The next annual meeting of the IAAAM will be held at the University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario on Wednesday April 28 and Thursday April 29, 1971. The executive meeting will be held on Friday April 30, 1971. Dr. Geraci is in charge of the program and local arrangements

In a recent conversation with Dr. Geraci, he indicated the following tentative areas that he hoped would be covered in the scientific sessions: water quality(fresh and marine); fish diseases; marine pharmacology and diseases and nutrition of marine mammals.

Our joint meeting with the AVMA in Las Vegas last June was a great success. At a business meeting after the joint session, Dr. M. Keyes was appointed Chairman of next year’s program which will be held in Detroit in July 1971. Dr. Keyes is looking for speakers or topics, so if you have a paper you would like to present or know of someone who would be willing to participate let him know.

Dr. S.R. Monroe, Jr. asked me to inform you that the World Mariculture Society (WMS) was recently founded and held its first meeting at LSU, Baton Rouge, Louisiana on February 9 & 10, 1970. The second meeting will be held in Houston, Texas in January 1971. The exact time and place to be announced later.

The membership in the WMS consists of veterinarians, marine biologists, fisheries scientists, etc. Any interested veterinarians may join this organization the dues being $10.00 per year. The society is especially trying to reach veterinarians who are engaged in aquatic mammal work, fish and fish diseases, microbiologists and veterinarians engaged in teaching.

The IAAAM has 52 members, 12 of whom are still in arears as far as dues for 1970 are concerned. Please check to see if you have paid yours.

At the risk of boring you, I am presenting the following information from and with the permission of Dr. Ridgway. This is the type of information that people associated with marine animals want most frequently.

Requirements for Porpoises in Captivity

• The water depth for long-term maintenance of Tursiops should be at least 6 feet and preferably 8 feet. I know that porpoises have been kept for years in shallower pools, but I believe that porpoises need the greater depth especially when they sleep. While asleep they usually let the flukes dip down and they rest at a steep angle. The flukes stroke slowly every 30 seconds as the animal lifts itself to the surface to breathe. In shallow tanks larger Tursiops tend to spend more time lying at the surface with the blowhole exposed. This results in air burn. The flukes can also be traumatized by being subjected to slight but reoccuring contact with the tank bottom.
• In our experience water turnover rate should be every 2 hours as a general overall rule (see my chapter in Methods of Animal Experimentation, Vol.III). An absolute minimum figure for water turnover rate can be expressed by the following formula: 4 gal. per min/1000 gals. of tank + 1/2 GPM/100 kg of porpoise. Therefore, if you have a 100,000 gal. tank with 6 or 7 average adult Tursiops, you need 400 gallons per min. + 1/2 X 1000 kg = 500 or 500 gal. per min. equals a total flow of 1900 gal. per min. for a water turnover rate of just under two hours. This same tank with two animals would require a water turnover rate of 3 hours or so.
• In my opinion the minimum tank size for newly acquired Tursiops should be 20 feet in diameter and 6 to 8 feet in depth depending upon the size of animals to be kept there. Trained animals that perform in larger tanks during shows can be kept in more confined quarters. If the animals are to be maintained permanently in one tank the 20 ft. diameter should definitely be a minimum. Since porpoises are gregarious, crowding probably does not become a problem until long after the water turnover requirements have been surpassed. The social mixture of animals is most important. Mature males should not be kept with other males, only with females.
• I am concerned with the number of animals that are exported in very poor physical condition. During capture they receive wounds, cuts and scratches. They are brought into captivity and exposed, very likely for the first time in their lives, to disease producing bacteria, viruses, fungi, etc., and at the same time to the stress of captivity and confined quarters. After a few days they are subjected to additional trauma and stress in shipment. Therefore, many of the exhibitors are back the next season looking for new porpoises to replace the 50 to 100% mortality they had the year before. I suggest that all porpoises leaving Florida be required to have an interstate or international health certificate that reflects an actual examination by a licensed veterinarian. The health certificate should show that the animal has been vaccinated against erysipelas and wormed against Braunina and Annsakis (Thiabendazole). The shipping methods should be standardized also. Many Tursiops receive severe urine burns or wounds that they carry for the rest of their lives.

For those of you who would like to know more about the physiology and anatomy of the dolphin, I suggest that you read Chapter 10 in Methods of Animal Experimentation, Vol. III, Academic Press, 1968. Chapter 9 in the same book will probably be of interest also. Chapter 10 was written by Dr. Ridgway and Chapter 9 by Drs. Klontz and Smith.

Recently I was asked about the biology of King penguins (Aptenodytes patagonica) and not knowing anything but how to identify them I did a little library research and came up with the following information which I am passing on to you. If there are any blatant errors, please let me know.

The King Penguin

The King Penquin, Aptenodytes patagonica, is the second largest flightless aquatic bird of the southern hemisphere, the largest being the Emperor Penguin which is over three feet tall. It is one of the (17-18) species of penguins that exist. The King Penguins are about two-three feet tall. They inhabit the Falkland Islands, the South Georgia Islands, the South Sandwich and the South Orkney Islands. These Islands are East and South of the tip of South America. The King Penguins do not inhibit the Antarctic as do the Emperors, but the somewhat warmer Islands just mentioned.

No one is sure where penguins originated from or whether they have ever flown, although it has been discovered from fossil remains, that a five foot penguin weighing about two hundred and fifty pounds once wandered the Antarctic.

Penguins make wonderful use of their short, blunt wings to maneuver about in the water at up to thirty miles per hour. All species, although their head markings differ, have almost identical plumage, the well-known white-shirt front, and back and wings of rich black or midnight blue. An orange patch on the cheeks of these birds indicates sexual maturity. Younger birds may have yellow or blue-gray patches. This colored pitch does not occur in the Emperor Penguin.

Although the King Penguin may stand as tall as some of the Emperor Penguins, they are only half the weight. Living in less severe climates of the islands north of the Antarctic they do not need the solid, heat-conserving bulk of the Emperor Penguin to survive. This is why it is believed that they could not survive through the rigorous winter and storms of the Antarctic as can the Emperor Penguins. Only two, the Adelie and the over three feet tall Emperor are true dwellers of the Antarctic.

Like Emperor Penguins, King Penguins produce one egg which they balance on their feet and warm with their stomachs (brood pouch). The egg weighs about one pound. It is incubated alternately by both the adults for about fifty-four days. The egg once laid, never touches the ground but rests on the thick webs of the adult's feet. The exchange of the incubating egg is considered to be a very emotional ceremony. The young that is hatched is fed and protected by the adult for about eight-nine months until it is ready to go to sea to fend for itself. King Penguins reach sexual maturity at five years of age. They live for it least twenty years.

Military precision rules a rookery of King Penguins is they incubate their eggs. While brooding, the Kings stand almost exactly at flipper length apart. Except for a few instances, they all stand the same way, in the same stiff upright position. In a huddle penguins pool their body heat when the Antarctic winter deepens. Shoulders pressed tightly together they can withstand severe winds and temperatures.

Trumpeting in the captive King Penguin is not believed to be "posturing" in the sense of displaying before another bird. It is believed to be an individualistic action that is not understood. It is not confined to the courting period as it might be with other species. The crossing of bills is a variation of it and is believed to be sexually related. "Bowing" by the King Penguin is 1 type of greeting (saluting) or may be inquisitiveness. True "bowing" only occurs in the Emperor, King and Gentoo penguins.

Substitute activities by unemployed males may take the form of incubating an addled egg, dead chick or a lump of ice. Pairing behavior and affinity is quite strong with soma individuals.

In the King Penguin the molt directly precedes the pre-egg stage so that the winter stage will extend from the day when duties with the chicks cease and the molt begins. All penguins fatten up before molting. The time between departure of the young and molting by the birds is spent it sea.

They do not mate for life but there is a tendency for mated pairs to remain together for a period of time. Some believe that because the King Penguin is sedentary and because the shores which it inhabits are not ice choked, it may molt at any time, and that therefore phases of the breading cycle are not restricted (have a protracted egg phase). Intermittent breading does not occur between penquins.

Their diet primarily consists of fish, although it is not known whether or not other types of marina life are eaten. The main natural predators of the King Penguin are the Giant Petrels and the Southern Skud (these are large seagull type birds). These predators eat both the eggs and the young birds. The Leopard Seal of the Antarctic waters preys on the adult birds.

If the above information on the King Penguin is not journalistically correct it is my fault.

Since I am not getting any feedback from the membership re: information for the newsletter, the time interval between newsletters will have to increase drastically. Please make an effort.

W. Medway