TAMK
VISION | VALUES | PROFILE | MISSION | STRATEGIC IMPERATIVES | STRATEGIC FOCUS AREAS | TAMPERE3
TAMK – The best professional higher education that Finland offers to the world.
• A sense of community
• Respect for the individual and individual differences
• Sustainable development
• Appreciation of expertise and entrepreneurship
TAMK is a multidisciplinary, international university of applied sciences, which focuses on promoting health and wellbeing, business and technology together with learning and creativity.
“Our strong orientation towards working life ensures the best learning possibilities for our students. Furthermore, we are involved in research, development and innovation which specifically target the development needs of working life.”
The assignment of universities of applied science is to offer higher education for professional expert assignments, based on the needs of the working life and its development. In 2017, TAMK responded to this task, defined in legislation, by ensuring the updating of its teaching and using pedagogic methods which support the learning of practical skills.
One example could be the InnoEvent, where over 700 students from the Tampere3 universities worked for a week on innovation assignments from companies. In addition to the multidisciplinary team and project work, the students practised sales speeches and networking. The winning teams worked on innovations with a fresh take, some of which could be put directly into practice.
The most significant environment to develop our operations has for a few years already been the Tampere3 project. One of its essential objectives is to allow increasingly purposeful and individual competence profiles for students in the form of flexible study paths.
We are creating an expedited one-stop service chain to integrate all levels of development for the surrounding society. The aim is to offer those looking for a development partner the opportunity to be supported by the diverse research, development, and innovation competence of the higher education community.
During 2017, the reform of curricula was started. In its first phase, the various education branches analyse particularly the future competences of their fields. This work has been carried out together with the Tampere3 partners and working life advisory boards. The experience of studying and its significance for the success of the studies has been a central theme in the development.
TAMK’s digital strategy has been carried out since 2014, and its actions have proceeded in all functions. The digital mentor network supporting pedagogic competence, for example, has received good reviews, and it has established a place as a form of staff peer support in planning digital learning and teaching. In 2017, over 10,000 students at TAMK took their exams electronically. Digitalisation was also promoted in student services and education management through introducing mobile applications.
Strategic imperatives
Ensuring lifelong learning skills and competences for future needs
• We are the leading university in Finland creating multi-modal learning environments and flexible learning opportunities.
• We are developing quality and effectiveness in the learning and studying process (student experience).
• We are creating new know-how, and new operational models and culture, to be integrated into our increasingly digital operating environment.
• Our RDI operations are an integral part of teaching and learning.
• Our curricula anticipate the needs of working life and stimulate continuous development.
• We are continuously developing the professional skills and competence of our staff.
• We are extending the reach and improving the effectiveness of our operations as part of the modernization of Tampere’s higher education sector.
The internal development theme in 2017, safety, supported both the working capacity of the staff and the wellbeing of the work community. The application of LEAN thinking helped in the development of processes.
The development of the staff competence continued systematically through supporting digital mentoring, project and RDI operations and organising various substance competence trainings. The teaching staff who participated in the work periods outside TAMK brought new knowledge to their work teams. Updating the pedagogic competence of vocational teachers throughout their careers was raised to a development programme in TAMK as part of a national project.
Together with the universities, we launched the first phase of the Tampere3 curriculum work with an analysis of the new competence requirements of the working life.
We recognised shared competence objectives in the studies of TAMK and the universities. These objectives allow proceeding into cooperation in the implementation of the curricula, and possibly even agreeing on a distribution of work between the new university and TAMK.
TAMK organised several specialisation education programmes subject to a separate fee, such as the Cyber Security education for IT experts. There will be more of this kind of education programmes and paid trainings, which will certify a certain competence, in addition to the ones achieved through master’s or bachelor’s degrees. Education is always an investment in competitiveness by the individual and their employer.
Actively strengthening our financial base
• We target our services and RDI operations to match customer needs. We are expanding our financial base so that at the end of the strategy period a minimum of 20 % of our funding will come from external sources.
• We are in great demand as a partner in RDI collaboration.
Research, development, and innovation operations are more significant to TAMK’s education units than ever before.
We have systematically developed our RDI operations, while the EU’s structural fund period has offered us excellent funding possibilities. These have allowed us to carry out new development projects in various fields of profession. The RDI operations in the education units have been supported with experienced research project experts.
Paid services have increased rapidly, which is a sign of the improved usability of our competence in working life.
Extension studies, in particular, have increased significantly. This has partially been affected by a more systematic customer relationship management. TAMK has also been trusted by the authorities to organise the education they have put out for tenders.
Starting at the beginning of 2018, TAMK received the opportunity to collect donation funds from companies, associations, and private individuals, to be used as a basis for receiving a national counterpart. The fund-raising campaign, with a direct effect on the development of teaching, learning environments, and the RDI operations, will continue throughout 2018.
Incorporating an international dimension in all our operations
• We are continuously expanding our education exports, and becoming more deeply involved in our international networks.
• We shall continue to increase our provision of education in English, develop the internationalization of our education programmes, and raise the international profile of our RDI operations.
• We promote the on-going development of international competences in all our staff.
Carefully prepared and targeted marketing work paid off: regardless of preliminary estimates, the introduction of tuition fees did not reduce the number of foreign degree students.
TAMK reached the predefined monetary target for tuition fees. We also launched new degree programmes in English, including the Master’s Programme in Educational Leadership, which drew extensive interest internationally with its unique content profile.
The charged degree education for those coming from outside the EU/EEA, as well as other international extension education, are TAMK’s ways of serving the internationalisation of working life in the Tampere region.
These forms of education can introduce new expert potential to the reach of the local employers. Both sectors of paid education increased significantly in 2017.
Strategic partnerships with the German Hochschule München and the Dutch Hanze University of Applied Sciences continued. A new strategic partnership was launched with The Hague University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands. This cooperation will emphasise student and staff exchanges, developing joint degrees, and acquiring shared project funding.
We have outstanding expertise in our five chosen focus areas, and collaborate closely with working life in all these fields:
• Energy-efficient and healthy built environments
• Developmental expertise in pedagogy
• New operational models for health care and social
• Entrepreneurship and innovative business
• Intelligent machines and smart devices
Energy-efficient and healthy built environments
Similarly to the past few years, we concentrated on carrying out the large projects started through the Tampere3 cooperation. Research funding has been made increasingly versatile through applying for an increased range of Tekes and EU funding. One example of the Tampere-Hamburg cooperation is the Interreg AREA21 project related to making the energy consumption of a residential building block visible.
Projects completed in 2017 included the much publicised Urban agriculture – Resource efficient business opportunities which included the use of urea in agriculture, and the Hiilinielu Design Studio which created business operations from new bio products and design. The strategic focus area participated in several international conferences brainstorming projects with foreign cooperation higher education institutes such as Hanze, Munich and Ostfalia, as well as connecting with new partners, e.g. The Hague, Hamburg, Chalmers.
Students and professionals in the bioforestry and the creative fields joined forces for the Hiilinielu Design Studio project, which aimed to develop new business operations and jobs around the area of bio products and design. The project was a shared multidisciplinary project by the Tampere and Lahti universities of applied sciences and the Design Forum Finland. It was funded through the EU ESF structural fund.
Projects in progress within the strategic focus area include the EL-TRAN future electricity system funded by the Academy of Finland, the COMBI project on the energy efficiency of public buildings, and Hierakka in Hiedanranta. Cooperation with the City of Tampere continues in the Vuores and Hiedanranta areas, for example. The City also participates in several energy efficiency projects. Intelligent city solutions are sought through the shared 6AIKA projects by six large cities.
In the near future, we will be concentrating on launching the research groups bringing together the strategic focus areas and different fields of education. Of the five research groups within our focus area, the circular economy and resource wisdom group is common to the entire field of technology in TAMK. During 2018, we will participate in the preparation of the EU framework programme together with the international community of universities of applied sciences.
Read more about all of the projects in the strategic focus area through our project search.
Developmental expertise in pedagogy
The project range within this strategic focus area achieved its best result so far. Approximately 50 research and development projects were carried out within the focus area, which is descriptive of the strong pedagogic competence and development intent within TAMK’s vocational teacher education, as well as all of TAMK.
We strengthened our cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Culture, Finnish National Agency for Education, and other education development organisations. We participated in the national teacher education development programme (OPEKE), launched based on a proposal by the teacher education forum appointed by the Ministry of Education and Culture.
With vocational education increasingly transferred to places of work, the students’ study paths are becoming more individualised, and the work of the teacher is reformed. The Parasta osaamista project (Best competence) supports vocational upper secondary schools in finding new models and developing their operations to meet new challenges. Ten organisers of vocational education and all five higher education institutions in vocational teaching participate in the project.
Cooperation in expert networks and projects reached into Europe, where our visibility as a pedagogic developer increased. We conquered new areas and received funding from the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF), for example. In the future, the research group work within the focus area is set to expand significantly, as there will be four research themes: Higher education pedagogy, Upper secondary vocational pedagogy, Learning analytics, and Studying experience. We will be increasingly investing in fixed and continuous cooperation with operators in the education and teaching field both nationally and internationally.
Learn more about all of the projects in the strategic focus area through our project search.
New operational models for health care and social services
The strategic focus area has strengthened TAMK’s visibility outside of TAMK further, and has activated its RDI activities in the strategic competence and focus areas. We have submitted approximately 20 funding applications, many of which resulted in a positive funding decision.
The multidisciplinary research group in this focus area has concentrated on brainstorming and the preparation of funding for RDI key projects and Tampere3 cooperation projects. The RDI funding structure has been successfully made more versatile, and funding is now received from structural funds and Ministries (Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, Ministry of Education and Culture, AMIF), as well as other national research funds. TAMK has also been a partner in the H2020 application.
We have tightened Tampere3 cooperation with the theme Health, where TAMK’s RDI operations have also been promoted. A total of six Tampere3 Health theme seminars were organised in 2017, giving an opportunity for local researchers to network and create shared RDI projects. The focus area is represented in the shared Tampere3 Global Wellbeing research group.
The focus area participated in Tampere3 cooperation to apply for participation in the Academy of Finland flagship programme Globally transferable solutions for health care in aging society. The application was an opening and a tangible example of the extensive shared applications of the universities and their preparation. This time the application did not result in funding, but it did offer valuable experience for the future.
The reform of the research groups within the strategic focus area increases the number and volume of research groups. In addition to the current core research group, six new groups are being launched to support TAMK’s teachers in the increasingly extensive RDI work and to create multidisciplinary RDI key projects within the focus area.
Entrepreneurship and innovative business
One of our essential objectives for 2017 was developing the joint operations of the Y-kampus concept at all Tampere3 universities, as well as entrepreneurship and innovation operations in general. Another significant objective was carrying out successfully demanding shared research projects, such as VALIT and Deeva. We also prepared new multidisciplinary projects.
We have actively formed networks and developed cooperation locally, nationally, as well as internationally with universities and startup communities in Silicon Valley, as well as in Europe. Originally TAMK’s Y-kampus operating model to promote entrepreneurship has been developed further in Tampere3 cooperation, and more emphasis has been placed on the development of service innovations. Applied research teams have also participated actively in the development of local entrepreneurship and entrepreneur competence in the rapidly changing world. Modern sales are a strong part of the teaching, and in 2018, the development of modern sales at companies can also be seen in projects.
The growth of the Y-kampus concept, which started at TAMK’s Proakatemia, continues to be positive. The Y-kampus received a significant acknowledgement as the Federation of Finnish Enterprises and the Rector´s Conference of Finnish Universities of Applied Sciences (Arene) awarded the concept as the best entrepreneurship operation of the universities of applied sciences in 2017.
Innovative operating models related to entrepreneurship make a strong foundation for the operations of the strategic focus area. Based on team entrepreneurship and team coaching, the pedagogic model of Proakatemia continues to draw both national and international interest, which is proven by the hundreds of visitors in Proakatemia in 2017, as well as the several cooperation requests from both education and projects.
In 2018, the networking work will show in new cross-regional and international projects, national and international events, increased innovation operations, and the strengthening of the startup community and development work in the Tampere region. The focus area will particularly invest in the development of growth companies and modern sales. New research groups focusing on multidisciplinary cooperation, the digitalisation of business operations, growing as an entrepreneur, and growth entrepreneurship started their operations in the beginning of 2018.
Intelligent machines and smart devices
During 2017, we brainstormed and submitted several project applications, and launched and carried out several projects for various funding instruments. Our cooperation networks developed actively. The new multidisciplinary research group in the focus area has participated in thework of expert networks, conferences, and events organised by financiers.
We have recognised and developed further the competences supporting the research, development, and innovation operations within the focus area. New technologies, the high quality of carrying out the projects, and encouraging persons outside the research groups to participate in the RDI work have been emphasised. Project operations have been made increasingly visible both within TAMK and outside it, particularly in Tampere3 cooperation.
In 2018, we aim to form new research groups to continue the development of the strategic strengths of the focus area, as well as preparing new projects for various funding instruments extensively, particularly acknowledging Business Finland and international funding sources. Our aim is to utilise our multidisciplinary competence and form both national and international networks in order to strengthen TAMK’s visibility and position as a wanted RDI partner.
Several projects have been prepared and carried out as Tampere3 cooperation projects. In 2018, we will concentrate on deepening the Tampere3 project cooperation and developing applied research in cooperation with the other Tampere3 universities.
The Drone Expert project creates an extensive and multidisciplinary drone competence centre and regional cooperation network in the Tampere region, to support the local SMEs in their competence needs, networking, brainstorming, and innovation related to drone utilisation, as well as the development of new related services and business operations. The project is funded by the European Social Fund.
Tampere3
From the beginning of 2019, Tampere University of Applied Sciences will join forces with the new Tampere University (combining the University of Tampere and Tampere University of Technology). Together these will form a unique multidisciplinary university community in Finland with competitive edges in technology, health and society.
Forming the new Tampere3 community is a challenge, but also an opportunity to strengthen TAMK’s role as a university of applied sciences. Together and through the cooperation of experts in various fields, we can create strong competence centres, combining the working life-based development and education typical to universities of applied sciences with the scientific approach familiar to universities.
TAMK participates in building the Tampere3 community as an individual university of applied science, with its separate statutory assignments and education profiles. Tampere3 will enable an increasingly close and effective cooperation with the universities in terms of both RDI and education. Together, we will be better able to face the challenges brought by changing society and globalisation.
The Tampere3 project is also part of the preparation for the structural development of higher education in Finland in the 2020s. Integrating university and university of applied sciences operations on a practical level, utilising synergies, and sharing strengths will allow making Tampere a leading city of university education, a true alternative to the capital Helsinki, even from a foreign perspective.
Tel. switchboard +358 (3) 245 2111
Fax: +358 (3) 245 2222
Annual Review 2017, pocket guide (pdf)
© Tampere University of Applied Sciences


Lower Fort Garry
Nearby (154)
By kjfitz @ 2010-10-27 10:40:10
@ 50.112176, -96.932006
Winnipeg, Canada (CA)
Lower Fort Garry was built in 1830 by the Hudson's Bay Company on the western bank of the Red River, 20 miles (32 km) north of the original Fort Garry, which is now in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Treaty 1 was signed there.
A devastating flood destroyed Fort Garry in 1826, prompting the company's then governor, George Simpson, to search for a safer location down river. Governor Simpson chose the site of Lower Fort Garry because of its high ground and location below the St. Andrew's Rapids, eliminating the time-consuming portage of the heavy fur packs and York boats. However, the fort never became the administrative centre as it was intended, since most of the population of the area was centred near The Forks and objected to the extra travel required to do business at the new fort. As a result, Upper Fort Garry was rebuilt in stone at The Forks, Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Links: en.wikipedia.org
Buildings > Military - Historic - Forts and Batteries
Manitoba National Historic Sites of Canada by kkeps
Nearby Maps (50 km): 154
Similar Maps: Military - Historic - Forts and Batteries


What is the level of competition in Taiwan?
Manny Ramirez’s Last(?) Fight
Award Winners, Ballparks, Books, CBA, Fantasy/Roto, Free Agents, Games, Hall Of Fame, History, Management, Media, MiLB, MLB Trade Deadline, MLB Waiver Trades, MVP, PEDs, Players, Playoffs, Prospects, Stats, Trade Rumors, World Series
Manny Ramirez will either wind up like Muhammad Ali or George Foreman. With Ali, his final comeback attempt (not counting a last-last, this is definitely the last fight in 1981 in which he lost to journeyman Trevor Berbick) came when he took a ferocious beating from a reluctant, in-his-prime heavyweight champ Larry Holmes. Ali went to great lengths to show what great shape he was in prior to the fight by getting back to the weight he fought at when he defeated Foreman in Zaire. But the fact that he was in shape didn’t matter. Holmes battered him in a perfunctory manner and, by the end, was screaming at the referee to stop the fight before he seriously injured Ali. Ali certainly didn’t need the money nor the increased number of blows to his already damaged brain, but he couldn’t stop himself from seeking the limelight and that one last shot at glory doing the one thing he truly knew how to do better than anyone else.
With Foreman, he was ridiculed when he came out of retirement and is still looked at with a jaundiced gaze by saying God told him to do it. He was overweight and old, but the laughter ended when he showed he still had the punching power and savvy to win fights. He put up a great show when losing to Evander Holyfield and eventually knocked out Michael Moorer to regain the title he’d lost twenty years earlier to Ali in 1974.
With Ramirez, he is returning after a stint hitting against, in boxing parlance, tomato cans in Taiwan. In Taiwan, they’re professionals and they’re talented, but they’re not on a level with a good Double A team in North America. While there, he was hitting subpar pitching in accumulating a .352 average, .422 OBP, and eight homers in 49 games. Abruptly leaving his Taiwanese team—the EDA Rhinos—Ramirez was rumored to be heading to Japan before deciding he’d like another shot with an MLB team. No one seemed interested until the Rangers decided to take a chance on him. The question is, can he help them?
Ramirez hasn’t played with a major league team since he went 1 for 17 for the Rays in 2011 before walking away and subsequently being caught failing another PED test. Amid much fanfare in an otherwise dreary off-season for the Athletics in the winter of 2011-2012, he was signed to a minor league contract. At that point, the A’s were embarking on another rebuilding project and for half the season, played as poorly as predicted before a sudden hot streak vaulted them into the playoffs. No one knew they could achieve those heights when they signed Ramirez and they needed him to sell a few seats with the mere hint of him being in the big leagues as a sideshow. In a best case scenario, he’d attract a few fans and hit well enough for the A’s to trade him to a contender (because not even Billy Beane thought they’d contend in 2012); worst case, they’d release him. He batted .302 in 63 at bats for Triple A Sacramento with no homers. The A’s released him last June and he went to Taiwan.
Now he’s back.
Can the Rangers expect anything from him? Like the decision on the part of the A’s to sign him, this is a test case for team benefit. The Rangers are contenders and need a righty bat. The trade deadline is July 31st and the Rangers are aggressive and active in improving their team. With a month to go before the time comes when they’ll have to make an acquisition along the lines of Mike Morse to boost their righty power, it’s cheaper and zero risk to look at Ramirez and get an answer as to whether he can still hit. Like Ali’s last fight, it could be a “would you stop it already?” moment. Or it could be an out-of-shape former star who shows he can still perform as Foreman did. The odds are it’s the former and even if the evidence is clear that Ramirez needs to hang it up, he probably won’t. Either way, there’s no risk for the Rangers to have a look.
July 4, 2013 Paul Lebowitz Tagged Athletics, Billy Beane, Can Manny help the Rangers?, EDA Rhinos, George Foreman, Larry Holmes, Manny Ramirez, Manny Ramirez Taiwan stats, Michael Moorer, Muhammad Ali, Oakland Athletics, Rangers, Rays, Tampa Bay Rays, Texas Rangers, Trevor Berbick, What is the level of competition in Taiwan?	Leave a comment


The right whales’ darkest summer
By Chris Baraniuk
It has been a catastrophic summer for the endangered North Atlantic right whale and the people dedicated to saving them
The phone was ringing. Anthony François at the Quebec Marine Mammal Emergency Response Network in Tadoussac picked it up. Someone from a coast guard vessel was on the line. He said he was in the Gulf of St Lawrence – a 226,000 sq km expanse of sea in northeastern Canada – and he had just seen a dead whale floating in the water. It was a big one. A blue whale or a fin whale, maybe. After hanging up, Anthony quickly texted his supervisor, Josiane Caban. She said they would need pictures to confirm what sort of whale it was. The next morning photos arrived and it was immediately clear this wasn’t a blue whale or a fin whale at all. It was a different species, also an endangered one – a North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis).
Philip Hamilton watches a mother and calf right whale dive in the Bay of Fundy (Credit: Moira Brown/New England Aquarium)
That was 6 June, earlier this year. No-one who works with marine mammals in Canada or the US realised it at the time, but that whale would be the first of 16 to die in the course of just five months, 12 in Canadian waters, four in US. A possible 17th fatality was also recently reported. It’s a far larger number of recorded deaths in a single year than in any year since the end of whaling in the early 20th Century. For a species that is now believed to consist of fewer than 500 individuals, it has been a catastrophic summer.
One marine biologist told me she was left feeling “numb” by the tally. Another has calculated that the species now faces possible extinction within 25 years.
This is the story of what happened to the whales that died this summer, and how we know. But it is also the story of some of the dedicated human beings who worked tirelessly to understand what went wrong, who attempted to save these creatures from further harm and – in one tragic case – even lost their life while doing so.
When Tonya Wimmer heard about the whale sighted on 6 June, she was determined to get it towed to shore so that veterinarians could perform a necropsy (another name for an autopsy) and, hopefully, find out how it died. As director of the Marine Animal Response Society (MARS), a non-governmental organisation based in Halifax, Canada, the death of a right whale was a number one priority event.
A mother right whale and her calf photographed in 2014 (Credit: Christin Khan, NEFSC/NOAA)
Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) was also involved now. Ideally, a satellite tag would have been attached to the whale’s carcass so that it could be tracked. Thanks to wind and waves, floating bodies of whales can move surprisingly far in a short space of time. But in this case, observers lost sight of the body and bad weather made it difficult to continue searches at one point. The whale never reappeared.
But then, a week and a half later, another report was made by snow crab fishermen working in the Gulf of St Lawrence. They had seen a dead whale, a different individual. And the next day, yet another sighting of a dead whale came through – from DFO officers. There were even more reports of lifeless, floating whales on the 21, 22 and 23 June. All of these animals turned out to be separate individuals. Wimmer looked at the reports in disbelief.
They had already lost sight of one. There was no way she wanted to lose another.
A series of conference calls, a barrage of emails and meetings all culminated in a huge effort, mobilised in a matter of days, to tow three of the carcasses to a beach at a place called Norway on the northwestern point of Prince Edward Island, in the Gulf of St Lawrence. A team of veterinarians and volunteer helpers was assembled. They would soon be crawling over the whale carcasses, taking measurements and gradually slicing pieces of the animal away to try and find out what everyone desperately wanted to know: what was the cause of death?
Émilie Couture was part of the necropsy team investigating the whale's death (Credit: Nigel Quinn)
Among the vets asked to help by Wimmer and her team were Prof Pierre-Yves Daoust, a wildlife pathologist at the University of Prince Edward Island, and Émilie Couture from Granby Zoo in Quebec. On the morning of 29 June, they and about 20 others arrived on a beach of reddish-brown sand where the necropsy would take place. The sky was clear and the sea a brilliant blue, waves roiling at the shoreline. But as they approached via the green grass behind the beach, it was the thing splayed out in front of them that set the tone: the carcass of a 33-year-old North Atlantic right whale, dragged ashore by a digger with caterpillar tracks. 14 metres long, it had been decomposing for more than ten days. There was no time to lose.
Couture, like the others assembled for a long three days’ work, was kitted out. Waterproof clothes. Duct tape sticking sleeves to gloves and trouser legs to rain boots. Apart from being messy, dissecting a decomposing whale is also extraordinarily pungent work. No-one knows how to describe the stench. A bit like rancid fat, says Couture. But more than that – it’s a smell that could only belong to something fleshy and rotten.
“As a pathologist I have a lot of experience with bad smells,” says Daoust. “And I would say a rotten pig has a unique smell, a rotten cow has a unique smell – a rotten whale does too and I cannot describe it.”
The beaches where those first three necropsies were performed are popular holiday spots – Couture sometimes noticed visitors walking by, holding their noses.
To begin with, examining the animal involved looking at its skin – were any scars or lacerations visible that might offer a clue to trauma? Were fins or bits of flesh missing? Then the team would cut into blubber, carving out huge square pieces with knives. The knives would have to be periodically sharpened, so dense was the tissue. And cutting into it with blunt knives is dangerous, explains Couture. If you have to apply too much pressure, the knife can slip and injure someone.
Often a necropsy like this can last longer than a day (Credit: Nigel Quinn)
Measuring the thickness of the blubber is important, to tell how well-fed the animal was before it died. And then the team can start slicing into the flesh, removing it from the skeleton and identifying internal organs. But even that is a challenge. Because a whale carcass is so well-insulated, heat and pressure build up inside the animal as it decomposes. It literally cooks its own organs, turning the insides to a thick, soupy mass. Sometimes, organs that should be there simply can’t be located. Some are pushed out of the whale’s mouth by the rising pressure and disappear at sea. Whatever is left, the pathologists do their best to document.
Finally, it is important to remove the animal’s head and examine the cavity inside – a job that also requires help from the digger. Sometimes a few dislocated internal organs are found in the mouth as well.
Besides all of this hard physical work, the team took many samples to test in the lab for signs of illness, poisoning and genetic markers so that the whales could be identified wherever possible.
Often, a necropsy like this can last much longer than a day. But the team were attempting to do three, with only one day allocated for each. It was gruesome and exhausting.
People were involved in efforts to save the right whales this summer in all kinds of ways. One person who had already been contacted during efforts to identify the dead animals from coast guard and DFO photographs was Philip Hamilton, at the at the New England Aquarium's Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life. The aquarium is an important centre for right whale studies because it keeps a detailed catalogue of individuals, identified by a unique number and, often, a nickname.
Philip Hamilton captains the RV Nereid in the Bay of Fundy during a right whale survey (Credit: Jonathan Cunha/New England Aquarium)
On 1 July, Hamilton arrived in the Gulf of St Lawrence on his research ship, a 15 metre yacht called the Shelagh. That was the same day that the veterinarians and volunteers finished their necropsy of the third whale.
Hamilton had already been sent photographs of the animal to identify it visually. He knew which whale it was and genetic testing would later confirm the ID. This was number 3603 in the aquarium’s catalogue: an 11 year-old female called “Starboard”. The nicknames are often inspired by markings or features on the whale’s body. In this case, Starboard was so-called because she was missing half of her right tail fluke.
Thanks to the aquarium catalogue, we know the identities of Starboard’s father and mother. We know that she had three sisters and a total of eight aunts and uncles. Her maternal grandmother, a whale nicknamed Baldy, had given birth to at least nine calves. She was last sighted in 2016 and is believed to still be alive.
Philip Hamilton steers the Shelagh towards a right whale in the Gulf of St Lawrence while Megan McOsker photographs another for identification studies (Credit: Hansen Johnson/Canadian Whale Institute)
But what had happened to Starboard? A relatively young whale, she had been found by DFO officers on 21 June, floating upside down and wrapped in fishing gear. Entanglement. A few garishly coloured plastic buoys bobbed in the sea by her carcass as a flock of hungry seabirds swarmed around or waddled over her body.
When the pathologists examined her carcass on the shore, they could see clear markings, perhaps made by the ropes that had ensnared her. And her blubber was unusually thin – a sign that she may have starved to death after not being able to eat for weeks or months. “You can imagine from an individual perspective,” says Daoust, “how terrible a death it is.”
These details would later be published, but at the time, Hamilton and his team were just getting settled in to Prince Edward Island, ready to help with further photo identification and observation work on live whales in the area. There was also a job to do in terms of protecting the many whales that were still alive.
Arriving in Northport, Hamilton was joined by Joe Howlett, a lobsterman and whale entanglement responder; right whale conservationist Kelsey Howe; naturalist Megan McOsker; Hansen Johnson and Delphine Durette Morin from Dalhousie University; Pam Emery from the DFO; and two student researchers. They pitched up at the Northport Pier Inn, a seaside venue that looks out over Alberton Harbour, off Prince Edward Island. The Gulf of St Lawrence stretches far to the north.
Philip Hamilton and Pam Emery recording data on the Shelagh in the Gulf of St Lawrence while the late Joe Howlett helps keep a look out (Credit: Delphine Durette Morin/Canadian Whale Institute)
They spent much of their time on the boat, but to do photo ID work and make calls, they needed somewhere with wi-fi. The owners at the Northport Inn didn’t mind the whale scientists camping out in their lounge, working away on their laptops. “They’d even apologize for disturbing us when they had to clean,” remembers Hamilton.
He, Howlett and the others would sit there, poring over images of live whales that had been surveyed – it was important to know which individuals were frequenting the Gulf of St Lawrence since it was obviously a dangerous place for them, and also to get a sense of how much of the population might now be there. As the days unfolded, it became clear that huge numbers were indeed present – at least as many as a hundred were identified over the ensuing months.
As Hamilton knew from having conducted many surveys himself in the past, the species usually focuses its feeding further south, in the Bay of Fundy. Why were so many whales in the Gulf of St Lawrence? And what was harming them?
As Starboard’s necropsy had shown, the presence of fishing gear was clearly a hazard. Over the next few days, Hamilton and his colleagues’ observations from the Shelagh would occasionally be disrupted by news that a live whale nearby had become ensnared. That’s exactly what happened on 9 July. Howlett, a member of the Campobello Whale Rescue Team, was extremely experienced in disentangling whales. He had been doing it for years. The moustachioed 59 year-old had often been pictured in a baseball cap and sunglasses, balancing himself at the side of a boat, engaged in the act of freeing one of these gigantic creatures. The following day he and Hamilton were aboard the Shelagh, heading to the location of the whale in difficulty. In order to reach it in time, they later transferred to a faster DFO boat.
It would take about an hour to come upon the whale. Hamilton remembers standing in the wheelhouse with the captain while Howlett perched himself right at the bow, ready to get to work. He was getting splashed by spray and, although the captain suggested he take shelter for a little while, Howlett declined, says Hamilton. He loved being at sea.
At last, the whale came into view – it was a bad entanglement, a complicated one. Ropes were wrapped around its body about 12 times and one of its flippers seemed to be caught, too. The year before, Howlett had disentangled a whale in the Bay of Fundy in a similar condition – that had taken six hours.
The small team circled the whale on their boat, grabbing video footage with a GoPro that they held underwater at the end of a pole. The pictures revealed more detail about the looping of the ropes around the animal. This individual turned out to be catalogue number 4123 – a six year-old male that had last been sighted the previous August.
Helpfully, it seemed calm and content to remain at the surface. Sometimes right whales are prone to diving when boats come near. But this one gave Howlett a good opportunity to see where one particular rope line was wrapped across its left side, down towards its mouth. Carefully manoeuvring a hooked knife attached to a carbon fibre pole, the lobsterman plucked at the line and soon cut it through. The whale flipped some water into the boat with its tail, but stayed put. Howlett waited and then went in for a second cut but at that point the whale began to sink. Hamilton remembers that he had to pull straight up with the pole, yanking at that rope with the edge of his knife.
“All I saw was a flick of the tail as the whale went down,” says Hamilton. “The dorsal side of the tail flopped into the bow of the boat.” The bow filled with water, the boat itself swayed with the force of the huge animal’s tail connecting with it. And when the tail slid away, the crew saw what had happened. Howlett had been hit.
“I got to him within a second or two,” says Hamilton. He performed CPR on his friend for more than an hour. But when they reached the shore, Howlett was pronounced dead. Transport Canada is currently investigating what happened.
That very day, Doust, Couture, Wimmer and others were on-site at another necropsy – the fifth of the summer. The news reached them. Many of the people working there knew Howlett, had been involved in whale conservation with him. The shock was palpable. Although Daoust and Couture did not know the whale disentangler well, the fact that others present did was obvious. The two vets noticed volunteers stepping aside from their work, filled with grief, wiping tears from their eyes.
Back in Northport, Hamilton tried to gather his thoughts on the Shelagh over the ensuing days.
“It was very comforting to me to be on that boat, sort of seeped in everything Joe because, you know, I have so many memories of him on that boat,” he says. “It was really helpful to see the team that had gone through this.
“Everybody was deeply impacted by Joe’s death and all the events around it.”
Ever since then, right whale disentanglements have been put on hold by the DFO.
Eleven days later, the body of a right whale was stretched out on a beach on Miscou Island, New Brunswick. Pierre-Yves Daoust and the others looked on as Noel Milliea, an elder from the Elsipogtog First Nation aboriginal tribe, said a prayer. In his hands, Milliea held a bald eagle feather and some burning herbs as he performed the rite. To Daoust the smoke smelled pleasant and sweet – like sage or sweet grass, perhaps.
In that moment of pause and silence, as Milliea prayed quietly for the stricken whale, Daoust had a rare chance to stand still and contemplate this animal. This impossibly big animal that was now wrecked and washed up. He thought about what could have happened to it, the power of the moment seeping through him.
After the prayer was over, Milliea explained to the vets and volunteers that, to his people, a dead whale like this is something that brings a message – it says something about what is happening out there, what is happening in the sea. In any case, Daoust knew, the point was that this meant something curiously similar to the elder and to him alike.
As the stillness of the blessing passed, the activity of a necropsy started up once again. It was the team’s sixth. Over the ensuing hours, as Couture worked her way deeper and deeper into the animal with her fellow crew, she found yet more sludge inside the carcass. A thick, very dark brown, putty-like gloop. She and the others had seen it before. They had handled it, walked through it in other whale carcasses that summer, kneeled in it as they worked. Whenever she held it in her hands it felt thick and a bit waxy, Couture thought. But it was somehow crumbly, too. To Daoust it seemed reminiscent of raw blood sausage, or black pudding.
And it was a key bit of evidence. To be exact, the same putty had been found during four previous necropsies. This was whale number 2140 in the New England Aquarium catalogue, a 26 year-old male nicknamed “Peanut” – after a peanut-shaped scar on its back. It was a whale that Philip Hamilton had seen many times in the Bay of Fundy. He had always recognised it quickly.
Right whale (*Eubalaena glacialis*) (Credit: NEFSC/NOAA)
As the vets and volunteers peeled away the layers of Peanut’s body, they found that putty in its chest and covering parts of vertebrae. Elsewhere on Peanut were signs of haemorrhaging. The putty, they were all but certain, was blood – cooked by heat and pressure building up in the decomposing carcass. And the team would ultimately conclude that this whale, like the four others with similar features, had been killed by a ship strike.
Over the next few weeks, more North Atlantic right whale deaths would be reported, bringing the total at the time to 15. Genetic testing eventually confirmed that they were all separate individuals. A final necropsy was performed on 19 September.
Tonya Wimmer at MARS worked closely with Daoust, Couture and others on the 200-page incident report that was later published by the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative, MARS and the DFO on 5 October. It explained the sightings, results of the necropsies and gave detail about shipping and fishing activity in the Gulf of St Lawrence. The report was dedicated to the memory of Joe Howlett.
At the press conference, Daoust, Couture, Wimmer and Matthew Hardy from the DFO’s science branch briefed the media on the findings: the whales’ deaths were the result of human activity. Wimmer said the fate of the species was “in our hands”.
The following month, whale expert Mark Baumgartner from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Massachusetts presented a worrying calculation at a conference on North Atlantic right whales. Given the number now believed to be alive, and the proportion of breeding females, he estimated the entire population could disappear in as little as 23 years if a handful of females continue to die each year.
And Moira Brown at the New England Aquarium and the Canadian Whale Institute told me, “Any cautious optimism we had for the recovery of this population between 1990 and 1999… has all been dashed.”
It’s not known for sure why right whales apparently moved in such large numbers into the Gulf of St Lawrence this year – it certainly seems to have put them at greater risk of trauma and entanglement. The leading theory is that the food they eat, plankton, was uncommonly sparse in the Bay of Fundy. Indeed, a survey of the plankton there in July found that they were not as fat as would be expected. That might have encouraged the whales to feed elsewhere.
Right whale sighted during 2014 survey (Credit: Christin Khan, NEFSC/NOAA)
But as Wimmer said at the press conference, Canadian law gives special protection to endangered species like North Atlantic right whales.
“You can’t harm, harass, disturb or kill those animals anywhere they are found – that is not restricted to their critical habitat, it is anywhere,” she told reporters.
“So the measures very much have to go with the animal – and we have to be adaptive because they change where those areas are.”
There are now discussions with the fishing and shipping industries in the Gulf of St Lawrence about how vessel routes might be altered, or fishing gear updated and monitored. Many are keen, of course, to avoid harming the whales and have responded to the conservationists’ calls for dialogue.
At least one whale researcher who has watched events unfold this summer is optimistic that the Gulf of St Lawrence can adapt. The fisheries are profitable, sizeable businesses in the area, says Michael Moore at WHOI.
“The individuals involved will be motivated and capable of investing in appropriate technology to mitigate the problem,” he says, suggesting, for example, the adoption of crab traps that use fewer ropes linked to marker buoys on the surface.
But there’s no escaping the fact that this summer was terrible for North Atlantic right whales. And in the middle of it all, the loss of Joe Howlett was shocking and heart-breaking.
Howlett’s friend Philip Hamilton remains, like so many others in this field, deeply dedicated to monitoring right whales and improving our understanding of them.
An adult male right whale feeding alongside white-sided dolphins (Credit: NOAA Fisheries/Allison Henry)
On 29 July he was still out on the Shelagh, documenting whales with his team. By then, they were back in the Bay of Fundy. Towards the end of the day, they came across three whales lolling at the water’s surface. They were feeding, which was unusual, thought Hamilton. He knew that right whales more often dive to feed on the bottom. He piloted the boat closer so his crewmates could take clearer pictures. He didn’t have a chance to peer at the whales through his binoculars then, but when he saw the photographs later, he was taken aback.
One of them was 4123, the whale that had been disentangled by Joe Howlett on 10 July. There it had been, 19 days later, more or less oblivious to the people sailing around it.
Hamilton stared at the images on his computer. They showed the whale’s head just breaching the placid surface.
“That was just a powerful feeling. I can’t describe what it was,” he says.
The moment confused him, he admits. He says it is rare that he finds it hard to put feelings into words, but that one still gives him pause today. “It was just big,” he says, recollecting. “It felt big.”
Of all the whales Hamilton observed in the Gulf of St Lawrence that summer, 4123 was the only one he saw again later in the Bay of Fundy. Calmly swimming there, the gentle water rippling round its head.
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Featured image by Christin Khan, NEFSC/NOAA
Hans Zimmer for Blue Planet II
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CHROMOSOME SCANNING
New scientific developments allow for whole genome sequencing in IVF embryos
For many years fertility clinics have been able to detect chromosomal abnormalities through pre-implantation genetic diagnostics (PGD). This genetic screening is used to identify any genetic mutations that have been passed on to in vitro fertilised (IVF) embryos from the parents. However, new breakthrough research is bringing chromosome scanning to a whole new level.
Detecting de novo mutations in IVF embryo genetic codes
In a paper recently publish in Genome Research, scientists from the largest American genetic laboratory specialising in PGD (Reprogenetics) have confirmed that they now have the technology to detect de novo single base mutations in embryos following IVF.
Reprogenetic scientists collaborated with other genetic specialists from the New York University Fertility Centre and China-based Complete Genetics in this pioneering research.
De novo mutations are those genetic anomalies that arise spontaneously in the sperm or egg and are not genetically transferred from either parent.
It’s these types of mutations that scientists believe are responsible for a large percentage of severe intellectual disabilities, epileptic encephalopathies, autism, and other congenital disorders.
Analysing embryo cell biopsies – new research techniques
The whole genome sequencing technique developed to determine de novo mutations requires biopsies of the IVF embryos. Using a five-day old embryo at the blastocyst stage, scientists take five to ten cell biopsies to analyse.
Since this is a very small number, the extracted DNA must be amplified. This involves biochemical technology using a polymerase chain reaction to generate thousands of copies of the DNA sequence.
The problem with DNA amplification is that it introduces thousands of errors. These errors can be wrongly interpreted as de novo mutations. However, this new research by Peters and colleagues utilises a new technique called Long Fragment Read (LFR) technology.
This technique reduces the error rate by around 100 fold compared with previous studies. LFR enables researchers to allocate DNA fragments to the paternal or maternal genome utilising DNA barcodes.
“Because each individual carries on average less than 100 de novo mutations, being able to detect and assign parent of origin for these mutations, which are the cause of many diseases, required this extremely low error rate,” explains researchers.
What the researchers found
In this study comparing two embryos from the same couple, Peters and colleagues couldn’t find any de nova mutations in one embryo. However, the protein-coding regions of the genome in the other embryo exhibited two mutations in the SLC26A10 and ZNF266 genes.
This highlighted potentially damaging de novo mutations, with 82% of all changes detected in the IVF embryos. Never before have scientists been able to identify the vast majority of single base de novo mutations using a PGD test.
The researchers admit that “the biggest hurdle now is one of how to analyze the medical impact of detected mutations and make decisions based on those results.” The actual health consequences of defective de novo mutations are unclear and this requires further research and analysis.
In conclusion, Peter and colleagues suggest that their research results may pave the way for better detecting potential harmful diseases in IVF babies:
“Whole-genome sequencing using barcoded DNA could be used in the future as part of the pre-implantation genetic diagnosis process to maximize comprehensiveness in detecting disease-causing mutations and reduce the incidence of genetic diseases.”
Undoubtedly this is exciting new research into IVF embryo genetic code and it opens avenues for couples undergoing IVF treatment to select the healthiest possible embryo. To some extent this option is already available with the ability to identify chromosomal anomalies genetically acquired from the parents.
However, this new study may take this screening to a whole new level. In the future, parents of IVF babies may choose to only use embryos that have been tested and cleared of de novo mutations, thus reducing the risk of various genetic diseases. Yet, ethically and morally, these new developments open a whole new area of debate.
In the meantime we can expect to see more research of this nature, as scientists work to further unravel genetic codes and how they impact human development.