Orca, Dolphins and Albino Whales

For those of you who utilize and check our Map Archives, you will notice that we have been working, as time permits, on adding our older 2015 sightings reports to these maps. It is through the great work of our dedicated volunteer analysts, who we can’t say thank you enough to! We are always looking for volunteers interested in Cetacea and mapping, who would be willing to spend some time with our growing Society network.

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16:06 • PWS Dolphins off Powell River in Malaspina Strait. Off of Westview Wharf.

Gray whales are making their way south from the cold rich waters of the Bearing Sea off Alaska to the warm waters of Mexico. This issue features articles and videos along the Gray Whale migration route where the whales are stopping off at Whidbey Island in Puget Sound to feast on Ghost Shrimp, volunteer whale spotters on the bluffs of Ventura County in Southern California are carrying out the annual whale count, and an albino Gray whale and her calf are back in Baja California, Mexico.
Also in this issue:
… local enthusiasts are busy capturing videos of Humpback whales
… what are whales doing at night?
… Quirks and Quarks looks at Whale Slurpees
… and Australian dolphins are having fun with octopus.
Enjoy

REGIONAL & WEST COAST

A small pod of whales shows every year like clock work, looking to gorge on an all you can eat shrimp buffet.
About 25 years ago, a very small group of Gray whales began to make a 200 kilometre detour on their way to Mexico and travel to Saratoga Passage, off the waters of Whidbey Island in Puget Sound….

For the past 12 years, a teams of volunteers have spent day after day from February to May on an overlook at Coal Oil Point Reserve.
They watch as gray whales make their way back north after spending the winter in lagoons off the coast of Mexico.
Close to 20,000 gray whales make the annual migration past Ventura County – one of the longest of any mammal.

A gray whale believed to be albino has been documented in Scammon’s Lagoon in Baja California, Mexico, for the first time in at least three years.

The same whale was spotted in 2008 and 2009, as a juvenile. It might also have been spotted in 2013, according to at least one report.

This time, though, the white whale is traveling with her calf…

Over the past three years, humpback whales have been spending more time in the area, and Jude Abrams and Terry Brown have found themselves watching and learning as much from these animals as possible.

The raccoons spend day and night on the shoreline, gorging on seafood, which has had a detrimental effect on the intertidal ecosystem.
By scaring the raccoons’ away with the sound of barking dogs, researchers found that raccoons substantially reduce their foraging and the beach came back to life with a huge benefit for the crabs and fish that they eat.

CANADA

A rare Cuvier’s beaked whale died shortly after stranding on a New Brunswick beach in early February, and local experts recently performed a necropsy to figure out what went wrong.

Baleen whales may have evolved from suction feeders.

INTERNATIONAL

A DOLPHIN researcher took these amazing pictures of a Mandurah dolphin playing with an octopus last week.
PHD candidate Krista Nicholson, who took the photos, said she had seen dolphins take part in an "octopus toss" before, but it was unusual to get pictures.
"It’s not unheard of for dolphins to do this, but it’s not a regular occurrence" she said.
"We haven’t seen them (Mandurah dolphins) actually consume an octopus. …..

A group of artists and technicians visited a remote site on the south of Spitsbergen to 3D-scan the remains of beluga whales that were caught there in large numbers about a century ago. Their work resulted in a unique art installation in tribute …

New technology helps researchers make better nighttime observations and devise conservation plans for the aquatic mammals

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