Dolphins and Humpbacks in Many Inland Waters

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REGIONAL

Peter Hamilton of the environmental group Lifeforce captured a close encounter with a curious humpback whale off Cortes Island in the Strait of Georgia.

"Seeing whales in the wild is an incredible experience," Hamilton told Postmedia’s Larry Pynn, noting this humpback took the initiative to approach his vessel as he was documenting behaviour for research.

The federal government urges boaters to keep at least 100 metres from whales in Canadian waters, although Hamilton would like to see that increased.

Passion is inspired by profound experience. Krista Gordon felt vibratory excitement after seeing orca whales in their natural habitat. Orca close encounters, from as near as 20 feet, are frequent just off the cliffs of Lime Kiln Point State Park on San Juan Island. This makes the location one of the best places on Earth to see orcas in the wild. She took away a lasting impression and internalized a message of stewardship – required to sustain the beauty of their underwater world.

The Salish Sea Experience helps students form a lasting connection with the whales and the Salish Sea.
Fueled by that day in the mid-90s when the orcas first welcomed her and her family to the Pacific Northwest, she knew she wanted to share the same exalted experience she’d felt alongside her own children with every child. "I’ve always realized what an amazing place we live in and how important it is to care about it. And the only way to care about a place, is to experience it firsthand," Gordon said.

In its third year, the Salish Sea Experience has already taken over 1,500 children on an educational journey – one that fosters the lasting connection the whales provide and enhances our understanding of the Salish Sea and ourselves. Gordon remarked, "After you plant the seed of caring, there are a lot of ripples that go out. Because once you care about the whales, you’ll care about the salmon and then you begin to care about the pollution … and caring keeps going when you notice it’s all connected." ….

NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL

Biologist Errol Ronje was on a boat, on a routine research trip along the coast of Mississippi, when he came across a trail of severed heads.

"We started to see little white things bobbing in the water," he says. The melon-sized masses of flesh were marine catfish heads. "And they were still, for lack of a better word, alive."

The eyes of the dead fish were still moving; their pectoral fins were twitching. Clearly, they’d been decapitated very recently.

Ronje, on contract with the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, had been trailing a local pod of dolphins. He knew from previous research that…

Another dead North Atlantic right whale has been spotted off Massachusetts, bringing the total number of confirmed deaths in North America this summer to at least 13.

The U.S. Coast Guard documented and reported the latest carcass on Monday, Jennifer Goebel, public affairs officer for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Greater Atlantic region, confirmed on Wednesday….

Two newborn Mekong Irrawaddy dolphin calves have been spotted in the Mekong Flooded Forest Landscape in Cambodia’s Kratie province, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) said in a statement on Tuesday.
Dolphin habitats are in a protected area along the Mekong River in eastern Kratie and northern Stung Treng provinces.
The first calf, believed to be two or three weeks old, was spotted on Aug. 11 and the second one, thought to be only a few days old, was sighted on Aug. 13 by locals, the statement said.
During the period, Jan.-Aug. 2017, two dolphins died and eight dolphin births have been recorded, it said.
“This is a high achievement compared to the…

Earlier this summer, we started hearing reports of dolphins in Chesapeake Bay. Some thought it was unusual; others said it was no big deal.

So Joel McCord went searching for them for Chesapeake: A Journalism Collaborative.

Dr. Helen Bailey, who did her PhD work on bottle nose dolphins, says she heard reports of occasional sightings of the marine mammals when she came to work as an associate professor at the University of Maryland’s Center for Environmental Science in Solomons.

But then the underwater microphones the lab was experimenting with began picking up the tell-tale squeaks and clicks of dolphins foraging in the Chesapeake and its tributaries. Now, the scientists are finding out the dolphins are pretty regular visitors to the bay….

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