The Size of Whales

The emergency effort to save a critically ill orca whale is an experiment without precedent.

An international team of scientists is piloting techniques to treat a wild, free-swimming orca, one of the largest predators on Earth. The effort includes serving up live fish pumped with medicine and playing a unique tone that one researcher likened to a "dinner bell."

A federal permit approved Aug. 8 provides the clearest look yet at the details of an operation that raises questions even for those involved about the proper limits of human intervention.

"It’s constantly a topic in our minds and in our conversations, “Are we doing more harm than good?’ " said Sarah Wilkin. She is a national stranding- and emergency-response coordinator based in Silver Spring, Maryland, for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is leading the rescue.

The operation in the Washington waters of the Salish Sea could change – or even be discontinued – depending on J50’s condition, and how she and her family respond to intervention….
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A Seattle restaurateur has stopped offering chinook salmon at her restaurants. Renee Erickson, chef and owner of a group of restaurants, including The Walrus and the Carpenter in Ballard, said she made the decision after learning about the plight of J50, the young, ailing orca whale.

"This really tipped the scale for me, being a native Northwesterner and someone who cares about our environment," said Erickson. "I felt there was no reason to keep buying chinook."

Chinook salmon, also known as king salmon, is the main food source for Puget Sound-based orcas. Biologists say the scarcity of chinook salmon in recent years has been hard on these whales, whose numbers have dwindled to 75.

Erickson says customers can enjoy other types of salmon.

"I just couldn’t stomach the feeling like we were contributing to the starvation of this one whale as well as the other ones," said Erickson.

Whale biologists differ in how they see this issue. Deborah Giles, a killer whale biologist with the University of Washington, agreed with Erickson’s position.

“I recognize that Chinook salmon are the tastiest and most desirable for humans to eat,” Giles said. “The whales feel the same way. The difference is that the Southern Resident killer whales rely on Chinook salmon for their lives.”…
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A strange whale recently showed up by Cemetery Beach in Masset – a rare species that could really thrive in a backyard pool.

Made of black plastic and filled with water, the 12-foot model whale was used to show DFO fishery officers and Haida fishery guardians how to re-float a whale using a pair of bright yellow pontoons and a sling.

The exercise was part of a series of training sessions that should help the next time a marine mammal gets beached or entangled around Haida Gwaii.

"We want to be as prepared as we can," said Genevieve Cauffopé, a program officer with the conservation and protection branch of Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

Especially in the waves, Cauffop̩ said the model whale is a good stand-in for the real thing Рa beached orca or other mid-sized cetacean, such as a young humpback.

Fitted with handles for up to 14 rescuers plus hooks for towing with a boat, the yellow pontoons used in the exercise are now stored at the DFO office in Masset.

Fishery officers and guardians also practiced first step for disentangling a much larger whale – attaching a satellite tag so an expert can find the animal before the entangling gear puts its life at risk….
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The Umiak I travels in the Arctic or near Arctic all year, which makes its crew well-positioned to offer information on whale migration. (Provided by Fednav)
It usually focuses on transporting ore from Voisey’s Bay, but now the Umiak I will add scientific whale research to its duties.

The crew of the Umiak I, one of the largest vessels sailing off the Labrador coast, will help gather scientific data on whales seen on their journeys now that Fednav, the company that owns the ship, has joined a group of whale watchers called the Marine Mammal Observation Network.

“We know that the shipping industry has an impact on the environment in which it operates and we just believe that this is our obligation to carry out sustainable activities and disrupt as little as possible the environment,” said Marie-Andrée Giguère of Fednav….
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Whales may have made their mark on the seafloor in a part of the Pacific Ocean designated for future deep-sea mining.

Thousands of grooves found carved into the seabed could be the first evidence that large marine mammals visit this little-explored region, researchers report August 22 in Royal Society Open Science. If deep-diving whales are indeed using the region for foraging or other activities, scientists say, authorities must take that into account when planning how to manage future mining activities.

The Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone, or CCZ, is a vast plain on the deep seafloor that spans about 4.5 million square kilometers between Hawaii and Mexico. The region is littered with trillions of small but potentially valuable rocky nodules containing manganese, copper, cobalt and rare earth elements….
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… Behold: the largest creature ever to grace the Earth, the blue whale. At roughly the size of 10 elephants, their magnitude is difficult for us to comprehend, especially since most humans will never get to see these rare ocean-dwelling creatures up close.

Blue whales are the largest members of rorqual whale family, which in turn are the largest of the baleen whale order. In fact, scientists believe they are the biggest animal to have ever existed on the planet. They might also be the biggest animal physically possible. We’re about as big to them as krill-blue whales’ primary source of food-are to us….
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