Welcoming Whales

ABOUT WHALES

What makes humans want to connect with whales and dolphins? Are we attracted because whales are so enormously charismatic and dolphins so playful? Is it because they are so obviously intelligent yet different enough to be enigmatic? And the attraction seems to be mutual. Whales and dolphins are curious about us too. Since we stopped slaughtering them in 1969 many have even become friendly. More whales of all kinds are returning to their former summer feeding grounds. Here in the Salish Sea [Georgia Strait on maps] a small but growing number of humpback whales are staying in the waters between Vancouver Island and the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. Currently most humans in our region are welcoming whales with open hearts. But there are some choices to be made.

WHALE FOOD

Choice foods for humpback whales are forage fish like herring, anchovies, sand lance and krill which are tiny crustaceans. Herring were once so abundant in this region that people could go down to the beaches during a herring spawn and scoop up buckets of the 25cm [10in] oily fish. But over-fishing and pollution of their spawning beaches decimated their numbers. Herring only began to return to the qathet region’s (upper sunshine coast’s) main beaches in 2014 after a 30-year disappearance. Does the return of the herring have something to do with the return of the humpback whales? In November 2015 Fisheries and Oceans Canada (FOC) allowed a catch of over 7,000 tonnes of herring in Georgia Strait for food and bait fish with more planned. One humpback whale can eat 3 – 9 tons of krill per day. Will we choose to leave some food for them?

There is a moratorium on herring fishing throughout most of the BC coast. Not here in the Salish Sea – even though the number of herring has declined in the last decade and been decimated from a century of over-fishing enabled by federal fisheries mismanagement. Still, Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) refuses to consider a moratorium on herring fishing in this area even though they have to continually drop the quota for commercial fishers. North Pacific herring can live for 19 years. It is beyond belief that DFO still allows herring roe fishing methods that kill the spawners when they know there are proven techniques to gather the eggs without killing the parents. First Nations have perfected these methods – why are we not using their time proven expertise?

In September/October of 2015 there were lots of krill in Jervis Inlet. 4 or 5 humpback whales, including a Mom and calf were feeding and frolicking there during that period. We camped in Jervis Inlet in October to wait for the whales. Unfortunately, the times they came closest were in the dark of a moonless night.

Here’s two humpbacks breaching and tail lobbing on the far side of the Inlet from our campsite. They were 1 km across the fjord so you will see their bodies hit the water and then hear the powerful sound a few seconds later.

In November FOC allowed a krill fishery with 500 tonnes of krill to be taken out of small inlets like Jervis.“Krill in B.C. are harvested mainly as a feed supplement for both fish farms (gives salmon their ‘pink’ colour) and aquariums. Krill are a large dietary proportion of many local finfish (hake, herring, rockfish, salmon) and if krill stocks should fall, finfish could be affected. [ref: http://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/science/oceans/plankton-plancton/zooplankton-zooplancton-eng.html]

To say that a humpback whale is merely large depends on your perspective. When a 16m (52ft) whale swims under your 3m (9ft) boat your voice tends to rise rise 2 octaves in breathless excitement!

A Humpback named “KC” (Kelp Creature) steaming up Jervis Inlet past our 3m(9 ft) inflatable dinghy.

We love to watch them and interact with them. But more and more folks in boats are venturing out onto the water. If we want whales here we will have to leave room for them to go about making their living without interference by humans. However, if whales are curious and approach us why shouldn’t humans welcome their interest?

DEATH IN THE WATER

50% of humpback whales feeding here in the Salish Sea have scars from getting entangled in commercial fishing gear and recreational prawn gear. We don’t see the whales who have sunk to the bottom of the sea after dying slow horrible deaths. Often whales are sighted dragging hundreds of pounds of lines and buoys all the way to their southern birthing areas in Hawai’i and Mexico. Are we willing to use our ingenuity and financial resources to design whale-friendly fishing gear?

Many whales are struck by boats both commercial and recreational. Head injuries and trauma result. Humans need to manage ourselves and our activities to become a benign or at least neutral presence in the ocean. Staying out of migrating routes and feeding areas and slowing down when whales are using them is a start. Propellor cages on outboard motors protect aquatic mammals from deep cuts if they are runover.

Explosive human noise in the ocean like naval sonar or seismic testing can cause internal hemoraghing in whales. If they panic and flee to the surface they can suffer nitrogen narcosis like scuba divers. Very loud sounds can also deafen whales and cause strandings. And constant background sound interferes with the sound communications of aquatic beings. For more information about how human-made sound in the ocean affects whales DOSITS (Discovery of Sound in the Sea) is a brilliant website for a wealth of the latest science.  Effects of sound on whales

So what can individuals do? Managing boat propellor noise is something boat owners can do while increasing fuel efficiency. These toroidal propellors are available for boats > 10m (33ft).  https://newatlas.com/aircraft/toroidal-quiet-propellers/

And what about tankers? The “Northern Gateway” project proposed to drive oil supertankers right through the northern whale migration route along the BC coast. With the renewed prospect of LNG in supertankers ploughing through the Salish Sea comes increased risk of whales being hit and intensification of underwater engine noise interfering with sound communication in many aquatic species. Do we want whales in our waters or supertankers?

So there are Choices to be made. Will we accommodate our large friends in the future? If so, how? How are we planning for coexistence now?

HOW TO MAKE FRIENDS WITH WHALES

One of the focuses of this project is an inquiry into the human-whale connection. There is a parallel to getting to know your neighbours who come from a different culture; a story of protocol and respect, sharing and caring.

When first meeting anyone from another culture it helps to have a guide who understands that culture and can interpret the language and customs. So we have asked humans who have relationships with individual whales or dolphins how they developed those relationships. Some of these humans are biologists who have been studying and interacting with whales or dolphins for decades. Some are from coastal First Nations who have a long history of living and canoeing along-side whales before colonization decimated both populations. Some First Nations hunted whales in a highly specialized and ceremonial hunt.

We’ve heard stories about homesteaders living beside resident humpback whales in the Broughton Archipelago 50 years ago. People in villages along the mid-Pacific Coast of Mexico and the Sea of Cortes where humpback whales migrate to mate and birth, are currently living and fishing beside humpback, blue, fin, sperm and grey whales. Grey, Humpback and Blue whales have given many communities in Baja California a thriving whale watching economy.

Humpback whales have been on Planet Earth in their present form for around 10 – 15 million years. Wouldn’t it be incredible if we could learn how they perceive the universe? If humans could understand their languages would they tell us about their cultures and their history or their concerns about the health of the oceans? What do they think about climate change?  What do they think about humans? Do they think about us at all?

NOTE: What we have learned since 2015 is how to be humble! Whales and other wild beings who have not been domesticated have their own agendas, priorities and social structures. If they come close to us out of their own  curiousity or playfulness we are honoured to be the brief focus of their attention. They do have friends of other species so it is not inconceivable that a whale or 2 might want to develop a friendship with us but it is entirely their decision. In the meantime we are endlessly fascinated, intrigued and surprised by these awesome beings.