Is It a Surprise? Humpback Whales!

The whale and the loss of her calf were at the center of prayers, songs and testimony before Canada’s National Energy Board in Victoria, B.C., on Wednesday, as it continued hearings underway for three weeks as part of its reconsideration of a massive expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline.

Suquamish, Swinomish, Lummi and Tulalip Nations traveled to Victoria to offer testimony to the board against the pipeline, and share cultural teachings about the importance of the orca, salmon and the tribes’ treaty-reserved fishing rights….
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Prince of Whales Whale Watching says the conservation fee charged to passengers will rise from $2 to $5 and will be aimed at supporting the endangered southern resident killer whale population.

The company says in a news release the added fee is expected to generate more than $1 million over the next five years with the money going toward orca-based science programs and chinook salmon recovery projects, the preferred food of the resident whales.

Alan McGillivray, owner of the whale-watching company, says the southern resident population is struggling and one of the big reasons is reduced availability of prey.

There are just 74 remaining members of the southern residents that are often found in the waters off B.C. and Washington state….
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The federal Fisheries department and Transport Canada gave an update today on the key findings from a meeting last month on the endangered mammal.

Garry Stenson, a Fisheries research scientist says it’s believed changes in the abundance and distribution of the whale’s prey is closely related to where right whales are now being found.

… an estimated 190 right whales are believed to have been in the southern Gulf this year, nearly half the remaining population of about 411….
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The project is a collaboration between the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, fisheries joint management committee and Inuvialuit Game Council. The team tagged 14 whales with 18 tags in the Beaufort Sea during the summer program. The creative way they managed to do that work will form part of the discussions in upcoming community consultations.

Lisa Loseto, with the federal fisheries department, described how they tried to come up with a less invasive approach of placing a tag during the research program.

“As a side project, we were investigating different ways of doing this with a single point attachment, a harpoon attachment,” Loseto said.

“We were out there trying the harpoon tag that had never been tried on a beluga,” she said. “There is still a long way to go with the advancement of this technology. So we brought that back to the community to say this is something we tested.”…
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The gray whales are on a mission, traveling from the chilly waters near Alaska to bask in the tropical warmth off Mexico’s lagoons.

And whale enthusiasts eagerly await their annual migration on the watery highway, binoculars pointed toward the horizon for any hint of mist shooting up from their blowholes or tails raised toward the sky.

Gray whale season has officially kicked off, with some already seen in the past few days near the shores of Manhattan Beach, Palos Verdes, Long Beach, Newport Beach and Dana Point.

And for those who will spend the season tracking these behemoths on their travels, the early sightings are a hopeful sign of many more to come….
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From December to April, visitors from around the world travel to Hawaii. They go to watch the huge animals in the wild, as they break through the surface of the ocean and rise high into the air.

But since 2014, there has been a reduction in humpback whale sightings in Hawaii. Scientists say the decrease may suggest changes to the food supply.

American and international researchers, wildlife experts and federal officials are meeting in Honolulu this week to discuss the drop in humpback sightings.

Data presented at the meetings show a strong connection between warming oceans and the missing whales, said Christine Gabriele. She is a federal wildlife biologist who studies humpbacks at Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska….
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"It was clearly “tacoed’," says Dietrick, a freelance photographer and volunteer marine mammal first responder. Heavy-gauge fishing lines bound the whale’s head to its tail; several wraps encircled its flukes. The whale moved sluggishly, as if something were dragging it down.
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According to the International Whaling Commission, an estimated 300,000 whales and dolphins die every year from entanglements. Though fishing gear-lines, nets, crab pots, and the like-is often the culprit, weather buoys, cruise ship anchors, and marine debris can also snag marine mammals. Sometimes, entanglement means instant death by drowning. In many cases, whales can drag gear wrapped around their bodies for months, or even years. Some slowly starve. Others develop deadly infections at the points where lines cut into their flesh….
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Their distant land mammal descendants evolved to run with limbs underneath: an unstable gait allowing rapid direction changes. To extend the stride, their spine flexes up-and-down. Marine mammals kept this movement, for which a horizontal tail is best….
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"The most detailed whale poo expedition ever," as the participants have dubbed it, aims to test a theory that waste from the world’s biggest mammal plays a far more crucial role in maintaining the productivity of southern oceans than previously believed.

"I want to show that whales are ecosystem engineers," said Lavenia Ratnarajah, a marine biogeochemist at the University of Liverpool. "Conservation campaigns are usually focussed on their beauty, but that doesn’t convince everyone. If we can show how much these animals contribute to the functions of the ocean, then it will be easier to save them….
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The world’s largest population passes through Australia’s Kimberley, a region that provides ideal and undeveloped calving grounds, researchers say.

Since the whaling stations were closed, humpbacks that visit Western Australia have become the good news story that defies the trend of environmental doom and gloom….
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