The seventh volume in the series "Ethology and Behavioral Ecology of Marine Mammals" describes aspects of the often-complex relationship between humans and marine mammals. From a primeval condition of occasional predators, during the last century humans have become a major factor negatively affecting the status of most marine mammals through over-hunting, habitat encroachment and environmental degradation. This has led to the extirpation of many marine mammal populations and even to the extinction of species. However, in parallel to this destructive drive, since antiquity humanity has been influenced by a strong fascination for marine mammals, which contributes today to an increased human appreciation of the natural world admixed with widespread concern for its degrading condition. The special status occupied by marine mammals in human imagination and affection stands in stark contrast with the current predicament of many populations still threatened by the doings of Homo sapiens: a condition emblematic of the relationship of humanity with nature, and key to understanding where humanity is heading.

The Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals, Third Edition covers the ecology, behavior, conservation, evolution, form and function of whales, dolphins, seals, sea lions, manatees, dugongs, otters and polar bears. This edition provides new content on anthropogenic concerns, latest information on emerging threats such as ocean noise, and impacts of climate change. With authors and editors who are world experts, this new edition is a critical resource for all who are interested in marine mammals, especially upper level undergraduate and graduate students, researchers, and managers, and is a top reference for those in related fields, from oceanographers to environmental scientists.

This book concentrates on the marine mammalian group of Odontocetes, the toothed whales, dolphins, and porpoises. In 23 chapters, a total of 40 authors describe general patterns of ethological concepts of odontocetes in their natural environments, with a strong bent towards behavioral ecology. Examples are given of particularly well-studied species and species groups for which enough data exist, especially from the past 15 years. The aim is to give a modern flavor of present knowledge of ethology and behavior of generally large-brained behaviorally flexible mammals that have evolved quite separately from social mammals on land. As well, the plight of populations and species due to humans is described in multiple chapters, with the goal that an understanding of behavior can help to solve or alleviate at least some human-made problems.

Many marine mammals communicate by emitting sounds that pass through water. Such sounds can be received across great distances and can influence the behavior of these undersea creatures. In the past few decades, the oceans have become increasingly noisy, as underwater sounds from propellers, sonars, and other human activities make it difficult for marine mammals to communicate. This book discusses, among many other topics, just how well marine mammals hear, how noisy the oceans have become, and what effects these new sounds have on marine mammals. The baseline of ambient noise, the sounds produced by machines and mammals, the sensitivity of marine mammal hearing, and the reactions of marine mammals are also examined.
An essential addition to any marine biologist's library, Marine Mammals and Noise will be especially appealing to marine mammalogists, researchers, policy makers and regulators, and marine biologists and oceanographers using sound in their research.

This absorbing book is the first comprehensive scientific natural history of a dolphin species ever written. From their research camp at Kealake'akua Bay in Hawaii, the authors followed a population of wild spinner dolphins for more than twenty years. They observed marked animals by ship, by air, from a cliffside observation post, by radiotracking their movements, and by studying the details of their underwater social life with the use of a windowed underwater vessel. Beginning with a description of the spinner dolphin species, including its morphology and systematics, the book examines the ocean environment and organization of dolphin populations and the way this school-based society of mammals uses shorelines for rest and instruction of the young. An analysis of the dolphins' reproductive patterns, which resemble those of other group-dwelling mammals such as certain primates, suggests a fission-fusion society. Vision, vocalization, hearing, breathing, feeding, predation, integration of the school, and school movement are all examined to give the fullest picture yet published of dolphin biological life. One of the most striking features of the species is the length of the period of juvenility and instruction of the young. The authors argue that dolphins may legitimately be called "cultural", and they turn in their conclusion to a comprehensive evolutionary analysis of this marine cultural system with its behavioral flexibility and high levels of cooperation. In a challenging new interpretation of how cultural organisms may evolve, they propose that spinner dolphin society be viewed as a set of nested levels of organization that influence one another by selectional biases. The resultingcooperative patterns support both the sociology and the cultural levels of organization, without being overridden by the supposed imperative of kin selection. Twenty years in the making by a renowned scientist and his associates, this absorbing book is the richest source available of new scientific insights about the lives of wild dolphins and how their societies evolved at sea.