Demise of the Atlantic Grey Whale

Informazioni relative al progetto

DAG

ID dell’accordo di sovvenzione: 101025598

DOI

10.3030/101025598

Progetto chiuso

Data della firma CE 12 Marzo 2021

Data di avvio 1 Settembre 2021

Data di completamento 31 Agosto 2023

Finanziato da

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Costo totale

€ 202 158,72

Contributo UE

€ 202 158,72

Coordinato da

NORGES TEKNISK-NATURVITENSKAPELIGE UNIVERSITET NTNU
Norway

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - DAG (Demise of the Atlantic Grey Whale)

Periodo di rendicontazione: 2021-09-01 al 2023-08-31

Sintesi del contesto e degli obiettivi generali del progetto

The grey whale (Eschrichtius robustus) is a baleen whale species currently restricted to the North Pacific. It feeds at high latitudes in summer and normally forages in waters no deeper than 120 metres on a variety of benthic lifeforms. This restricts the species to shallow waters, making grey whales an easy target for whalers. Palaeontological and archaeological evidence has revealed that the species was once also present in the North Atlantic, having migrated from the North Pacific by 50,000 cal BP. The resulting Atlantic Ocean populations were then extirpated in historic times, perhaps around the 13th century AD in the eastern Atlantic and by the 17th/18th century AD in the western Atlantic. Humans have been reliant on marine resources for millennia and might have contributed to this extirpation event. In the past decade several individuals from the North Pacific population have been sighted in the Atlantic, suggesting the species is returning to European waters. Predictive model analysis for the year 2100 confirms that the grey whale habitat might expand into the Atlantic. If the species returns, strong conservation actions will need to be implemented in order to safeguard its recolonization of European waters. Modern marine management strategies are often reliant on data which lacks the long-term perspective that archaeology can contribute. Informing these modern approaches to protecting the grey whale can be achieved by investigating baseline data in prehistoric and historic periods. It was the aim of this project, the Demise of the Atlantic Grey Whale (DAG), to clarify the chronology, causes and implications of the extirpation of the grey whale in Atlantic waters, one of the earliest examples in history of serial depletion of cetaceans, which subsequently unfolded globally over the last centuries.

Lavoro eseguito dall’inizio del progetto fino alla fine del periodo coperto dalla relazione e principali risultati finora ottenuti

The project commenced in September 2021 under supervision of Professor James Barrett. The first step of the project was acquiring the samples necessary to conduct the relevant analyses. I visited several archaeological depots to sample whale bone specimens. Whenever the bones were complete, I performed osteometric analysis on them. This will allow for future comparative research on whale growth, inter-population variability and osteometric taxonomic identification.

A total of 719 probable whale bone samples were collected from the countries of Norway, Sweden, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, Portugal, England, and Wales. A citizen science component was set up as part of which I requested that samples be contributed for the project. In return I shared the eventual results with the contributors and gave a talk about the project to them (see Output 1).

With the bone samples gradually coming in, I began collagen (protein) extraction which facilitated the next steps of the research. The collagen extraction was undertaken at the National Laboratory for Age Determination, Norwegian University of Science and Technology. I was taught how to undertake collagen extraction by Dr Marie-Josée Nadeau and her team.The following step was to take the extracted collagen to the University of Cambridge. Under supervision of Professor Matthew Collins and his team, I was taught how to perform Zooarchaeology by Mass-Spectrometry on the 719 samples. This allowed for taxonomic identification of the specimens; 110 turned out to represent the grey whale, which the project is concerned with. This shows that the grey whale was once widespread, especially targeted and probably abundant in the southern North Sea area. During the project I published two ZooMS results papers (Papers 1 and 2). This work also led to multiple other dissemination opportunities.

We undertook radiocarbon dating as well and these results show the youngest grey whale specimens from European contexts date to the thirteenth century CE. This aligns with when various medieval cultures were actively undertaking whaling in Europe, including the Basques, northern Spaniards, Normans, Flemish, and Scandinavians. We are currently working on a paper highlighting these findings.

Additionally, we are currently conducting stable isotope analysis on the collagen extracted from the whale bone specimens. This will allow us to potentially reconstruct the migration pattern of the grey whale and compare their foraging strategies with that of other large whale taxa identified as part of the project.

Lastly, during a secondment at the University of Copenhagen, under supervision of Dr Morten Tange Olsen, I participated in ancient DNA analysis of 40 identified grey whale specimens. This allowed me to learn the basics of this important methodology. Sequencing of the aDNA is still on-going. The results will reveal the demographic history of the last grey whale individuals present in the eastern North Atlantic before its complete extirpation.

Papers
(1) Hurk, Y. van den, Riddler, I., McGrath, K. and Speller, C., 2023. Active Whaling, Opportunistic Scavenging or Long-Distance Trading: Zooarchaeological, Palaeoproteomic, and Historical Analyses on Whale Exploitation and Bone Working in Anglo-Saxon Hamwic. Medieval Archaeology, 67(1), 137-158. https://doi.org/10.1080/00766097.2023.2204674

(2) Hurk, Y. van den, Sikström, F., Lehouck, A., Martínez Cedeira, J., Moreno, M., Nores, C., Riddler, I., Schmölcke, U., Speller, C., Pis Millán, J.A. Bleasdale, M., Borvon, A., Denham, S.D. Ephrem, B., Fernández-Rodríguez, C., Gibbs, H., Jonsson, L., Meng, S., Monge, R., Nabais, M., Segschneider, M., Vretemark, M., Wickler, S., Collins, M., Nadeau, M-J. and Barrett, J.H. 2023. Looking for a Whale in a Haystack: Utilizing Zooarchaeological Analysis and Collagen Mass-Peptide Fingerprinting to Reconstruct Ancient Whaling and Whale Populations. Royal Society Open Science. https://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.230741

Progressi oltre lo stato dell’arte e potenziale impatto previsto (incluso l’impatto socioeconomico e le implicazioni sociali più ampie del progetto fino ad ora)

With ongoing climate change, the Northwest Passage connecting the North Pacific and the North Atlantic is ice free for extended periods of time, which allows for grey whales to venture into the North Atlantic. In the past decade several individuals from the North Pacific population have been sighted in the Atlantic. This has happened in the Mediterranean in 2010, Namibia in 2013, and again in the Mediterranean in 2021. These sightings might be a sign that a recolonization of the grey whale back into the North Atlantic is at hand.
With the ZooMS, stable isotope, and aDNA results of DAG, an improved understanding of the past range, migration patterns, foraging ecology, and population structure will be accomplished. This information is invaluable to modern conservation strategies protecting grey whales. It may potentially allow for them to reclaim their lost territories in the North Atlantic. As of yet, the grey whale is the only large whale species extirpated from an entire ocean. A successful return of the grey whale to the North Atlantic could send a powerful message to ongoing conservation efforts that with the right dedication we can counter past anthropogenic impact on animals and let them thrive once again.

Identified whale species based on zooarchaeological analysis as part of DAG