Bernd Würsig

Bernd Gerhard Würsig (born 9 November 1948 in Barsinghausen, Germany)[1] is an educator and researcher who works mainly on aspects of behavior and behavioral ecology of whales and dolphins.[2] Much of his early work was done in close collaboration with his wife Melany Ann Würsig (born Carballeira),[2] and they have published numerous manuscripts and books together.[1] He is now Professor Emeritus at Texas A&M University, teaching only occasionally but still involved with graduate student and other research. He is especially active with problems and potential solutions concerning Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins, Sousa chinensis, in and surrounding waters of Hong Kong.

Bernd Würsig
Bernd Würsig in his home near Houston, TX (photo by Sylvia Osterrieder, 2008).
Born (1948-11-09) November 9, 1948
Barsinghausen, Germany
NationalityGerman/U.S.
Alma materStony Brook University
Known forCetacean photo-identification
Marine mammal theodolite tracking
Dolphin behavioral studies
Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals
AwardsSenior Fulbright Fellow
National Geographic Society Chairman's Award
Life Time Achievement: American Cetacean Society
Scientific career
FieldsMarine mammal behavioral ecologist
InstitutionsTexas A&M University at Galveston
Doctoral advisorsCharles Walcott and George C. Williams

Early Career and Education

Bernd Würsig is the youngest of three sons of Gerhard and Charlotte Würsig,[1] Silesian refugees who moved to (then) West Germany after the 2nd World War, and to the United States under a refugee family visa in 1956. They settled in Ohio, and Würsig became interested as a boy in marine mammals after reading books by the Austrian explorers Hans Hass and Lotte Hass, French Jacques Cousteau, and American John Cunningham Lilly.[3] He went to Ohio State University, and received a Bachelor of Science degree in Zoology (minor in Germanic Literature) in 1971. Würsig went to Stony Brook University (then the State University of New York at Stony Brook), 1971-1978, in an interdisciplinary Ph.D. program with advisors in the Departments of Marine Science, Ecology and Evolution, and Neurobiology and Behavior. His advisors in the latter two, George Williams in Ecology and Evolution and Charles Walcott in Neurobiology and Behavior, had a strong influence on Würsig’s career, as the former imbued him with a sense of the wonders of animal social/sexual strategies, and the latter with a lifelong appreciation for how to think about animal capabilities, relative to our own capabilities of observation with basic tools such as binoculars to sophisticated radio, theodolite, and other remote sensing techniques. Würsig's field advisor Roger Payne, the discoverer of humpback whale song and long-range communication in fin and blue whales, was his mentor during field work on dolphins in coastal Patagonia, Argentina.[2] Würsig also worked with Kenneth S. Norris,[4] University of California at Santa Cruz, 1978-1981, as a National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation post-doctoral fellow, and then became assistant professor at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, central California, where he went through the professor ranks in the 1980s, becoming full professor in spring 1989. That year, he and Melany and their two children Paul and Kim moved to Texas A&M University, where he started the Marine Mammal Research Program (now Marine Mammal Behavioral Ecology Group).[2]

Teaching

Until Spring 2018, Würsig taught undergraduate and graduate courses in aspects of marine mammalogy, specializing in behavior and behavioral ecology. He has published widely in the popular literature as part of teaching endeavors, such as for the journals Natural History and Scientific American, and he has been advisor to numerous movies made for television, as well as the IMAX movie “Dolphins” (2000) that was nominated for an Academy Award, Best Documentary Short Subject.[2] He formerly led field courses on marine bird and mammal biology in Argentina, Mexico, Spain, China, New Zealand, Greece, Alaska, and elsewhere, but as Professor Emeritus does so only occasionally.

Research

Most of Würsig’s research, while focused generally on social, sexual, calf rearing, and foraging strategies, has been related to human use of the marine environment, as well as tucuxi and boto dolphins of the Amazon and the now believed to be extinct baiji of the Yangtze River. He may be the only researcher to have worked with both the baiji and the presently highly endangered vaquita, or Gulf of California harbor porpoise of the northern Gulf of California, Mexico. Besides working with river dolphins in Peru and China, Würsig has worked with oceanic whales in Argentina, far east Russia, and the Arctic; and a host of delphinids from the Bahamas[4] to Patagonia Argentina,[5] from north-central California to Hong Kong and South Island New Zealand.[2] A summary of his research life, especially as related to social strategies, is presented by Grady (2003).[3] Much of his work has been collaborative, and he has published with students and colleagues on issues of multi-species interactions among pinnipeds and cetaceans, marine mammals and marine birds, and noise pollution and mitigative effects. His present work is with Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins in Hong Kong, dusky dolphins on the South Island of New Zealand, and western gray whales of far east Russia, all collaboratively with graduate students.

Bernd Würsig and his wife Melany Würsig first described the lives of dusky dolphins, with day/night, seasonal, and overall habitat use patterns.[6] They then went on to describe foraging strategies of dusky dolphins that herd anchovy and communicate with each other within and between groups,[7] with an important communication mode apparently mediated by leaping.[2][8]

Bernd and Melany Würsig also developed detailed non-invasive photographic recognition of dolphins,[4] a technique now used by hundreds of researchers worldwide,[9] and discovered that common bottlenose dolphins, have an “open” social system of ever-changing affiliations of individuals in groups and subgroups,[10] a now common-accepted concept for many species and populations.

Würsig also accepted two ideas of the great biologist Roger Payne, his field mentor during Ph.D. work, and expanded these throughout much of his own research. One was the development of theodolite tracking of near-shore cetaceans and boats;[4][11] the other was identification photos and behavioral descriptions of animals from circling aircraft,[9] with which much behavioral description of bowhead whales, was facilitated by Würsig in the U.S. and Canadian Arctic.[12] This work led to detailed descriptions of surface foraging and social behavior, as well as the fact that bowhead whales at times feed on bottom-dwelling organisms.[13]

Würsig and several colleagues developed and tested a bubble curtain system to reduce underwater industrial noises,[2][14] and this technique has more recently received much engineering[15] and environmental[16] attention.

Major Publications

Würsig has published about 200 peer review manuscripts, but the most important are probably those that first described results of individual recognition of dolphins by dorsal fin markings,[17][18] theodolite tracking,[19][20] and the development of a bubble curtain system to lower the intensity of stationary underwater industrial noises.[14] Würsig co-wrote or co-edited books on the biology of spinner dolphins,[21] marine mammals of the Gulf of Mexico,[22] an encyclopedia of marine mammals,[23][24][25] biology of dusky dolphins,[26] and a “coffee table” illustrated National Geographic book on whales and dolphins.[27] He has written much on behavior and behavioral ecology of cetaceans, with a 1989 summary paper in the journal Science, and popular publications in Scientific American, 1979, 1988. He recently co-published a monograph on social ecology of delphinids, with Shannon Gowans and Leszek Karczmarski.[28] Würsig and the marine mammal program he founded are mentioned in a book on Texas A&M at Galveston.[29] He more recently published an updated monograph on the marine mammals of the Gulf of Mexico.[30] Würsig is presently series editor for books by Springer Nature, Heidelberg, on the ethology and behavioral ecology of 1) odontocetes, 2) mysticetes, 3) sea otters and polar bear, 4) eared seals, 5) true (or "earless") seals, and 6) sirens, or manatees and the dugong. The first book is in press as of April 2019,[31] and others are to follow through 2023.

Honors and awards
  • 1980 Elected Fellow of Research, Explorer's Club
  • 1986 Dean's Award for Exemplary Teaching, San José State University of California
  • 1991 Alban Heiser Award for Conservation Activities and Education, the Zoological Society of Houston
  • 1991-1993 Society for Marine Mammalogy, Elected President
  • 1998 The Chairman’s Award, Committee for Research and Exploration of the National Geographic Society[29]
  • 2001 Academy Award Nomination, Best Science Movie: IMAX movie "Dolphins" (Würsig was senior science advisor)
  • 2001-2002 Senior Fulbright Fellow, New Zealand
  • 2006 Awarded Regents Professorship
  • 2008 Texas A&M University Former Students’ Award – Excellence in Graduate Mentoring
  • 2010 Minnie Piper Professor of 2010, for Teaching and Education
  • 2012 George Mitchell Chair in Sustainable Fisheries
  • 2013 Designated University Distinguished Professor
  • 2015 Texas A&M University Former Student's Award - Excellence in Teaching
  • 2016 Elected University Distinguished Professor Emeritus
  • 2018 American Cetacean Society's John E. Heyning Life Time Achievement Award in Marine Mammal Science
  • 2018 Festschrift in Honor of Bernd Würsig, Aquatic Mammals Vol. 44(6):587-768.
  • 2019 Nominated Honorary Life Member of the Society for Marine Mammalogy

References
  1. "Bernd Gerhard Würsig". Marqui's Who's Who in the World. 2012. 29th Edition.
  2. Cahill T. 2000. Dolphins. National Geographic Society, Washington, DC. 216 pp.
  3. Grady D. 2003. More Grady’s People. Pp. 157-170 “U.S. dolphin professor who loves Kaikoura”. Nikau Press, Nelson, New Zealand.
  4. Norris KS. 1994. Introduction. Pp. 1-13 in Norris KS, Würsig B, Wells RS, Würsig M, eds. The Hawaiian Spinner Dolphin. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA.
  5. Lichter AA. 1992. Tracks in the Sand, Shadows on the Sea: Marine Mammals of Argentina and Antarctica. Ediciones Terra Nova, Buenos Aires. 287 pp.
  6. Evans PGH. 1987. The Natural History of Whales and Dolphins. Pp. 177-178. Facts On File Publications, NY.
  7. Griffin DR. 1992. Animal Minds. P. 61. University of Chicago University Press, Chicago, IL.
  8. Connor RC, Peterson DM. 1994. The Lives of Whales and Dolphins. P. 39. Henry Holt and Co, NY.
  9. Samuels A, Tyack PL. 2000. Flukeprints: A history of studying cetacean societies. Pp. 36-37 In: Cetacean Studies: Field Studies of Dolphins and Whales. J Mann, RC Connor, PL Tyack, H Whitehead (eds). University of Chicago Press, Chicago IL.
  10. Gaskin D.E. 1982. The Ecology of Whales and Dolphins, Pp. 128-129. Heinemann Press, London UK.
  11. Gailey G, Ortega-Ortiz JG. 2002. A computer-based system for cetacean theodolite tracking. Journal of Cetacean Research and Management 4(2):213-218.
  12. Burns JJ, Montague JJ, Cowles CJ. 1993. The Bowhead Whale. Society for Marine Mammalogy Special Publication, Allen Press, Lawrence KS.
  13. Wells RS, Boness DJ, Rathbun GB. 1999. Behavior. Pp. 356-357 In: Biology of Marine Mammals. Reynolds JE III, SA Rommel (eds). Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC.
  14. Würsig B, Greene CR, Jefferson TA. 2000. Development of an air bubble curtain to reduce underwater noise of percussive piling. Marine Environmental Research 49:79–93.
  15. Spence J, Fischer R, Bahtiarian M, Boroditsky L, Jones N, Dempsey R. 2007. Review of existing and future potential treatments for reducing underwater sound from oil and gas industry activities. Noise Control Engineering Report 07-001, 185 pp. http://www.soundandmarinelife.org/Site/Products/NCE07-001_TreatmentsForUnderwaterSoundFromOil.pdf%5B%5D
  16. Reyff JA. 2009. Reducing underwater sounds with air bubble curtains: Protecting fish and marine mammals from pile-driving noise. Transportation Research news, 262, May–June, pp. 31-33. http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/trnews/trnews262rpo.pdf
  17. Würsig B, Würsig M. 1977. The photographic determination of group size, composition and stability of coastal porpoises, Tursiops truncatus. Science 198:755–756.
  18. Würsig B. 1978. Occurrence and group organization of Atlantic bottlenose porpoises (Tursiops truncatus) in an Argentine Bay. Woods Hole Biological Bulletin 154:348–359.
  19. Würsig B., Würsig M. 1979. Behavior and ecology of the bottlenose dolphin, Tursiops truncatus, in the South Atlantic. U.S. Fishery Bulletin 77(2):399–412.
  20. Würsig B., Würsig M. 1980. Behavior and ecology of the dusky dolphin, Lagenorhynchus obscurus, in the South Atlantic. U.S. Fishery Bulletin 77(4):871–890.
  21. Norris KS, Würsig B, Wells RS, Würsig M, eds. 1994. The Hawaiian Spinner Dolphin. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA. 408 pp.
  22. Würsig B, Jefferson TA, Schmidly DJ. 2000. The Marine Mammals of the Gulf of Mexico, Texas A&M University Press, College Station, TX. 232 pp.
  23. Perrin WF, Würsig B, Thewissen JGM. 2002. The Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals. Elsevier/Academic Press, San Diego, CA. 1414 pp.
  24. Perrin WF, Würsig B, Thewissen JGM. 2009. The Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals, 2nd Edition. Elsevier/Academic Press, San Diego, CA. 1316 pp.
  25. Würsig B, Thewissen JGM, Kovacs K. 2018. The Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals, 3rd Edition. Elsevier/Academic Press, San Diego, CA. 1157 pp.
  26. Würsig B, Würsig M. 2010. The Dusky Dolphin: Master Acrobat off Different Shores. Academic/Elsevier Press, Amsterdam. 441 pp.
  27. Darling J, Nicklin C, Norris KS, Whitehead H, Würsig B. 1995. Whales, Dolphins, and Porpoises, National Geographic Society Press, Washington, DC. 232 pp.
  28. Gowans S, Würsig B, Karczmarski L. 2007. The social structure and strategies of delphinids: predictions based on an ecological framework. Advances in Marine Biology 53(7):195-294.
  29. Curley S. 2005. Aggies by the Sea. Texas A&M University at Galveston. Galveston, TX. 236 pp.
  30. Würsig B. 2017. Marine Mammals of the Gulf of Mexico, pp. 1489-1587, In: Habitats and Biota of the Gulf of Mexico: Before the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, Vol. II, ed. by H. Ward. Springer Open. ISBN 978-1-4939-3456-0 (eBook)
  31. Würsig B. In Press April 2019 (editor). The Ethology and Behavioral Ecology of Odontocete Cetaceans, Springer Nature, Heidelberg, Germany.
  1. Texas A&M University, Marine Mammal Behavioral Ecology Group
  2. Bernd Würsig's personal web page
  3. Texas A&M University at Galveston
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