Biggs, Greys, Dolphins and Porpoise, but No Humpbacks

Society News & Events

DONATE
to the non profit wild ocean whale society

Jump to:   MAP | SIGHTINGS | MAGAZINE

Jump to:   MAP | SIGHTINGS | MAGAZINE

REGIONAL & WEST COAST

Twenty marine scientists are calling on the federal government to reduce “acoustic smog” from shipping noise near Vancouver that they say is hurting a critically endangered population of killer whales.

The scientists sent a letter Wednesday morning to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, along with the ministers of fisheries, transport and environment, asking for regulation on noise in the Salish Sea, which includes the Strait of Georgia.

Southern resident killer whales are designated as endangered in the U.S. and Canada, and noise pollution is a key threat to their survival, said Lance Barrett-Lennard, the head of the Vancouver Aquarium’s cetacean research program, who co-signed the letter.

“It’s absolutely a critical time for the survival of that population,” said Barrett-Lennard.

“These animals swim around in a kind of acoustic smog if you like. And every ship that goes by absolutely fills their world with noise.”…

Elliot Funt was just looking to soak up a little sunshine when he took his boat out Tuesday, but instead the Vancouver man found himself in the middle of a Howe Sound orca storm.

“It was crazy,” Funt said. “At first when we spotted the orcas everyone was keeping their distance, but then a sea lion came over and attached itself to the boat next to me. So of course all of the orcas followed over to the boats.”

Funt captured over 30 minutes of spectacular video showing the six orcas as they bumped boats and breached just metres away, trying to get at their prey. He posted a longer version of the video online.

“The orcas almost pushed [the boat] over. The sea lion was moving from side to side of the boat, and then tried to climb up the side of the boat and was hanging on trying to avoid the orcas,” said Funt.

n expert on how boat noise affects whales is showing off his new computer animation in Seattle. It shows what he calls “acoustic hell” for orcas.

Dr. Chris Clark, a bioacoustic engineer at Cornell University, has developed a moving visualization of what he calls noise smog created by whale watching boats in Puget Sound.

In one video, he shows how boat traffic moving through water outside Boston silences whale echolocation. In another video, he shows how whale watching boats near San Juan Island hurt the ability of orcas to receive sound signals needed to find food….

First come the diving birds-common murres and rhinoceros auklets-piercing the waves and driving schools of small fish into tight balls. The fish flee upward, only to fall victim to the surface feeders: herring gulls and bald eagles. Predators are picking them off from above and below. But one more hungry mouth is showing up to crash the party.

A humpback whale, weighing roughly 45 tonnes, speeds toward the action, anxious to sate its voracious appetite. The birds are so preoccupied competing for the bounty that they are oblivious to the whale lunging upward with its jaw agape. In an instant, the humpback explodes at the surface and clamps its massive mouth. Trapped inside is far more than fish….

Busy waters surround the southern tip of British Columbia’s Vancouver Island in what is called the Salish Sea. To the west, the Juan de Fuca Strait acts as an off-ramp for container ships, tankers, and freighters moving into the ports of Seattle and Tacoma, Washington, or Vancouver, British Columbia.

But ships aren’t the only noisemakers-the Salish Sea is full of all kinds of noises. In this interactive map, we’ve assembled some hydrophone recordings from these waters.

Of course whales don’t hear these sounds the same way we do, as their ears detect different frequencies than ours, but this soundscape will give you an idea of the variety of noises that permeate these waters as well as others around the world. Some sounds, such as those made by paddling kayakers, may be benign to a whale; others, including cavitation and military sonar, are known to interfere with their vocalizations and can even damage their eardrums.

CANADA

Residents of a Newfoundland island have managed to pluck five dolphins out of thick pack ice and carry them to open water, but a humpback whale has died after becoming trapped in ice in a nearby cove.

The dolphins had become trapped in a small bay near St. John’s that had frozen over.

Resident Lisa Gear said about 25 people were involved in the rescue effort that involved venturing out onto the ice off Bell Island, freeing the dolphins from the ice, placing them onto a tarp stretcher, loading them on a truck and then releasing them into an ice-free body of water nearby….

INTERNATIONAL

Bottlenose dolphins living off the coast of southwest Australia have a dilemma. The local octopuses are tasty and packed with protein, but they are also intelligent, fierce fighters. It’s not enough to bite the cephalopods’ heads off, because octopus nervous systems are so decentralized that their legs can continue the battle even when detached. Nevertheless, the dolphins have persisted in their pursuit of tentacled meals. Now, after years of observation with video, scientists have seen dozens of examples of the dolphins’ elaborate octopus hunting strategy….

Whale vaginas are an enigma.

That’s because research on cetacean genitalia (dolphins and whales are both cetaceans) is pretty biased towards penis-havers. Comparatively less work has been done studying cetacean vagina-bits. So, a team of scientists decided to break down the cetatriarchy in order to really understand these poorly-explored parts.

As it turns out, cetacean vaginas have unusual folds with unknown functions that differ between species. In order to really get deep into what’s going on here, the researchers collected 59 cetacean reproductive tracts from twenty species of cetaceans that had washed ashore and died of natural causes. They sliced the parts up, and measured and counted the vaginal folds.

The researchers found

The giant mammals are extremely vulnerable to changes in the ecosystem, making their health a good barometer for the state of the environment….
The Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic (LEX-NG) Fund aspires to protect the ocean’s last pristine areas through research, conservation, education, and community-development projects in the company’s far-flung destinations.
For Durban and Fearnbach, who are based in sunny La Jolla, California, the fund has buoyed their research in Antarctica. While they also study orca and humpback whale populations in the Pacific Northwest, the North Atlantic and Alaska, on these trips they’ve been able to observe killer whales in perhaps the most inaccessible place on the planet. Since 2011, the scientists have made several voyages a year to the frozen continent on the Explorer, using the ice-cutting, refurbished Norwegian ferry to follow the whales….

Each spring, eastern Australia’s humpback whales migrate south toward their summer feeding grounds in Antarctica. Like humpback whales around the world, this is a talkative bunch. The males sing out-haunting melodies that pierce through thousands of kilometers of seawater. Yet these songs are just one type of humpback communication. In addition, humpbacks will grunt and groan. They’ll bark and snort. They’ll use their bodies as mallets, slapping their tails or fins against the sea’s surface. Even the crash after a breach is thought to be a way of reaching out.

It’s an impressive communicative repertoire, but over the past century or so, whales have had an increasingly difficult time being heard. With their loud, banging motors, and twisting, thrumming propellers, ships generate noise that makes it difficult for these leviathans to keep in touch as they swim, forage, and mate….

When the mighty orca breaks to the surface and exhales, the whale sprays an array of bacteria and fungi in its his breath, scientists said, some good, and some bad such as salmonella.
The findings in a new study raises concerns about the potential role of infectious diseases as another major stress factor for the struggling population of endangered Puget Sound orcas.
Those orcas’ breath samples revealed microbes capable of causing diseases. Some were resistant to multiple antibiotics frequently used by people and animals, suggesting human waste contaminating the marine environment, according to a study published online Friday in the journal Scientific Reports.

Magazine Submissions
the magazine accepts submissions of links to published articles and media of interest to our readers. we welcome original articles, letters, notices, photography, video and audio

SUBMIT
to the magazine

original material guidelines
notices: 100 words max.; letters & articles: 500 words max.
you or your organization must be authors of the work and are solely responsible for its content. the magazine gives no assurance material submitted will be published. media submission guidelines

DONATE
to the non profit wild ocean whale society

VOLUNTEER
review our volunteer opportunities

Jump to:   MAP | SIGHTINGS | MAGAZINE

SUBSCRIBE
receive sightings update eMail notices

CONTACT
the wild ocean whale society