evolution: symbiosis with dolphin and man (Introduction)

by David Turell , Monday, June 12, 2023, 21:14 (319 days ago) @ David Turell

Fishing together they both benefit:

https://today.oregonstate.edu/news/fishing-synchrony-brings-mutual-benefits-dolphins-an...

"By working together, dolphins and net-casting fishers in Brazil each catch more fish, a rare example of an interaction by two top predators that is beneficial to both parties, researchers have concluded following 15 years of study of the practice.

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“Using drones and underwater imaging, we could observe the behaviors of fishers and dolphins with unprecedented detail and found that they catch more fish by working in synchrony,” said Cantor, an assistant professor in OSU’s College of Agricultural Sciences. “This shows that this is a mutually beneficial interaction between the humans and the dolphins.”

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"The practice is considered a cultural tradition in the city of Laguna on Brazil’s southern coast, where it occurred for more than 140 years and has been passed down through generations of fishers and dolphins. The cooperative fishing relationship is specific to this population of dolphins and is not a genetic trait in the animals, Cantor said.

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“'From the fishers’ perspective, this practice is part of the culture of the community in all kinds of ways,” Cantor said. “They acquire skills passed down from other fishers and knowledge is spread through social learning. They also feel connected to this place and have a sense of belonging to the community.”

"Predictive models run as part of the study show that the future of the practice could be threatened if populations of mullet – the type of fish both dolphins and people are seeking – continue to decline, or future generations of fishers lose interest in learning the art of this unique fishing practice.

“'The practice is unlikely to continue if either the dolphins or the fishers no longer benefit from it,” said Farine.

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"To better understand this cultural tradition and measure its short- and long-term consequences for both fishers and dolphins, the researchers combined drones, hydrophones and underwater cameras to capture the mechanics of the partnership, conducted long-term demographic surveys for dolphins and interviewed and observed the fishers.

"They found that foraging synchrony between dolphins and fishers substantially increases the probability of catching fish and the number of fish caught. This benefit then supports the dolphins’ survival – dolphins who engage in cooperative fishing in this area have a 13% increase in survival rates – and the socioeconomic wellbeing of the fishers. They also found that the fishers’ understanding of the fishing tradition matched the evidence produced through scientific tools and methods.

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“'We don’t know what is going to happen in the future, but our best guess, using our best data and best models, is that if things keep going the way they are right now, there will be a time when the interaction will no longer be of interest by at least one of the predators – the dolphins or the fishers,” Daura-Jorge said.

Comment: this is a learned activity for both species, which means the last paragraph is prophetic. How does it start? The fisherman is attracting fish and that gets the dolphin's attention. The rest is obvious