KC the Humpback and Others Return

… in less than 4 decades the way that we value Transients has changed appreciably. This is a direct result of what we have learned from the long-term studies on this population initiated by Mike Bigg nearly half a century ago. Interestingly, the animals that he initially called Transients are now more common and seemingly "resident" than Resident orcas along some parts of the coast ……
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The plankton-eating herring have spawned, the eggs laid in their millions in March and April off Vancouver Island’s shores. Of every few thousand laid, one will survive to adulthood. No wonder each female must lay up to 40,000 at a time, emitting the roe into kelp and eelgrass to meet the male sperm (milt). A formidable array of predators await the juveniles: gulls, cormorants and other diving birds, salmon, humpbacks, seals, and of course humans….
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Biologists are raising concerns after a young humpback whale was found dead just south of Washington state’s Olympic Peninsula.
John Calambokidis with the Cascadia Research Collective said the one-to-two-year-old female was first spotted Friday but washed up in Ocean Shores on Sunday.
He said a necropsy suggested the whale died after becoming entangled in crab fishing gear.
The Cascadia Research Collective says at least five whales have been reported entangled on the West Coast in the last month.
"Overall along the West Coast we’ve seen an uptick in entanglement-related death that spiked in 2015 and has remained elevated for the last few years," Calambokidis told Global News.
"For the last four weeks this is now the second humpback whale that we’ve had entangled and we’ve had three other grey whales."
Calambokidis said those numbers are likely a severe underestimation, as the majority of entanglements are unseen or unreported….
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In the summer of 2012, Michelle Fournet had a dream job-studying humpback whales in Southeast Alaska’s Frederick Sound. The Oregon State University graduate student spent long days in a boat listening for the whales through underwater microphones and watching for them from a lighthouse. One day on the water, a whale’s call blasted through Fournet’s headphones. Simultaneously, a ring of bubbles appeared on the water’s surface about 50 meters away from her boat. When the call stopped, a humpback whale burst through the center of the bubbles, gulping down fish….
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The closures are part of the new measures Canada announced in April which are designed to protect the endangered species of whales – 18 of which were killed in Canadian and U.S. waters in 2017.

The closures, which are meant to respond to sightings of the whales, will shut down the zones for a minimum of 15 days. However, the statement from LebLanc, says the closures will be in effect until further notice….
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A new population of at least 700 blue whales has been found living between the North and South Islands of New Zealand in an area under pressure from mining and oil and gas exploration.

The gigantic marine mammals are genetically distinct from whales found in the neighbouring Pacific and Antarctic Oceans, suggesting they are a separate group that lives permanently in the region.

While they are not as large as their Antarctic cousins, the New Zealand population can still reach lengths of around 22 metres….
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Sperm whales are a genetic puzzle. The deep-diving, squid-eating giants that inspired Moby Dick are found in every ocean, where they can mate with partners from around the world; as such, they should be quite genetically diverse. Yet, their genetic diversity is actually very low, hinting that something killed a lot of them off in the past. And that something wasn’t whalers….
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A new study found that dolphins in northern Cyprus have gone straight up outlaw on the situation. Fishing nets are six times more likely to get broken when there are dolphins in the area, found the researchers.

"It seems that some dolphins may be actively seeking nets as a way to get food," explained Robin Snape, a University of Exeter scientist who led the study….
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Analysis of ancient skulls showed that the ancient whale had teeth and gums. This discovery shows that the friendly animals are once ferocious predators.

The whale skull discovered 34 million years ago from Antarctica indicates that baleens have acquired their cetaceans through a complex and gradual evolutionary process. It was previously thought that these animals developed their baleens in a more direct way….
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Wildlife photographers have recorded two separate attacks by bottlenose dolphins on harbour porpoises in the Moray Firth.

The incidents from earlier this month happened close to shore at Chanonry Point on the Black Isle.

Researchers at Sea Watch Foundation said such attacks are rare, and the cause of the aggressive behaviour had still to be fully understood….
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Whale-watching season for tourism operators such as the Sunshine Coast’s Whale One traditionally begins on the first weekend in June.

Southern Cross University Marine Ecology Research Centre founding director Peter Harrison said whales were moving earlier because their numbers had grown so large.

This season, about 33,000 whales are expected to make the 5,000km migration north from the Antarctic to Queensland’s warm tropical waters….
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In a white-tiled lab at London Zoo, just across the street from the giraffes, two investigators are slowly and painstakingly dissecting a porpoise.

Rescue workers recovered the stranded animal on a beach in Somerset a week before. It was maimed by brutal red gashes – from a boat’s propeller, they thought.

Investigators Rob Deaville and Matt Perkins are not so sure. Over the next two hours, they will try to uncover what killed this particular porpoise. They will also look for clues to a much bigger puzzle, one that involves all of marine life, answering questions like: what is the state of our oceans? What are the biggest threats? And what can we as humans do to help?…
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Whale watching trips on-board "Radiance" are never a disappointment and Friday was no exception. The waters off west Cork were ALIVE! We were lucky to encounter not one but four to eight humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae), countless minke whales (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) and literally hundreds of short-beaked common dolphin (Delphinus delphis). What were they all doing here you might ask? Well they are foraging.

Huge bait balls of tiny fish attract an array of marine wildlife; in addition we have seen a diverse range of seabirds, such as skuas, northern gannets…
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