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By Sherry F. Pruitt

JONESBORO -- Arkansas State University student Shelly Kannada made a whale of an academic presentation last week in San Diego.

Kannada of Newport, Ore., a biology student working toward a master's degree, and Dr. Aldermaro Romero, chairman of the Department of Biological Sciences at ASU, presented academic papers about whales during the 16th Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals.

"One of the hot topics discussed by several speakers was the issue of how many whales were in the North Atlantic before the onset of whaling," Romero said.

Most of the presenters provided genetic information that suggested the whale populations were larger than previously thought, he explained.

"Shelly and I presented a paper based on historical data that gave more precise estimations of the magnitude of those populations, together with precise numbers of whales that have been killed since the 11th century," Romero said. "That created a great deal of interest among the participants because it was the first time that a summary of those figures have been presented before a scientific audience."

In the North Atlantic, 10,000 to 15,000 northern right whales were estimated to have been killed since the 11th century. However, Romero said their research suggests more than 60,000 of the whales have been killed.

Only about 3,000 of the whales are left in the North Atlantic, he added.

Also, it was thought that the number of bowhead whales killed was between 30,000 to 40,000, but the ASU researchers showed that more than 200,000 have been killed by whalers.

The conference was Kannada's first presentation before a large scientific audience.

"She was congratulated by many attendees because of both the content and her delivery," Romero said. "Her presentation took place before 400 scientists from around the world."

For her master's thesis project, Kannada plans to cover whales and dolphins in the fisheries of St. Vincent and Grenadines in the Caribbean Sea.

"We traveled there in July for two weeks and visited whaling sites, interviewed whalers and others involved in whaling, and collected archival records from local libraries and government offices," Kannada said. "We also conducted a preliminary species survey."

Kannada said she plans to reconstruct the history of marine and mammal exploitation and its ecological effects on the marine environment.

Kannada and Romero's academic paper was one of five delivered by ASU students at the conference, Romero noted. The topics of the additional research papers were:

• the analysis of past and present distribution of marine mammals in the Caribbean;

• a study concerning the lack of correlation between marine mammal strandings and geomagnetic anomalies;

• the environmental history of whaling in Bermuda; and

• scientists that struggled for centuries to understand that whales and dolphins needed to be classified in a group separate from fish.

sherry@jonesborosun.com