Cetaceans Spreading Out

SEATTLE- Conservation groups today sent a notice of intent to sue the Trump administration for failing to protect critically endangered Southern Resident killer whales from boat traffic and noise in a key foraging area near Washington’s San Juan Island. The proposed "whale protection zone" could help save an iconic orca species that is down to just 75 individuals and facing extinction.

In 2016 the Center for Biological Diversity and Orca Relief Citizens’ Alliance petitioned the National Marine Fisheries Service to establish the 10-square-mile zone in the Salish Sea’s Haro Strait, a step that would limit vessel speeds and other activities. That petition was ignored, and since then eight more Southern resident orcas have perished. Today the groups gave the administration 30 days to respond.

"West Coast orcas are dying out right in front of our eyes while the Trump administration ignores their plight," said Miyoko Sakashita, oceans program director at the Center. "We need swift protections to prevent their extinction."…
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A new look at just where orcas are eating big kings reveals the importance of rivers in north and south Puget Sound to the orcas’ survival. Even the Puyallup, Green and Duwamish rivers count for the top predators.

The Nooksack, Elwha, Dungeness, Skagit, Stillaguamish and Snohomish to the north and Nisqually, Puyallup, Green, Duwamish, Deschutes and Hood Canal river systems to the south were among the rivers most important to the whales for providing the chinook that the critically endangered southern-resident killer whales eat, according to the analysis by NOAA Fisheries and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The preliminary findings also shed new light on the wide variety of chinook stocks needed by the whales. Rather than being animals only of the Salish Sea, including Puget Sound, the southern residents also are targeting chinook runs headed to rivers all up and down the coast.

The top 15 chinook stocks on the priority list include fall, spring and summer runs in Puget Sound rivers, the Fraser River in British Columbia, the Columbia and Snake Rivers, and the Sacramento River in California’s Central Valley….
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Over the past week, the Comox harbour area and Royston have been hosting a visiting orca whale, known by the authourities as T073B. The 27-year old whale has been in the area since last Monday afternoon, after breaking off from a group of orcas last Sunday.

The animal is believed to be feeding on local seals, and many residents of the Valley have been making their way to the shoreline and on the water to watch him swim around and jump out of the water.

However, one family got a bit more than they bargained for when they took the boat out to escape the hot weather. According to Dan Campbell, the owner of the sailboat "R-Therapy", the whale grabbed his anchor chain on Sunday afternoon….
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The first calf born in three years to the endangered orcas that spend time in Pacific Northwest waters died Tuesday, the latest troubling sign for a population already at its lowest in more than three decades.

A dead whale was seen being pushed to the surface by her mother just a half hour after it was spotted alive in the waters off the coast of Victoria, British Columbia, said Ken Balcomb, senior scientist with the Center for Whale Research on San Juan Island, which closely tracks each individual whale.

The mother was seen propping the newborn on her forehead and trying to keep it near the surface of the water, he said. “The baby was so newborn it didn’t have blubber. It kept sinking, and the mother would raise it to the surface.”

The distinctive black-and-white whales have struggled since they were listed as an endangered species in the U.S. and Canada over a decade ago. They’re not getting enough of the large, fatty Chinook salmon that make up their main diet. They also face threats from toxic pollution and noise and disturbances from boats.

A statewide task force formed by Gov. Jay Inslee has been meeting since spring to come up with ways to help the population. Efforts include slowing down state ferries to reduce the effect of noise, increasing hatchery production of salmon, training more commercial whale-watching boats to help respond to oil spills, and prioritizing areas where important habitat can be restored to help fish and orcas.

Balcomb and others say more aggressive measures are needed. They have called for the removal of four dams on the Lower Snake River to restore salmon runs….
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An entangled North Atlantic right whale, spotted Monday in the Bay of Fundy, is proving elusive for rescue crews trying to find it.

Three rescue boats were on the water Tuesday and a Department of Fisheries and Oceans aircraft was surveying from the sky, but heavy fog limited their search areas off Grand Manan, N.B.

A North Atlantic right whale appears at the surface of Cape Cod bay off the coast of Plymouth, Mass., in this March 28 file photo. Fisheries and Oceans Canada said on Tuesday that an entangled North Atlantic right whale has been spotted off Grand Manan, N.B.

"Unfortunately the fog is closing in and we have two teams who have established listening posts in the fog, and the Campobello Whale Rescue Team is in open water and searching the areas around the Grand Manan Basin because they have visibility," said Jerry Conway of the Campobello team.

He said the whale, identified as an adult male, was seen Monday morning with an orange buoy trailing behind it….
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Researchers with the Cascadia Research Collective recently confirmed a hybrid of a melon-headed whale and a rough-toothed dolphin was witnessed during a two-week project in Kauai, Hawaii, in August 2017. It is believed to be the first-ever documented hybrid of its kind, Robin Baird, the project’s head researcher, told Fox News in an email….
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Researchers in Quebec are hoping a computer simulator that resembles a video game can help save the endangered St. Lawrence beluga whales.

The project, which received funding from the provincial government this week, allows scientists to input known data about both whales and ships to see how they’ll interact under different conditions.

The model allows researchers to test out different scenarios by adjusting the number of whales, as well as factors such as ship speed and engine volume, to find the best way to minimize risk, according to the professor in charge of the study.

“You see the St. Lawrence and the Saguenay rivers in 3D, where each whale is represented as a separate entity, and each boat as well, and we move them around according to rules based on real data gathered on boat and whale behaviour.”

Chion said the simulator was originally developed about 10 years ago in order to minimize collisions between large whales and ships.

Now, the team is working to add a new dimension that will allow them to calculate each ship’s “acoustic footprint” to figure out how to reduce the impact of engine noise on the sensitive mammals….
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The threat to this marine diversity of Goa needs to be curbed, and that’s how “Ocean Biodiversity Experience’ has emerged. Their work involves exploring estuarine and oceanic habitat, sharing information about the local species of dolphin, such as behaviour, habitat use, conservation threats, etc.

In Goa, Terra Conscious, a social impact travel enterprise is working with local fishermen who have switched to operating dolphin tours to helpthem run an ethical dolphin-watching programme as an example of social impact tours. Boat operators now run their trips by internationally accepted dolphin watching guidelines. We have designed a four-hour experience which is called “Ocean Biodiversity Experience’."

The training is essentially two-fold: it involves sharing information about the focal species (Humpback dolphins) through interactive presentations/photos/videos with boat-operator partners, so they learn about the physical attributes, habitat use, behaviour, intelligence and conservation threats. The second step is to understand how to operate the boat around dolphin pods and help them to reduce the pressure they cause on the habitat by their presence….
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