeonfishes. PLoS
ONE, 7(7). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0039825
<https://dakshin.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u=677915ebb9148461f5173f6ae&id=989299a69c&e=e41d18f619>*
2. *Myers, R. F., Russell, B., Clements, K. D., Choat, J. H., Lazuardi,
M. E., Muljadi, A., Pardede, S., & Rahardjo, P. (2012). Cetoscarus bicolor.
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Retrieved April 4, 2023,
from https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2012.RLTS.T190690A17793737.en
<https://dakshin.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u=677915ebb9148461f5173f6ae&id=7b8c271f41&e=e41d18f619>
*
If you wish to become part of India’s first underwater citizen-science
program, join us!
<https://dakshin.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u=677915ebb9148461f5173f6ae&id=757bcec9a9&e=e41d18f619>
*Artwork: Garima Bora*
Mobula rays are known to leap out of the sea, launch themselves in the air,
flop their fins and splash back into the water. The reason is unknown but
researchers speculate that it is a method of communication, specifically,
either to attract other rays into a mating event or a mass hunting
activity. Watch this BBC video
<https://dakshin.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u=677915ebb9148461f5173f6ae&id=f8d6db5ac2&e=e41d18f619>
to
learn more about these fascinating creatures.
*Artwork: Debangini*
The following is in continuation to the intriguing anecdote from the last
issue, where we read about Satish Bhaskar’s account of the Onges and the
roasted green turtle in an extract from ‘*Letters from the Andamans*’,
Hamadryad:
*“Most of the leatherback nesting takes place on 8 km long west bay which
is about 1½ days walk from the nearest human presence at the lighthouse
construction site which in itself is quite remote. I had travelled 3½ days
without seeing a human footprint. Coming back, I ran into an Onge tribal
camp, occupants missing, and green turtle meat roasted and just begging to
be eaten, which I surreptitiously did (never having eaten turtle before and
being quite famished – had eaten only biscuits and vitamins for the past
four days). I left two biscuit packs for the Onges to salve my conscience,
actually mainly to reduce chances of stopping a spear if found out!”*
*Source: Bhaskar, S. (1979). Letters from the Andamans, Hamadryad 4(2):
3–6.*
“Satish Bhaskar was a pioneer of sea turtle research and surveys in India.
He covered nearly all the beaches of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in one
long visit in 1978-79 and returned many times over the next decade to
survey nesting beaches there. The first to document leatherback nesting in
Great Nicobar and Little Andamans which became index sites for monitoring,
he spent several seasons at South Reef Island to monitor hawksbills. His
five-month stint at Suheli in Lakshadweep to monitor green turtles is
another legendary Satish story. Over the years, he covered almost all the
beaches across India and conducted pioneering surveys in West Papua,
Indonesia.
Satish was my mentor from my undergraduate days in Chennai, but more
importantly, he laid the ground for subsequent generations to conduct sea
turtle research in India.
You can read about him in this special profile
<https://dakshin.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u=677915ebb9148461f5173f6ae&id=438113e5f5&e=e41d18f619>
in
the *Indian Ocean Turtle Newsletter*. We have also compiled excerpts
<https://dakshin.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u=677915ebb9148461f5173f6ae&id=52599afff6&e=e41d18f619>
from
the book, *From Soup to Superstar, *that cover his sea turtle work over two
decades. Check out his list of publications
<https://dakshin.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u=677915ebb9148461f5173f6ae&id=683c0ea11b&e=e41d18f619>
and
a compilation of his work
<https://dakshin.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u=677915ebb9148461f5173f6ae&id=a384011533&e=e41d18f619>.
His articles in Hamadryad and elsewhere can be found in the Sea Turtles of
India
<https://dakshin.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u=677915ebb9148461f5173f6ae&id=b26dc47c1f&e=e41d18f619>
bibliography.
Sadly, Satish Bhaskar passed away on the 22nd of March this year. Let's all
share a moment of appreciation for this amazing man.”
*~ Kartik Shanker*
*The following article written by Kartik Shanker is a dedication to Anne,
an inspiring young marine biologist (featured in our last issue) who
tragically passed away in February.*
"One story captures Anne Theo’s spirit and personality best. On her first
work dive in the Lakshadweep Islands, Anne got separated from her group.
Her fellow researchers and I surfaced after the mandatory search and became
increasingly worried as there was no sign of her. The sea was getting
choppy and we were running out of options. Anne surfaced seconds later,
about 10 m away, looked at us and said ‘Where were *you* guys?’ Anne was
never lost, the rest of the world was.
Anne had not considered in-water research when she began her PhD at the
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. In fact, she was not even a
particularly good swimmer at the time. But once the project was conceived,
she trained herself rapidly in the Institute’s swimming pool and got her
dive certification as well. However, a larger problem loomed. Many marine
biologists she consulted were not enthusiastic about her plan to study
mixed-species groups (MSGs) in reefs- they thought that reef fish MSGs were
too ephemeral and might not be interesting. Anne was undeterred- she spent
her first field season in the Lakshadweep Islands gathering evidence that
MSGs were common, could be videographed and there were a host of
interesting ecological questions that one could address about them. Her
work, which emphasised fundamental ecological and behavioural differences
between shoaling and attendant fish groups, would inform theoretical
frameworks that were developed for a global review.
Anne had a long history of friendships and partnerships in the field. Over
a period of several years, her buddies- on land and in the water- included
researchers from multiple different institutions. More recently, she
mentored junior students doing marine ecology in both analysis and
fieldwork, including identifying surgeonfish and parrotfish species that
only she could tell apart. She was a whiz at R, taught courses and
conducted workshops in statistics and quantitative ecology. She played a
key role in developing and proposing this special issue
<https://dakshin.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u=677915ebb9148461f5173f6ae&id=7ce8039c84&e=e41d18f619>
and edited five of the manuscripts therein.
Anne’s plans for the world were unfettered. She wanted to create a science
cooperative that transcended the politics and pitfalls of academia. She
wanted to end patriarchy and capitalism. Tragically, before she could do
any of those things, Anne passed away on 6 February 2023. She leaves behind
a vast community of close friends, colleagues and family that will miss
both her fierce arguments and easy affection. She is survived by her
husband and fellow ecologist, Guillaume Demare, her brother, Dennis and her
mother, Mary. The lasting impression she made on people and the legacy of
her research will live on..."
*Source: Shanker, K. (2023). Dedication: Anne Heloise Theo (28 August
1985–6 February 2023). Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B:
Biological Sciences, 378(1878), 20230041.
https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2023.0041
<https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2023.0041>*
*A card made by the 5th standard students of Innisfree school, Bengaluru
for the Marine Flagships outreach team, after their session*
*Program Officer Adhith Swaminathan conducting an outreach session for
school kids in the Andamans.*
*Back To School*
Last year, outreach programmes for schools were curated based on long-term
research findings of periodic surveys and annual monitoring programmes in
the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which were conducted by different
organisations starting with Madras Crocodile Bank Trust and Andaman Nicobar
Environment Team, and more recently, Dakshin Foundation and Centre for
Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science. In November 2022, these
programmes were conducted in 16 schools of North & Middle Andaman to engage
and sensitise the local communities, where over 1000 students attended and
learnt about the significance of the sea turtle nesting sites and their
value as an integral part of the island ecosystem.
Marine Flagships Outreach team at Dakshin Foundation conducted an hour-long
interactive session on basic turtle ecology and sea turtle conservation for
fourth and fifth-standard students of Innisfree House School, Bengaluru in
February 2023. It was a productive session and the school expressed an
interest in having more such events with the team in future.
*Frontline Heroes of Andaman and Nicobar Islands! *
*~Adhith Swaminathan*
Dakshin Foundation has been engaging with the forest department in Andaman
and Nicobar Islands since 2018 through capacity-building workshops for the
frontline staff who work on sea turtle programmes that involve the
monitoring of beaches frequented by any of the four nesting species- green,
hawksbill, olive ridley and leatherback, and ensure the safety of the nests
by relocating them to hatcheries.
In November 2022, before the commencement of the turtle nesting season,
multiple workshops were conducted in North and Middle Andaman for personnel
working in Kalipur, Lamia Bay, Padget Island, Elizabeth Bay, Cuthbert Bay
and Havelock Island. These workshops aimed to identify gaps in knowledge
and standardise protocols to improve the existing conservation programmes
across the region and had a specific focus on arribada census techniques,
similar to the protocols followed in Rushikulya, Odisha.
Despite the labour-intensive nature of these programmes, many staff
members, especially in the North and Middle Andaman Islands, frequently
enrol themselves year after year. Many of them have been working on sea
turtle conservation programmes for over two or three decades and have been
integral to their success. In recent years, they have also been
instrumental in discovering a new mass nesting beach in the Middle Andaman
Island, which is the only mass nesting beach in India outside of Odisha.
*Other Updates:*
Listen to an episode from *The Thing About Wildlife podcast
<https://dakshin.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u=677915ebb9148461f5173f6ae&id=2f15c88ffc&e=e41d18f619>,
*featuring
Tanmay, James and Babu from Dakshin Foundation. *[Tanmay Wagh is
the Project Coordinator of the Long Term Ecological Observatories (LTEO)
programme; James Tirkey is the Base Coordinator and a Field Assistant at
Andaman and Nicobar Environment Team (ANET); Babu is the Boat Captain of
the research vessel Khlee, and maintenance-in-charge at ANET**]. *
Check out this breathtaking *photo story
<https://dakshin.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u=677915ebb9148461f5173f6ae&id=766b1d97bf&e=e41d18f619>*
on
the Barren Island by Adhith Swaminathan and Nitya Prakash Mohanty published
in RoundGlass Sustain.
Read
<https://dakshin.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u=677915ebb9148461f5173f6ae&id=e94e2ed092&e=e41d18f619>*this
paper
<https://dakshin.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u=677915ebb9148461f5173f6ae&id=7c41d60bad&e=e41d18f619>*
<https://dakshin.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u=677915ebb9148461f5173f6ae&id=5a1493685a&e=e41d18f619>on
distribution patterns of nearshore aggregations of olive ridley sea turtles
in Rushikulya, Odisha authored by Chetan Rao, Chandana Pusapati,
Muralidharan M, Nupur Kale, Alissa Barnes and Kartik Shanker.
Download The State of the World’s Sea Turtles Report 2023
<https://dakshin.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u=677915ebb9148461f5173f6ae&id=716626dd2a&e=e41d18f619>
*1. Over 500 common species of fish, seaweed, coral and invertebrates
living on reefs around Australia have declined in the past decade,
according to a recent study
<https://dakshin.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u=677915ebb9148461f5173f6ae&id=2fbe8fc849&e=e41d18f619>.*
*2. Special satellite tags have been fitted to olive ridley turtles on the
Tiwi Islands and flatback turtles on the remote North West Crocodile Island
by indigenous sea rangers and scientists to track the turtle movements, for
a better understanding of turtle habitats and behaviour. Read here.
<https://dakshin.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u=677915ebb9148461f5173f6ae&id=4f7c420fbe&e=e41d18f619>*
*3. Researchers have mapped out what might be the world’s largest seagrass
ecosystem using cameras and trackers attached to tiger sharks as part of a
study. Give this fascinating paper
<https://dakshin.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u=677915ebb9148461f5173f6ae&id=1da1f2738a&e=e41d18f619>
a
read.*
*My tryst with olive ridleys at the arribada in Rushikulya, Odisha*
*“Being an island boy, I was fascinated by sea turtles right from
childhood. This year, I got the chance to witness one of the biggest
marvels of nature- an arribada! I wasn’t prepared to see hundreds of
turtles on the same beach. I was speechless, yet there was a big smile on
my face. I spent a whole night observing them- some were digging the sand
to lay eggs, a few were covering their eggs and yet others were waiting for
their turns to dig. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me, and I
am grateful to have experienced it.”*
*~Irfan Ali*
*Answers to Brain Surf: *
*1. True. Seahorses are the slowest-moving of all fish species because they
have an impeccably tiny fin in the middle of their backs which is the only
way they can propel themselves. Even with small pectoral fins that assist
in steering, seahorses are sadly known to be so delicate that they can
become fatally exhausted when waters get rough during storms. 2. False.
Brace yourselves, giant squids have THREE hearts (like all squids)! A
median heart pumps oxygenated blood throughout the body, which it receives
from two smaller ones that pump blood through the gills. *
<https://dakshin.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u=677915ebb9148461f5173f6ae&id=2ab601e564&e=e41d18f619>
Stay updated on the marine world by subscribing to Not Just Soup! You can
also reach out to us at marineflagships@xxxxxxxxxxx.
*Copyright © 2023 Marine Flagships, Dakshin Foundation, All rights
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Marine Flagships | Dakshin Foundation