In order to better understand the way our Made From Stone technology interacts with the world around us, Okeanos has assembled a team of leaders in various fields to sit in our Scientific Advisory Board. A champion of the whales and dolphins of the South Pacific, Dr. Poole has spent most of his career studying and protecting these aquatic mammals. He has made discoveries about whale breeding stocks and migration routes, published scholarly articles about the animals he studies, and advocates for conservation programs in the South Pacific. As a result of Dr. Poole’s rigorous efforts, all of French Polynesia has been declared a protected sanctuary for whales and dolphins.
In an interview with Dr. Poole, we discussed the work he’s done over the course of his celebrated career and why he’s looking forward to collaborating with Okeanos as we develop technology.
When I was 7-10 yrs old, we lived in Bermuda. Humpback whales were seen seasonally, and one stranded on a beach. I decided that “when I grow up” I would live on an oceanic island and do research on whales and dolphins. We later lived on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi and on the Atlantic coast of Florida, and seeing wild dolphins in both areas only strengthened my resolve to become a marine mammalogist.
As a senior biology/marine biology undergraduate at the University of Miami, I was the assistant of a doctoral candidate and his professor conducting research on South Florida’s endangered manatees, and also on a dolphin-stranding event. That was my introduction to actual hands-on studying of marine mammals and conservation. As a Master’s Degree student at California State University, I conducted three years of research on California gray whales. In the 1800s, gray whales had been nearly exterminated in their Baja, Mexico breeding grounds, and current data on their migration route and population numbers were vital to conservation efforts to ensure their survival. For my doctoral dissertation at the University of California, I conducted six years of research on spinner dolphins here at Moorea and Tahiti in French Polynesia. Spinner dolphins are one of the two species of dolphins that have been purposely caught since the 1960s in purse-seine nets between Hawaii, Mexico, and Peru so as to capture the yellow-fin tuna that swim underneath the dolphins. Some populations of spinner dolphins in that fishery have been reduced by over 85%.
Yes, most people don’t know that whales and dolphins are most closely related to hippopotamuses, followed by deer, elk, cattle, pigs, giraffes, and other even-toed hoofed land mammals, and that they have multi-chambered stomachs like most of their terrestrial relatives.
A: While conducting research on spinner dolphins here, I sometimes observed humpback whales, much to my pleasant surprise. This species was part of the middle 20th-century commercial slaughter, with up to 97% of all humpbacks killed around the world, and this species was essentially unknown in French Polynesia. So, I immediately started field research, discovering and proving that French Polynesia is a previously unknown breeding ground for a previously unknown population of humpback whales, and our population is among the smallest on earth.
To bring about public and political awareness of the dolphins and whales in French Polynesia’s waters, I gave public seminars, school presentations, and interviews in local print, radio and TV media; published papers in scientific and popular press; and produced three dolphin/whale stamps for the Postal Office (I also wrote the philatelic circular that accompanied the stamps). For the Ministry of the Environment I proposed and then produced two educational posters featuring the dolphins and whales of French Polynesia; these posters were distributed free of charge to the country’s schools. And in 2000/2001 I worked in collaboration with the two heads of French Polynesia’s President’s International Relations Office, completing draft legislation for the creation of a dolphin and whale sanctuary.
After my 10 years of lobbying and other efforts, in May 2002 French Polynesia’s government accepted my proposition and my draft legislation, thereby creating a whale and dolphin sanctuary throughout the country’s entire Exclusive Economic Zone, approximately 5 million square kilometers (over half the size the continental US). This has been my greatest conservation success. In 2003 the World Wildlife Fund awarded French Polynesia their highest accolade, the Gift to the Earth Award, in recognition of our sanctuary. I’ve also been responsible for the creation of a Marine Protected Area here at Moorea.
Because of the sanctuary, even more people (local and international) are now aware of the dolphins and whales in our waters; they have become more interested in these species; and they are more likely to support protective measures. People who know more, most often will care more. And people that care more are more likely to take appropriate action or accept and support appropriate measures. When I first arrived here in 1987, no one spoke about dolphins or whales. Because of our sanctuary, the people of French Polynesia now know more and care more about these creatures as part of their patrimony, and international tourists are aware of them and may come here with high hopes to see some.
I have seen plastic pollution in my research and personal travels—pristine areas of incredible beauty, but marred by plastic pollution—at beaches, deserts, mountains, lakes and rivers, and in the middle of the ocean. I know of the long life of plastic; it doesn’t simply go away. I know of the effects of plastics on animals, both on land and in the seas. Packaging is a necessity, as are many other things for which plastic is used. So, what can be used instead of, or in combination with plastics, so as to reduce (and eventually eliminate) the production of additional plastic?
When I learned of Okeanos Made from Stone and its objective of using naturally occurring and degradable calcium carbonate as a substitute for part of, or much of the plastic polymer used in producing packaging, I was immediately interested. When invited to join the SAB, I was pleased to accept, in spite of my lack of knowledge concerning plastics/industry/business. Plastic cleanup is an excellent task and must be done, but if plastic production continues then cleanup will never cease. As a scientist, I will do my best to contribute to the Okeanos mission of replacing plastic polymer with a natural and degradable substitute, calcium carbonate.
Like all dolphins, spinner dolphins manipulate things in their environment. They “play” with sticks, leaves, and other things floating at the surface or lying in the water column. One dolphin may carry a leaf on its left pectoral flipper for some distance, and then release it, another will pick it up and carry it on its dorsal fin, 
and then release it and another will pick it up with the left half of its flukes (tail), carry it some distance, and then release it – think of kids passing a Frisbee, or a soccer ball, or a baseball. Sometimes dolphins will carry or push through the water something on their beak. This is all well and good as long as the objects are leaves, twigs, sticks, etc., but a plastic bag can become lethal.
Unfortunately, a small Blainville’s beaked whale was not so fortunate—it stranded dead and we performed a necropsy—it had ingested a piece of plastic that was as hard as metal and was shaped like a pointed star. Each time that the first chamber of the whale’s stomach contracted to mechanically break down its prey, the plastic star cut the stomach. It had multiple perforations.
We need to convince people that climate change, specifically warming oceans and the resulting ocean acidification, is real, and it is killing our seas. We also need to show people the massive plastic pollution of our seas, from large pieces to those that are microscopic. We must take proactive action to clean up existing plastic pollution and replace plastic polymers with natural and degradable calcium carbonate at the sources of production.
We need to convince people that we CAN and MUST take action to ameliorate these worldwide problems. People already know many of the ways they can participate—we can limit our use of fossil fuels; lower our individual and group carbon and plastic footprints; support scientific research; use existing sustainable alternatives even if they are not perfect but simply better; and continue to search for and develop solutions.