Arthitaya Sima-Aree
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mh-arthit.bsky.social
Arthitaya Sima-Aree
@mh-arthit.bsky.social
27 followers 150 following 27 posts
Kyoto University undergrad
researching dugong behavior
🇹🇭
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mh-arthit.bsky.social
Arthitaya Sima-Aree @mh-arthit.bsky.social · Dec 26
🚨BREAKING NEWS🚨
The Thai parliament is pushing for a law amendment in section 69 of the Royal Ordinance on Fisheries against the disapproval of local fishermen and scientists. This will allow the mesh size of LESS THAN 2.5 cm to operate beyond the 12 NM at night using fishing lights.
(1)
One of the placards during the demonstration in front of the parliament on December 25th by the local fishery communities, showing that the mesh size allowed by this new law is only a little bigger than the tip of a ballpoint pen. Using nets of this size will increase the catch of larvae and juveniles, which is destructive to the ecosystem. Photo from PPTV HD 36 on Facebook
Reposted by Arthitaya Sima-Aree
whaletalesorg.bsky.social
We know this feeling all too well! What do you love about cetaceans Storytellers?!
🎨 @theawkwardyeti.bsky.social

#WhaleTales
November 12, 2025 at 9:19 PM
Reposted by Arthitaya Sima-Aree
science.org
Talk about an in-flight meal.

For the first time, researchers have captured rats hunting bats by grabbing them from the sky. Learn more: https://scim.ag/3Jqldmn
October 27, 2025 at 10:31 PM
mh-arthit.bsky.social
On Oct 9 and 12, I went to Kyoto Aquarium with Dr Kimura’s team to help out with their research on spotted seals behavior under anthropogenic noise. I learned so many things and the seals were just too cute! It’s also my first time seeing a seal’s toenails (flippernails?). Thanks for inviting me! 🦭
October 19, 2025 at 2:33 AM
mh-arthit.bsky.social
On Sep 9th, I spoke in an event, Alternative and Sustainability and DEIB from ASEAN-Japan Perspectives. I talked about how important marine mammals are and how international collaboration in #MarMam research is essential. Thank you Assoc. Prof. Satoko Kimura for giving me this precious opportunity!
Nong Yoon was there with me as usual! Sitting in front of me was Dr. Satoko Kimura, who gave me the opportunity to be one of the speakers in this event. I was a little nervous because I was the only undergraduate speaker on that day. Although my supervisor Dr. Ichikawa could not join the event in person, he remembered to send me a “good luck!” message. The title was “The Future for our SEAs: considering through marine mammal research”. Do you see what I tried to do there? SEA, pun intended. (The event is ASEAN-Japan themed.) Since I was talking a little bit about my dugong rolling research, Nong Yoon was being used to help me explain the movements of the dugongs better. What I didn’t expect was that he would become handy later in the Q&A session! Because the audiences were not marine biologists, most of the questions were about what the dugongs look like and what they do. One question was about the similarities and differences between the dugongs and the manatees. So I hold Nong Yoon up and show the audiences the shape of his fluke! Thank you MareCet and the village women for making a morphologically accurate yet cute dugong plush. Never doubted you for a second. Marine mammals can move between countries, since they don’t care, and don’t have to care, about getting visas. Therefore, researchers of different countries, especially neighboring countries, should join hands when monitoring a marine mammal population. In this day and age, and IN THIS ECONOMY, we don’t need to fly across the world or wait for ages to send and receive letters to communicate with each other anymore. Just a few taps of your fingertips, and your message can be sent to anyone at anytime. It has never been easier for researchers living in different countries to communicate with each other. And NOW is the perfect time to do so. Just look back at COVID-19, how incredible the global effort to stop the spread of the deadly disease was. If we think that the matter is urgent enough, we can create a big change. Now we have climate change, mass extinction, environmental crisis, but lots of people fail to realize the urgency. Just do it now.
October 17, 2025 at 12:30 PM
mh-arthit.bsky.social
The Dugong Team of Kyoto University went to Talibong Island for a fieldwork in July (I know it’s October now but I just remembered that I should post about it). Dugong footage is in my laptop so those will follow later. In the meantime please enjoy the shenanigans.
#MarMam
Nong Yoon, a dugong plush from MareCet, whom I bring with me on every fieldwork so far. This was a beach called “Hat Toong Ya Kha” (Enhalus acoroides meadow Beach). The beach used to be full of E. acoroides. But after a storm a few years ago, the beach had transformed into a sandy beach with no vegetation. We were a bit sad to see lots of marine debris washed up on this beautiful beach. A big portion of the trash was not even from Thailand. Thanks Duyong for this fabulous photo. Totally deserves to be on the cover of a magazine! Highlight of the trip: got attacked by a hermit crab. Worst pain of my life. But I have to say that it was my fault. I picked him up because I thought all hermit crabs are nice and friendly, even though the ones on this lovely island are the size of my fist. He got hold of the skin on my thumb and didn’t let go for a whole minute. I thought I was going to lose a finger that day. Thank you Chat and her lovely daughter, Duyong (whose name means dugong!), for dressing the wound and laughing at me for being the first visitor to get pinched by a hermit crab. I’ll never to pick them up ever again! Looks like I spotted something and tried to signal it to the people on the other boat? No, I was trying to ask them who should we pass the camera to (the one holding the camera is my dear supervisor, Dr.Kotaro Ichikawa. And no, the camera isn’t his. He just got asked to pass the camera to another research team because they forgot it at the resort). But I like this photo because it looks like we’re working hard. Thanks Willee for the shot! Just a seastar regenerating his limbs!
October 17, 2025 at 11:19 AM
mh-arthit.bsky.social
It’s June! Getting ready for the presentation about my research plan. Since it is said that dugongs are the models of mermaid legends, I’m including this cute illustration (from irasutoya) on my slide. Hope my supervisor likes it! lol
June 1, 2025 at 2:38 PM
mh-arthit.bsky.social
Went to practice flying the drone with our dugong research team today! It’s my first time operating it. Fun and thrilling! Definitely need some more hours of practice because I’ll need to use drones to collect data for my senior project.
(Thank you Dr. Ichikawa for the lesson and the footages :D)
May 19, 2025 at 12:55 PM
mh-arthit.bsky.social
Submitted 3 grant applications yesterday for my Thai dugong research. All of my teammates submitted as well! Hopefully some of us can get hold of the grant :D
May 8, 2025 at 9:14 AM
Reposted by Arthitaya Sima-Aree
rmaevatiana.bsky.social
(1/7) 🐋 Remember those humpback calf-perspective videos I used to share? Super cool, but they only showed what the calf’s camera could catch.
What if we could zoom out and see the whole scene?
May 1, 2025 at 7:35 PM
Reposted by Arthitaya Sima-Aree
stephaniestack.bsky.social
Just published a new paper with an amazing team! We describe epimeletic behaviour (care for a sick or distressed individual) in humpback whales. It all started during an entanglement response off Maui in 2021 and led to something much bigger. 🐋💙 #marmam dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...
Tending the sick: Observations of epimeletic behavior in humpback whales towards conspecifics during entanglement events
Anthropogenic impacts on marine systems are increasing in frequency, geographic range and severity. While changes in climate will likely lead to the greatest impacts at the system-level, for marine me...
dx.plos.org
April 19, 2025 at 3:36 AM
Reposted by Arthitaya Sima-Aree
stephanielking.bsky.social
It’s been such a pleasure to be part of this podcast and to introduce @amy-martin.bsky.social to the Shark Bay dolphins. Check out ‘Hark’ - the new season of @thresholdpodcast.bsky.social 🎧🐬🐟
amymartin.org Amy Martin @amymartin.org · Mar 29
Delighted to share my first piece in @theguardian.com! Huge thanks to all of the scientists, tree hoppers, naked mole-rats, and fish who contributed, and to the fabulous team at @thresholdpodcast.bsky.social helping me make the full audio series behind this article happen.
Nature’s secret soundscape: listen with me to the world’s quietest creatures
While humans are more boisterous than ever, other species are talking too – this is what you will hear if you really listen
www.theguardian.com
March 31, 2025 at 6:14 PM
Reposted by Arthitaya Sima-Aree
tetzoo.bsky.social
Just trawled around in wayback machine in an effort to find intact versions of the old #TetZoo #pinniped articles. Takes a lot of searching but able to retrieve most (but not all) of them. Go to tetzoo.com/blog/2025/3/... for new links. #marinemammals
Montage of screengrabs showing old Tet Zoo pinniped articles. Montage of screengrabs showing old Tet Zoo pinniped articles.
March 27, 2025 at 10:52 AM
mh-arthit.bsky.social
Just wrapped up our dugong survey this season in Trang and Phuket, Thailand. I came with Dr. Kotaro Ichikawa and his students to observe and translate stuff, and find inspiration for my senior project. So many happened during our 11 day journey! Super grateful for the amazing people I met. #MarMam
Dr. Ichikawa catching the drone on a long-tail boat during our dugong survey around Libong Island, Trang province, Thailand. We found 3-4 dugongs during our 3 days of staying there, and Dr. Ichikawa found a dugong entangled in a rope. The rescue team from the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources and the staff from the national park, with Dr. Ichikawa, were trying their best to rodeo catch the animal but the dugong was diving fast, so the rescue was unsuccessful (I really thought I was going to see the legendary dugong wrestling by Dr. Ichikawa). Hopefully they can find the dugong again and offer him the needed help very soon. The dugong plush (his name is Nong Yoon) I got from the time I volunteered in the WHALE Survey with MareCet, chilling on the port of the long-tail boat at sunrise. We went out at sea super early because we only payed attention to the tide charts but not the time of sunrise. We waited around 30 mins before Dr. Ichikawa thought it was bright enough to fly the drone and take photos of the seagrass. We found that the seagrass meadows are recovering! Hopefully the dugongs that went away will come back to their home sweet home very soon. 3 dugongs forming a group, with 2 believed to be a pair of mother and calf. One individual later separated. We were super excited to see this interaction! @Libong Island, Trang province, Thailand Dugong playback experiment @Tang-Khen Bay, Phuket province, Thailand The super territorial dugong named Miracle (who usually bites other dugongs in the bay) charging at the kayak that produced the dugong calls. After a couple of playback attempts, he quickly learns that the calls were not from a real dugong and showed no reaction. It was interesting to see that different dugongs reacted to the playbacks differently, as another dugong called Khao Lek swam away from the kayak’s direction after hearing the calls, seemingly avoiding interactions. Theerasak Saksritawee (P’Pop) monitoring the dugongs’ behavior by drone. He is a citizen scientist who has been flying the drones around this bay daily since last year and knows every dugong in the area. He also gave us all the dugong photos and videos he has filmed for the past couple of months. Our team owes him a lot. Thank you P’Pop!
March 9, 2025 at 1:04 PM
Reposted by Arthitaya Sima-Aree
pacmam.bsky.social
ACTION ALERT: Salish Sea harbor seals & sea lions need your help! *We must take action by 02/21!* Swipe to learn why HJM 4004 is ill-advised + how you can stand up to protect our beloved pinnipeds! #marinemammals #marmam

app.leg.wa.gov/csi/Testifie...
February 20, 2025 at 4:18 PM
Reposted by Arthitaya Sima-Aree
fishguy.bsky.social
I have testosterone. It is a gift that means I am often wrong but never in doubt. I was sure this paper would be all negative results.

Sandlance, a forage fish, exposed to perfectly reasonable sound levels for a pretty short time get messed up.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Experimental flow chart of fish exposed to sounds.
February 13, 2025 at 11:43 PM
Reposted by Arthitaya Sima-Aree
ellengarland.bsky.social
Proud supervisor moment!

Ella's masters thesis paper on Okinawa humpback #whale #song complexity and evolution is out today in RSOS.

Awesome collaboration with Nozomi Kobayashi et al.

@francae.bsky.social @lrendell.bsky.social @seamammalresearch.bsky.social

doi.org/10.1098/rsos...
February 12, 2025 at 2:33 AM
Reposted by Arthitaya Sima-Aree
adamvaughan.bsky.social
Liz Truss called solar farms a “blight on the landscape”, but researchers have found they are actually better for birds than farmland

Solar farms in East Anglia had greater bird diversity & bird abundance than nearby arable land, a study finds

Paper here later www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
February 13, 2025 at 9:27 AM
Reposted by Arthitaya Sima-Aree
ubcoceans.bsky.social
WATCH: Did you miss Dr. Caroline Ferguson Irlanda's presentation "Decolonial Partnerships In Fisheries Science"? Watch it now: youtu.be/QZxiGfvHpO0?...
Decolonial Partnerships in Fisheries Science
YouTube video by UBC Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries
youtu.be
February 10, 2025 at 7:53 PM
Reposted by Arthitaya Sima-Aree
ubcoceans.bsky.social
Only 50 Rice's #Whales Are Left. Can We Do Enough to Protect Them Before It's Too Late? - www.smithsonianmag.com/science-natu... @smithsonianmag.bsky.social g
Only 50 Rice's Whales Are Left. Can We Do Enough to Protect Them Before It's Too Late?
In 2021, researchers identified a new whale species and are now scrambling to save their natural habitat
www.smithsonianmag.com
February 11, 2025 at 6:13 PM
Reposted by Arthitaya Sima-Aree
simonkirby.bsky.social
A thread explaining our new discovery about humpback whale song published today in Science... We found key statistical properties that characterise all human languages in another species for the first time. We have more in common with whales than we previously thought! doi.org/10.1126/scie...
A picture of a humpback whale just below the sea surface taken by Marc Quintin
February 7, 2025 at 11:48 AM
mh-arthit.bsky.social
An article addressing the challenges faced by researchers in Thailand. Thank you AroundScience (on FB) for sharing this article. I’ll have a good read!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Overcoming research challenges in resource-limited settings: perspectives from Thailand - Nature Reviews Microbiology
This Comment highlights the challenges and rewards of researchers working in resource-limited settings, specifically Thailand, and provides potential solutions to help Thai researchers overcome these ...
www.nature.com
January 30, 2025 at 2:34 AM
Reposted by Arthitaya Sima-Aree
scottpwaldman.bsky.social
The White House climate page is now gone. Climate change is not. www.whitehouse.gov/climate
www.whitehouse.gov
January 21, 2025 at 8:44 PM
Reposted by Arthitaya Sima-Aree
wascherclaudia.bsky.social
Vocal communication in corvids: a systematic review. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti.... In our new paper we review 130 papers and summarise empirical evidence for socioecological factors affecting vocal communication, as well as evidence for vocal learning in different corvid species.
Vocal communication in corvids: a systematic review
Vocal communication is broadly distributed in a wide range of nonhuman animal species and is hypothesized to play an important role in mate attraction…
www.sciencedirect.com
January 22, 2025 at 9:17 AM
Reposted by Arthitaya Sima-Aree
lbejder1971.bsky.social
1/n: New publication in Conservation Biology led by @ptpatton.bsky.social
Title: Optimizing automated photo identification for population assessments. #marinemammals conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
January 17, 2025 at 9:48 AM
Reposted by Arthitaya Sima-Aree
petercorkeron.bsky.social
File under disappointing and unsurprising...

Bye-bye speed rule for right whales in US waters
From Patrick Whittle from @apnews.com
🐳🌍🦑
Biden administration withdraws rules to save endangered whales from collisions
The federal government is withdrawing proposed rules that would have required more ships to slow down in East Coast waters to try to save a vanishing species of whale.
apnews.com
January 15, 2025 at 9:44 PM