How Whales Can Help Humans Live Longer

The storm moved slowly over exceptionally warm waters with temperatures about 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit higher than average, according to the nonprofit group Climate Central. Human-caused climate change leads to warmer waters that can produce heavier rainfall and greater flooding. The warming in the tropics, combined with the warmer ocean temperatures, made Melissa’s top wind speed about 10 mph higher and increased its damage potential by up to 50 percent.

The hurricane stayed offshore of Jamaica for some time. The island’s mountains would usually have broken up the storm but not with this one. Colorado State University hurricane expert, Phil Klotzbach told the Associated Press that “[Melissa’s] been remarkable, just a beast of a storm.” An analysis of Category 5 hurricanes over the past 125 years showed a large increase recently in storms at the top of the scale, including 13 of them in the last ten years and three this year. Pictures from after the storm show severe widespread damage and destruction in the northern Caribbean.

Scientists from the University of Konstanz in Germany showed that heart rates can sync up among people fishing together. The scientists studied a group of fishers in Brazil who collaborate with dolphins. Standing in a line near the shore with nets ready, the people wait to throw out their nets until the dolphins drive the fish toward them. The dolphins dive, and then the fishers toss their nets.

The people must coordinate with each other to respond to the dolphins at just the right moment. The study found that when the fishers were close together, and were working longer with each other, their heart rates were highly synchronous, and that correlation was stronger, especially when they were watching and waiting together. If a fisher acted alone and threw out a net without the others, the synchronization decreased. The authors said that when people work closely together, their bodily rhythms as well as their movements and decisions match; in other words, cooperation is more than skin deep.

Interestingly, the researchers said that the humans’ closeness or interactions with the dolphins had no effect on the fishers. And surprisingly, when the fishers’ heart rates were in sync, they caught fewer fish. The researchers say the explanation could be that a high level of synchronization, including excitement and tension reduces the flexibility required for the group to succeed.

The study was published in Biology Letters.

Prior to the 1990s, the birds were mostly found from the U.S. Southeast to South America. Now, they’ve expanded their range into the Midwest, Appalachia, and up the East Coast into Canada, as winters get warmer. Ranchers who’ve never had to contend with vultures are trying to respond with everything from scarecrows to noise making devices or motion-activated sprinklers. 

In Derry Township, Pennsylvania, where vulture numbers are soaring, a national research study between the USDA and Penn State is launching to investigate methods to manage the birds effectively and humanely. 

Black vultures are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, so if farmers want to kill a bird threatening their livestock, they would need to get a permit, which could be too late to save vulnerable animals. Earlier this year, the Black Vulture Relief Act was introduced in Congress that would remove the permit requirement to take out vultures, but ranchers would have to inform the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of their actions so they can monitor the populations.

Andrew Farnsworth, with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology told the Associated Press that making it easier to kill black vultures may not be a good idea because the birds fill “a super important role” in cleaning up “dead stuff.” According to the National Audubon Society, carcasses not scavenged by vultures decompose slowly and attract carnivores such as coyotes. Increases in populations of other scavengers may pose a greater threat to livestock than the birds. 

Also, black vultures may not be the actual killers but rather show up at the scene of the crime after the fact. Marian Wahl, a graduate student at Purdue University, who in 2021 coordinated a research program to gauge the scale of the problem, said the vultures “do a good job of making themselves look guilty.”

Human and animal DNA get damaged over time, which accelerates aging by impairing cell function and increasing the risk of developing diseases like cancer. However, the researchers discovered a cold-activated protein in bowhead whales that helps repair broken DNA. 

The protein is called CIRBP, and it plays a key role in repairing double-strand breaks in DNA, a type of genetic damage that can cause disease and shorten lifespan in a variety of species, including humans. Although humans have some, bowhead whales have CIRBP in spades.

The team tested adding bowhead CIRBP to human cell cultures and fruit fly cells. In both cases, DNA repair improved, and, in fruit flies, it extended their lifespan. However, the whales live in icy waters, which seems to trigger cells to make more CIRBP protein. The researchers don’t know the exact temperature or level of cold exposure that would be required to ramp up protein production in humans but speculate that things like taking cold showers might help.

Although bowhead whales are vital to humans and their ecosystem, they are threatened by loss of food sources, climate change, vessel strikes, entanglement in fishing gear, ocean noise, offshore oil and gas development, pollution, and predation.

The study was published in the journal Nature.