Humpbacks, Northern Resident Orca, and Southern Resident Orca

Ailing orca J50 isn’t faring well, but an international group of scientists is working to save her, including sharp-shooting veterinarians. They’ve administered medicine to the whale over the past month.

It was a tricky shot, kneeling in the bow of a moving boat, in pursuit of a…
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Ecojustice lawyers asked the Federal Court to review the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans and Minister of Environment and Climate Change’s failure to recommend an emergency order to protect Southern Resident killer whales under the Species at Risk Act, in an application filed on behalf of David Suzuki Foundation, Georgia Strait Alliance, Natural Resources Defense Council, Raincoast Conservation Foundation and World Wildlife Fund Canada earlier today….
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It’s safe to say that orcas have been on our collective mind lately, as stories of a Southern resident mother carrying her dead calf for 17 days has broken so many hearts. And it was the particular story of the Northern resident orca pod off the coast of Vancouver that resonated with musician Leah Abramson. She’d been at Malcolm Island in British Columbia to tape the sounds of the whales breathing and rubbing their bodies on stones – all research for a new series of songs.

Songs for a Lost Pod, both an album and a graphic novel that tells the tale of the orcas and a narrative of separation, is the result of Abramson’s work recording and then using the sounds to write songs told from a whale’s perspective. In this video, she opens up about how a pod of whales helped her reflect and heal….
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Have patience to watch this 5 minute video of hungry Humpback whales lunge feeding alongside Common dolphins, Sea Lions, and birds. Towards the end of the video you will see a Blue whale as well as thousands of dolphins (Common & Risso’s) playing near our boat. Footage taken September 3rd, 2018 from the Pt Sur Clipper….
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A biologist who’s spent nearly three decades studying humpback whale, Nan Hauser never experienced an encounter like the one in September 2017. For ten minutes, the barnacle-knobbed humpback nudged her, lifted her out of the water, and swept her under its pectoral fin. She thought the whale might kill her. But once she was aboard her boat, she saw a tiger shark in the vicinity. Hauser thinks the whale was trying to protect her. The claim was met with skepticism by Hauser’s peers, and she understands their hesitation. But humpback whales do rescue animals-both other humpbacks and other species-from predators. The reasons for this behavior aren’t fully known. Her first-person footage puts you right where Hauser was. But it’s nearly impossible to know the humpback’s real motivation….
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Cetacean biologist Dr Krista Hupman is a lead author of two new scientific papers outlining an accurate method of counting dolphins by using photo identification. "We have photographed individual dolphin’s dorsal fins and established a catalogue of dolphins that can be differentiated by differences in their dorsal fin edge markings and pigmentation patterns," Dr Hupman says.

Scientists use catalogues of animals to determine how many animals occupy a region and such information can be used to determine if the population is in decline.

However, some dolphins can be hard to count as they occur in large populations, over vast areas and may lack distinctive markings for identification. It is for these reasons that many scientists shy away from using photo-identification to conduct population estimates, and instead use aerial or shipboard surveys.

Dr Hupman says these methods may not be the best for counting animals and limit our ability to learn about individual animals.

"It’s really hard to know how many dolphins there are of some species, because they travel over large distances and don’t have any distinctive markings. We’ve developed a reliable photo-identification method that challenges how dolphins are counted that could have significant impact on the management of these animals."…
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More concerns have been raised by Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC) over protection of Hector’s and Māui dolphins, following the release of new data from around the top of the South Island.

WDC consultant Gemma McGrath said there were fewer than 60 of the critically endangered Māui dolphins left, while the Hector’s population was down to just 20 per cent of its former size. She said WDC was disappointed in the Government’s failure to meet its election promises of protecting them.

Set-netting and trawls in coastal regions were killing the dolphins at a rate that could see them wiped out forever, she said. In March this year, a Hector’s dolphin was found dead at Rabbit Island, Nelson. The dolphin’s body showed marks made by fishing net with the official cause of death suffocation in a set net.

McGrath said woefully inadequate protected areas for the dolphins were designated in 2008 but did not include the highly important Cook Strait and Taranaki Bight areas due to a lack of data.

The Hector’s Dolphin Sightings App, launched less than two years ago in partnership with WDC and the Department of Conservation (DOC), has shown a five-fold increase in sightings of Hector’s dolphins around the top of the South Island. This was evidence that the area was an important habitat for Hector’s dolphins and should be protected from set nets and trawling, McGrath said.

The pair of bottlenose dolphins were likely drawn to the river because dry conditions meant more salt in the water attracting more fish.

"It means there’s more bream and other fish in the water which would have attracted the dolphins," he said.

A pair of dolphins were also spotted around Richmond last week and some were seen in the Maribyrnong river yesterday.

"So many waterways around the world are losing their resident dolphins so it’s wonderful to see them in our river," Mr Weir said.

Jo Richards, Regional Director Melbourne Marine and Maritime, Parks Victoria, said:…
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