Sea otters (Enhydra lutris) were once distributed throughout the North Pacific Rim from the Kuril Islands to Baja California, with estimates of the worldwide population between 150,000-300,000 individuals (Marine Mammal Commission 1992; see Anderson et al., this issue). Fur harvesting during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries nearly exterminated the species, and by the early 1900s the tota...

Marine animals and plants such as sponges, sea squirts, corals, worms and algae host diverse and abundant symbiotic microorganisms. Marine microbial symbionts are possible the true producers or take part in the biosynthesis of some bioactive marine natural products isolated from the marine organism hosts. Investigation of the pharmaceutical metabolites may reveal the biosynthesis mechanisms of ...

The Kunitz-type protease inhibitors are the best-characterized family of serine protease inhibitors, probably due to their abundance in several organisms. These inhibitors consist of a chain of ~60 amino acid residues stabilized by three disulfide bridges, and was first observed in the bovine pancreatic trypsin inhibitor (BPTI)-like protease inhibitors, which strongly inhibit trypsin and chymot...

1. For air-breathing animals in aquatic environments, foraging behaviours are often constrained by physiological capability. The development of oxygen stores and the rate at which these stores are used determine juvenile diving and foraging potential. 2. We examined the ontogeny of dive physiology in the threatened Australian sea lion Neophoca cinerea. Australian sea lions exploit benthic habit...

This ethnographic study explores and compares the relationships that locals in Rossfjord, North Norway, have to oystercatcher sea-going Arctic char respectively. Both these animals are highly valued locally, while valuations at first look very different. The is protected by building bin-cases for its nesting, killed eaten. Discussing against value theory of David Graeber, I argue they both conn...

Meningoencephalitis caused by aberrant trematode migration is described in two California sea lions (Zalophus californianus) admitted to a rehabilitation hospital between May and August 2001. Both animals displayed seizure activity and were euthanized due to poor response to therapy. Gross abnormal findings included liver flukes (Zalophotrema hepaticum) in the bile ducts and areas of swelling a...

Twenty-five species of cetaceans have been reported throughout the Mediterranean Sea, eight them are commonly distributed in whole basin and regularly found beached or adrift sea. Stranded animals frequently poor conservation status, preventing reliable identification; identification is thus often based solely on morphological features. Therewith, molecular tools especially useful to provide ta...

Three Steller sea lions Eumetopias jubatus were trained to participate in free-swimming, open-ocean experiments designed to determine if activity can be used to estimate the energetic cost of finding prey at depth. Sea lions were trained to dive to fixed depths of 10 to 50 m, and to re-surface inside a floating dome to measure energy expenditure via gas exchange. A 3-axis accelerometer was atta...

1. The electrolyte composition, the pH, and freezing points of the fluids of several invertebrates and one primitive chordate are reported. 2. Fluids of the worms, echinoderms, and the clam Venus were isotonic with sea water; fluids of the Arthropoda were hypertonic to sea water. 3. The pH of all fluids was below that of sea water. In the Arthropoda and Myxine less individual variation in pH ap...