Irrawaddy, there-a-waddy, everywhere a waddy waddy - April 02, 2009
The world’s press is getting very excited by the news that researchers have discovered thousands of a thought-to-be-rare dolphin frolicking in the Bay of Bengal. All is not what it seems however.
The story goes that the Irrawaddy dolphin (Orcaella brevirostris) was thought to be in serious trouble. It is listed on the IUCN’s ‘Red List’ as vulnerable, with several sub-populations deemed to be critically endangered. Now a new press release from the Wildlife Conservation Society says:
WCS researchers have discovered a stronghold for one of the world’s rarest freshwater dolphins, the Irrawaddy, deep in the waterlogged jungles of Bangladesh. The scientists counted nearly 6,000 of the dolphins in the South Asian country’s Sundarbans mangrove forest and the adjacent waters of the Bay of Bengal.
“This discovery gives us great hope that there is a future for Irrawaddy dolphins,” says Brian Smith, study author and researcher at the WCS. “Bangladesh clearly serves as an important sanctuary for Irrawaddy dolphins, and conservation in this region should be a top priority.”
The finding has just been presented to a conference in Hawaii, although it was published last year in Journal of Cetacean Research and Management, says the WCS. Here’s where things get a bit more complicated. As Andrew Revkin at the New York Times notes, this population was discovered back in 2004. It is not “previously unknown”, as one report has it.
The IUCN red list itself says that there are likely to be 5,383 irrawaddy dolphins in the coastal waters of Bangladesh, based on number from Smith et al. 2005. Exactly the same number is listed in Smith’s 2008 Journal of Cetacean Research and Management report (pdf, page 76). The abstract of this research suggests they did not actually count all these dolphins, they estimated the population from those they did see.
Finding new populations of at risk animals is great. Generating new publicity by re-announcing information that has already been largely incorporated into risk assessments is less great.
Image: WCS / Alice Rocco
Comments
As lead author of the study which discovered the population of almost 6,000 Irrawaddy dolphins in Bangladesh and one of the assessors on the IUCN Red Listing of the species, I would like to clarify a few points made in the blog post “Irrawaddy, there-a-waddy, everywhere a waddy waddy.”
First of all, so there are no misimpressions generated from the title, Irrawaddy dolphins are indeed classified in the IUCN Red List as “vulnerable” (see Reeves et al. 2008), which means that the species faces a high risk of extinction in the wild. Also, five subpopulations, in the Mekong, Mahakam and Ayeyarwady Rivers, Songkhla Lake and Malampaya Sound, are classified as “critically endangered.” So while the whimsical nature of the blog title is effective at drawing the readers’ attention, it is important to remember that the species is in urgent need of conservation attention despite the encouraging news of a relatively large population in Bangladesh.
Second, there may be some confusion about the difference between the Red List process and the peer-review process as it applies to scientific journals. The paper cited in the Red List documentation for Irrawaddy dolphins (Smith et al. 2005) is an unpublished report that was presented to the Small Cetacean Sub-committee of the International Whaling Commission (IWC). As such, it did not receive the benefit of a formal peer-review, and unpublished reports like these are typically not allowed to be cited in publications such as Nature. The IUCN Red List does not require documentation used for listing a species or subpopulation to go through an external peer-review because each assessment goes through an internal review conducted by designated evaluators. Also, if anyone disagrees with the classification, criteria used, or the documentation, there is a formal petition process that allows for these to be changed if needed. So the bar is set lower on the types of information used for Red List assessments compared to peer-reviewed journals. The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) demonstrated exceptional responsibility in delaying the announcement of the “discovery” until the results had been published in the Journal of Cetacean Research and Management (which is the peer-reviewed journal of the IWC; see Smith et al. 2008).
Finally, WCS delayed the announcement from the exact date of publication because, from a conservation perspective, it would have been irresponsible to promote the discovery of such a large population without also being able to authoritatively discuss threats to the population. We therefore waited until another peer-reviewed article was also published in the March/April issue of Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems (Smith et al. 2009) that presented the results of previously undocumented threats from declining freshwater flows and sea-level rise. This paper was also referenced in the press release. Another consideration was to time the press release to coincide with the International Conference on Marine Mammal Protected Areas, 29 March – 3 April, Maui, with the intention of promoting the establishment of a protected area network for cetacean diversity in Bangladesh. Surely this is a good thing for conservation.
Harnessing the power of the press to promote the results of credible conservation science is a difficult balancing act. WCS is committed to upholding the integrity of the scientific process while at the same time promoting discoveries that are of conservation interest. The recent likely extinction of the baiji makes this commitment far from academic. Indeed, preventing the extinction of other freshwater-dependent dolphins at similar conservation risk may depend upon it.
Brian D. Smith, Director, Asian Freshwater and Coastal Cetacean Program, Wildlife Conservation Society, NY
References
Reeves, R.R., Jefferson, T.A., Karczmarski, L., Laidre, K., O’Corry-Crowe, G., Rojas-Bracho, L., Secchi, E.R., Slooten, E., Smith, B.D., Wang, J.Y. & Zhou, K. 2008. Orcaella brevirostris. In: IUCN 2008. 2008 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. . Downloaded on 02 April 2009.
Smith, B.D., Ahmed, B, Mansur, R. Tint, T. and Mya, T.T. 2005. New information on the status of finless porpoises Neophocaena phocaenoides and Irrawaddy dolphins Orcaella brevirostris in Bangladesh and Myanmar. Unpublished report submitted to the International Whaling Commission, Scientific Committee Document SC/57/SM4.
Smith, B. D.; Ahmed, B. and Mansur, R. 2008. Species occurrence and distributional ecology of nearshore cetaceans in the Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh, with abundance estimates for Irrawaddy dolphins Orcaella brevirostris and finless porpoises Neophocaena phocaenoides. Journal of Cetacean Research and Management. 10(1):45–58.
Smith, B.D., Braulik, G., Strindberg, S., Mansur, R. Diyan, M.A.A. and Ahmed, B. 2009. Habitat selection of freshwater cetaceans and the potential effects of declining freshwater flows and sea-level rise in waterways of the Sundarbans mangrove forest, Bangladesh. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems. 19(2):209-225.
Posted by: Brian D. Smith | April 4, 2009 02:03 AM
Brian does little to answer the allegation of re-announcing information.
One can only assume he waited for his big press release so he could get his papers published before anyone else started to study these animals or maybe because he is on the IUCN specialist group and a big find of animals may effect his sources of funding.
Trouble with this guy is conservation of species and his ego just don't mix.
Posted by: paige sinclaire | November 10, 2009 04:36 AM