Category: Humpback Whales

October 2020 Halloween Reveries with Whales

These are the sounds we were hearing on Halloween night. Terry and I anchored off Savary Island in our little old sailboat Blue Parrot. A lovely end-of-October eve on the Salish Sea filled our senses. I dropped my 2 hydrophones over opposite sides of the boat about 4 metres deep into 8 metres of water. We were watching the full moon rise through ribbons of cloud over the mainland mountains. Mars rose orange in the East. Brilliant Jupiter appeared over Vancouver Island in the South with smaller, dimmer Saturn a little further Southeast. Silver moonlight lit the sky. Below, a calm silky ocean shimmered, where the occasional belch of a seal or cry of a gull drifted across the water. Moonight revealed the mainland contours on one side of the Strait and Vancouver Island on the other as far as we could see. Blooms of neon purple, green, red, indigo, yellow and white flowered over both shores chased by muted boombiddy-booms as adults and children around the Salish Sea gathered to enjoy the Halloween fireworks displays.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN to this whale who was quite far away – probably 6 – 8 km. You can hear the sea splashing against the hull. The odd creaks and knocks are the boat rudder knocking and the crackles are shrimp talking on the bottom under the boat! One whale is singing all the notes – the very high squeaks and the low growls. He is practising his song for performing in Mexico or Hawaii. The song becomes more complex and developed in December before the whales leave on their southern migration.

It was Magic – perfect for a Halloween reverie accompanied by the haunting music coming through from the hydrophones. was this music the eerie wails of long departed souls? or aliens trying to communicate with receptive earthlings? No. The ghoulish notes in my headphones were the eerie wails of eerie WHALES – Whales who are very much alive on planet Earth right now. This is the music of humpback whales you are hearing. They’re practising their song here in the Salish Sea of BC before they begin their long migration to Mexico or Hawaii or even Japan. Once they have perfected their song, which slowly changes every year, they will perform it in the warm waters of their southern destinations.

No human knows why humpback whales sing or what the whales are singing about. Only the males sing and a singing male will attract other males who will often join in the song. In the 5 years we’ve been listening underwater for vocalizing humpback whales in the Salish Sea, the end of October and beginning of November are the only times we’ve heard any vocalizing at all. It’s another whale mystery that, along with so many whale mysteries, only adds to the awe that 2 tiny, curious humans feel when in the presence of these majestic beings.

Undoubtedly whale biologists feel it too, even while they conduct precise, tightly structured investigations and analyze the data. Whales are so much like us. Mothers feed, care for, teach and protect their babies. Whales often hunt and feed together with every whale having a prescribed job. They socialize and play with friends. Male Humpbacks sing and compose complicated songs. Whales from different areas have different languages, cultures and food preferences. They communicate vocally and with body language. But here is where we begin to differ. Aside from the obvious differences of size and body shape whales and humans have evolved very different physiologies in order to thrive on land or in the sea. We both have 2 eyes and 2 ears but what whales see and hear both underwater and above the water is very different from what humans see and hear. We humans do not have nostrils on top of our heads or mouths that gape open to our bellies while consuming more than 1 ton of fish per day.

Here is the biggest mystery of all in my humble opinion: Whales and dolphins are conscious breathers. They have to be awake in order to breathe. But, like every other mammal, they must sleep and dream. So they have evolved a clever work-around to allow them to sleep and breathe simultaneously. All dolphins and whales sleep with only 1/2 of their brain at a time. One hemisphere is off in dreamland while the other is monitoring the immediate environment and initiating breathing in realtime. Have you ever woken in the middle of the night and hovered in that half asleep/half awake horizon where dream characters populate your consciousness but you are also aware that you are in bed? or that the click you are hearing is your digital clock? or that you might have to pee? Is that how whales experience their sleeptime? I wonder what kind of consciousness that produces in whales?

And here is the real kicker. Humans have been learning about our planet from other animals and plants forever. We also use their special gifts to help us thrive in the environments we share. We use a dog’s sense of smell and hearing to help us hunt. We use the hawk’s eyes to scan the landscape. We tune in to the alarms of birds to notify us of predators in the forest. Plants, trees and fungi transform minerals and vitamins in soil and water into compounds that our cells can use to keep us healthy.

So why sit here in front of your screen googling for information on the internet when you can be outside letting your dog take you for a walk through a park or forest? Have you sat with your cat on the porch or balcony or slightly opened window of an apartment? Can you observe what she’s observing? Lots of folks can watch flowers, or fish, or listen to birds for hours. Try it. The world you’ll discover is the world that goes on around us 24/7, mostly unnoticed by humans.

As the dominant large animal species on Earth today we get lost in our own human stories. We root out ways we are different from each other while we are surrounded by beings who are more different from us than any human is from any other human. And what a cornucopia of differences there is – so many ways of perceiving the universe, more than we can ever know. So many stories to explore. Find someone to share your adventures and stories with. You will be constantly amazed as well as amused – and healthier and happier in the bargain.

July 2020 #5 – Playtime with Spotlight & Calf!

We moored Blue Parrot on the dock with her nose toward shore. At low tide with a NW wind blowing us towards moored boats in shallow water it’s a bit tricky getting off. We time for a gust to blow Blue P off the dock and pull a 270° turn to head out into Evans Bay. The NW wind sweeps across low terrain on Read Island from Hoskyns Channel, Johnson Strait and Bute Inlet. White caps on the crests of short steep waves rile up the mouth of the bay. Wind and waves blow us around the point all the way into Burdwood Bay.

Baby Breaching!

Terry assesses the possibility of an anchorage for later tonight. “Looks good at low tide here. I think we’ll be OK. Let’s head out.” Blue P angles across the frothing mouth of Evans Bay to the Penn Islands. We’re getting ready to raise the sails when the water suddenly flattens and the wind dies. “Typical” Jude mutters as another attempt to sail is foiled yet again.

All thoughts of sailing evaporate as we spot 2 humpies close to the shore of the middle Penn. They’re moving slowly, making their way around the outside island closest to Cortes. “Sleeping” Terry notes wryly. He notices one of the whale watching boats emerging from Whale Passage and reports the whales. We decide to move a little closer when “What was that? Up ahead – a breach – towards Von Donnop” We hear the WHHOOMP of WHALE hitting Water.  “Let’s Go!” Jude steers Blue P over as the whale watchers speed past.

We approach slowly and cut the engine “Is that a baby?” Terry wonders “Yes! A Mom and Calf! Look! The baby is breaching – she can’t quite make it all the way out of the water” —–“Is this a good position?” Jude calls to Terry who is perched precariously on Blue P’s bow manouvering carefully around the furled jib.

“WHOAH!” Mom is tail lobbing. Half her body is up out of the water. Baby is so close it looks as if Mom is going to land on top of herm – but she doesn’t. “Looks like they’re playing” Terry shouts during a brief lull in activity. He’s performing some fancy footwork to keep the whales in focus as they circle around Blue P at about 100 meters. Their play is so exuberant and Baby’s ingenue breaches are so adorable. Then Mom BREACHES – WHHHHUUMMMPPPP!  The SIZE of HER!! There are no words equal to the AWESOMENESS of a 40 TON WHALE leaping clear out of the ocean into the air. “Sky Hopping” as our friend Martha thought it was called – A much better description of defying gravity!

So special to finally witness a Mom and Calf playing together like this. We are so juiced! We’ve waited 5 years for this moment – and to capture it on film so we can share it with you was worth every minute of boredom and discomfort.

Mom and Calf are moving north. They’re getting farther away as the wind blows Blue P south. Then “Looks like playtime is over. They seem to be resting now”.  Terry observes. “Heads up!” Jude calls. She swings Blue P around in the direction of a nearby cove where half a dozen boats are congregating. “There are a couple of whales over there. Maybe they’ve finished sleeping” We hang around with them for a while but they’re not interested in people. They dive and easily give us all the slip.

Meanwhile it’s getting pretty windy so we decide to head back towards our evening anchorage. Evans Bay has once again erupted in white caps and heavy winds. We angle across the waves, navigating around another whale who is also crossing. “Happy sailing friend”

There are 2 other sailboats already anchored in Burdwood Bay so anchoring is a bit tight. But it’s protected from the NW waves and the gusts will blow us off shore not towards the other boats, so we settle in for the night.

July 2020 #6 – Raza and Harlequin the Humpback Acrobats

It’s morning in Burdwood Bay and we’re up and away before the tide drops too low.  “Let’s head NE again.” I suggest “we can sail to the Penns and check for blows as we go.” I unfurl the jib and we manage a short sail before the breeze completely dies (typical) as we reach the Penn Islands.

We float around scanning the scene but don’t find any whales. Terry notices a whale watching boat speeding out of Whale Passage towards Calm Channel. “Hey! I think they’ve stopped. They’ve probably found a whale” he says “Let’s go over there. I’ll get my camera” I fire up the engine. We head over and start to line up beside the whale watch boat when the 2 whales begin to jump. “They’re coming our way Terry” I yell “I’ll have to get out of the way!”

“A breach! Another breach! A double breach! They’re too close! I need my wide angle lens!” Terry yells. ” Shit! I can’t get them both in the frame. I’m just guessing where they’re going to come up.  I focus on this whale and that whale breaches. I don’t know where to point the camera!”  I find the wide angle lens sitting in the cockpit and run to the bow to hand it to Terry. Then I run back to the tiller to steer the boat away from the whales who are getting closer. “Why is there always wind when we’re with the whales?” I opine.  Blue P skims over the waves past the boats on the other side of the whales. Meanwhile the pair begin to fin slap. They execute a few more breath-taking breaches which we miss because Blue Parrot has sailed away from the action.

This is a perpetual problem with the Parrot ship. She’s a sailboat and the wind moves her even without sails up. And she has a lot of inertia when she’s moving unlike a runabout which will simply stop when you kill the motor. Add to that the joy of an engine with no true reverse. She’s not the easiest vessel to control. With lots of other boats around and whales close to us all my attention has to be on the helm. This means I don’t have time to get my hydrophone into the water to record any possible vocalizing between the whales. I also have a skookum stereo mic onboard but all this takes about 5 minutes to set up. We really need a larger boat with a dedicated skipper to be in charge of it. (This will not be news to anyone who’s been following these blogs.)

“Terry, I’m going to have to turn the boat with the wind. You’ll have to move to the other side.” Poor Ter. It’s hard enough to find a place on Blue P to shoot video that’s not obstructed by shrouds, stays, mast, boom, life lines or other hardware blocking the camara’s view. Then there’s all the buttons and wheels on the GH5 which all have different functions depending on the various positions of each one. It’s too easy to hit one accidentally and shut off something or turn on something else you didn’t intend to turn on – or turn record off altogether – especially if you’re 6’4″ and have big hands. And that’s even before you have to decide which lens to use – telephoto or wide angle? Whales don’t stay in one place for long.  And, if there’s more than one  which whale is going to jump? It’s hard to fit a bunch of whales into one frame. After pondering on that controlling a tender sailboat seems easy in comparison.

Meanwhile Terry observes something on the back of one of the whales  “Are those propellor marks?” he asks. He’s peering through the camera. As the whales settle down Blue P drifts over to one of the whale watching boats. The skipper is Nick. He’s an expert guide who has been on the water for years and can identify most of the humpbacks and orcas individually. “The one with the propellor wounds on her back is Raza” Nick tells us. Later we learn that the other whale may be Harlequin.

Meanwhile half a dozen recreational boaters who have gathered to watch the show disperse into the channel. “Let’s try anchoring in Von Donnop tonight – we’re already here” Terry suggests. “It’s Saturday night – do you think there’ll be space?” I ask “There’s lots of anchoring space all through there ” Terry responds. “OK, but I need a swim first. I’m so hot. I’m going to head into the calmer water and jump off the bubble boat.”

40 minutes later I finally exit the chop of crisscrossing currents to find calmer water. Since the evening wind will probably come up again soon I jump into the ocean for quick frigid dip “EEEEEE!”. I haul out to let Terry have a turn. Terry perches on the edge of the bubble boat gingerly splashing his too HOT skin and ruminating on whether he’s up to getting in when “Hey Ter, there’s 2 whales coming up the channel. They’re headed this way – maybe 150 meters.”

PLOP! He’s in like Flynn! – no hesitation – splashing his long arms like fins to attract the whales. “Take a photo of me with the whales” Terry yells moistly. I drop into the cabin and grab the camera – but the whales aren’t cooperating. They just keep on truckin’ past us up the channel.  Oh well.  We amuse ourselves shooting video of Terry fin slapping and being a whale in the water with the magnificent mountains as backdrop.

Then the wind comes up and it’s a wild ride into Von Donnop with the wind on our heels.

 

May 2020 #2 – First Humpback Whale Sail

It’s finally our first cruise of the season. Our inflatable dinghy is held together mostly by glue, epoxy, 5200 and lots of repair hours. We offer prayers to the gods of small appliances “Please let him make it through another whale season.”  SV Blue Parrot is so far in pretty good shape. Unfortunately she hasn’t grown any over the Winter – still too small for Giant Terry.

We enjoy a few days at anchor in a beautiful bay to relax and get back into the rhythm of weather and tides. There is no cell or internet service in the Bay. Our VHF radio intermittently transmits weather statements from Environment Canada. Reception depends on Blue P’s position in the arc of her swing around her anchor.

We weigh anchor in light rain showers. An occasional breakthrough of sunrays through rainclouds plays rainbow prisms over dark mountains with snowy peaks. A report of a humpback whale near Cortes Reef comes in. “Let’s Go!” We’re on our way through Baker Passage when Terry shouts “Orca! They’re coming this way. 3, no 4 of them. I’ll get my camera.” He hands off the tiller to me after I’ve quickly grabbed my hydrophone gear. ”

They’re traveling really fast.” Terry announces. “They’re through the passage. Maybe they’re going to the rubbing beach – no they’re headed across to the mainland” I drop the hydrophone anyway in case the orca are vocalizing or communicating with others we can’t see.  I listen. “Nada. Maybe they’re hunting and they’re in stealth mode. They’re obviously mammal eaters” (Transient Biggs orca). I reel in the hydrophone.

Nearby, gulls are crying and swooping down in a frenzy! Guillemots and loons are also diving underwater at the same place. As we approach, bald eagles start flying in and grabbing fish from the surface. A Bait Ball is happening!! Herring or anchovy are being forced to the surface by salmon below them, making them available to aerial predators. S-c-r-e-e-e-e-e-ching eagle cries join with the gulls’ screaming in a cacophony of sound matching their chaotic flying and swooping. Soon there are a couple dozen eagles vying for fish and more keep coming! Where do they come from? Are there that many within sight of the bait ball? Or do they hear the sounds of birds or do they call each other, or . . .? Mysteries abound and every day in the natural world brings more questions we want to answer! Questions, questions, questions . . . always more and more!

There is a light SW breeze and the tide is with us so we float off Marina Island for a while and duck into the cabin to get out of the now intense midday sun. Terry sticks his head out  for a quick check just as 2 humpback whales breach off Francisco Pt. We fire up Lazarus (our WWII engine) and beetle over as fast as we can (4.85 knots/hr) while the whales breach and fin slap. 20 minutes later we arrive on the scene and carefully line up with the 2 recreational boats who have been enjoying the show. But the whales are finished being active. They proceed with their usual mode of activity when they are close to us – they go to sleep!

“OOOO Whale Breath” Terry groans as a piquant perfume of rotting fish with sulphurous accents wafts over us. But I am in whale heaven. I just love to BE around them even when they’re sleeping. Terry starts to talk about the challenges of shooting good video of whales from a sailboat. One of the whales gives a single gentle tail slap and both whales swim away.

Did we disturb them by talking? it’s so hard to know what that tail slap meant. [see Humpback Body Language Blog April 2020] We don’t follow them since they obviously left us.

The light SW daytime breeze is a harbinger of summer winds. We hoist the sails and sail to Drew Harbour on a broad reach. Sutil Channel is covid 19 quiet. There aren’t the usual fishing and tourist boats around. Our ears perk up – a breath. It’s another humpback whale – a smaller juvenile – and s/he is snoozing mid-channel. We sail serenely on.

Drew Harbour is a shocker. We round the end of the spit to find flotillas of flotsam and floating logs filling the anchorage. “It looks like a boom broke up in here” i say. We weave our way to our favourite anchorage and set the anchor  just as the tide starts to ebb and the wind switches to NW 10 – 20 knots.  Just in time! Sure cools off a hot day though.

 

May 2020 #1 – Lockdowns!

There are many kinds of lockdowns. Some are physical. Others are emotional, psychological, spiritual. Covid 19 started as a physical lockdown. But the lockdown itself is affecting the mental, emotional and even spiritual health of the human global population. Prisons of any kind, even the kindest kind will do that.

The economic restrictions have killed the usual May tourist rush here on the Salish Sea. With the Canada/US border closed to non-essential traffic yachts from Seattle are barred. Vancouver area boaters are mostly staying away although a few have been sneaking into anchorages in Desolation Sound and the Discovery Islands. Fuel and pump outs can be accessed from some marinas but most limit traffic “from away” to the dock area – no mixing with the locals.

With tourists banned whale watching companies are advertising a shut down until Summer. However, some of the captains are still out on the water doing water taxi or other work. So they are sending reports to the network of any orcas, dolphins and whales that they come across. And some intrepid nature-loving souls are just hanging out with any cetaceans they find.

I’ve been anxious to get back on the water with the whales since April. The long winter and extended virus season have been opportunities for more research about other species of whales. All live intriguing and mysterious lives that we humans know so little about. I’ve also been corresponding with Jim Darling, co-founder of Whale Trust in Hawaii and an expert bioacoustician. I sent Jim the whalesong files that I recorded in November of 2019. Jim has done some fascinating research into the meaning of humpback whalesong, its function in humpback culture and its relationship to regional populations and migrations. The revelations of Jim’s research will help us to understand the role of whalesong in humpback relationships amongst males (who are the singers) and between males and females (who are choosing mates).

Jude and Terry find that the old law within the science hierarchy about not attributing emotional, problem solving and aesthetic capacity to any animal except homo sapiens still seems to be operating. Research projects which are granted funding follow the strict rules and metrics of stated factors and vectors with observations fitted into those boxes. This approach has proven very useful for specific information like population numbers, genetic tracing, food sources etc. But it is only one approach and has limitations. Other ways of gathering information ie: traditional indigenous knowledge and stories are barely acknowledged and not credited. Even in private conversation many scientists rarely let on that they might wander and ponder outside of their proposed Science-dictated hypotheses. We find this sad – mostly sad for the researchers who can’t explore their emotional and even spiritual connection to the beings they spend so much time studying.

Anyway, people have been observing the returning humpback whales mostly in Discovery Passage and venturing around Cape Mudge into Sutil Channel. It’s time to venture out for our first whale cruise of the season!

April 2020 – Humpback Body Language

We humans love the animals who live with us. And they love us too. Over milennia we have learned how to communicate with each other by reading each others body language. Because we are all binary models ie: 2 arms, 2 legs, 2 brain hemispheres, 2 ears etc. a lot of our musculo-skeletal responses to stimuli are similar. We “raise our hackles” and snarl when angry, we whimper and cower when afraid. Humans have learned to read tails and our animal friends can read human eye and hand movements. We recognize each others’ voices and faces and scents. Wild animals who live close to humans have also learned to read us. Racoons, birds who nest and feed near us, squirrels, mice and rats – even house spiders I am trying to avoid while vacuuming are aware of my movements and what they are signaling.

Fish can be extremely curious. Divers love to play with friendly octopuses, seals, manta rays and dolphins. Divers keep returning for more encounters, sometimes with gifts of food or toys.

But what about whales? They are mammals like us with symetrical brains and limbs BUT -and that’s a BIG but – their scale is Super Sized. The medium through which whales perceive the universe is water so their senses are tuned to that environment and not as acute in air. Humans need special aparatus and training to spend any time in a whale’s world other than at the surface of the ocean. Our eyes and ears are not evolved for the liquid environment so we need to surround them with air in order to focus light and sound. So how can we become familiar with whale body language if we only see the 10% of their body that breaks the surface and can’t correlate their vocalizations with their actions?

Biologist and researcher Denise Hertzing has spent over 3 decades studying wild spotted and bottlenose dolphins in one bay in the Bahamas. The water is warm and clear which makes it possible for Denise and her team to actually interact with the dolphins in their world. Because she can be in the same environment as the dolphins she has learned their body language. She understands the meaning of many of their calls and can relate some of their behaviour with their vocalizations. Her team has even adapted dolphin body language to the human body. The Team can approximate some of the gestures and expressions dolphins use. Instead of rubbing fins with friends as dolphins do the humans rub elbows. Denise knows the pod as individuals and has become very friendly with a few of the females. They know she is in charge of her team and will show their disaproval directly to Denise if one of her team doesn’t follow dolphin protocol. The dolphins choose whether they want to interact with the humans, coming and going as they please. Denise is one of the few biologists who openly studies interspecies communication and the possibility of humans and cetaceans learning each others’ languages.

But what about whales? What does it mean when a whale slaps their tail on the water? In beaver language a tail slap signals a startled reaction or pissed off response and generally means “take off, eh?”  In humpback whales Terry and I have observed that a tail slap can mean anything from  “Hey, give me your attention” if soft and gentle to a warning or reprimand if hard and explosive. We’ve seen tail slaps when humpback whales are playing with sea lions and also when the whales seem to be feeding so maybe they use tail lobs to stun and disorient fish.

I am curious to know whether many body language gestures have  similar meanings and/or intentions throughout the cetacean family tree – a question I will ask the research folks and the whale watching guides who have the most opportunities to observe wild cetaceans in the water.

November 2019 #4 The Pinnacles of Whalesong

Nov 6th dawns another frigid morning. While our tea kettle attempts a few tunes of its own Terry downloads video from the camera. Jude is programming her mixer/recorder while listening for whales on the hydrophone. “Terry – I hear something –  it definitely sounds like singing – not close. Let’s head out. I’ll keep the hydrophone down and keep listening. We may be able to locate them”

We head the Parrot ship SW in the direction of Vancouver Island – to The Pinnacles. That’s where, yesterday, the golden light of the setting sun backlit heart-shaped blows of 6 – 10 humpback whales. Their dark backs appeared as tiny black crescents breaking the surface 2km SW of Blue Parrot.

The Pinnacles is a rock formation which rises sharply from the ocean floor at 600ft up to 70 ft below the water’s surface. Fish like to congregate here and so do all the critters who eat them including humans.  As we motor closer Jude is listening for increasing volume of whalesong. “Sounds like we’re going in the right direction. Do you see anybody” “Nobody yet” Terry answers “Let me know when you want to stop”

During mid-day there is a break in service on the Comox-Powell River and Texada-Powell River ferries as their crews change shifts. Happily it’s break time now. The silence is heavenly. These are the clearest songs Jude has been able to record. Subtle nuances and inflections which had been obscured by boat noise on the previous recordings are now clearly audible. “You’ve got to hear this Terry! I think there are 2 whales – 1 farther away” An enraptured Jude holds out the headphones “I’m going to get the speaker so we can both listen.”  Jude plugs in the speaker and whalesong pours into the air.

We listen: The sounds are so awesome – so expressive. It’s not possible to listen without being moved – enthralled by the ranges and timbres of their voices.

They grunt, groan, whoop and whistle. There is even a knocking percussive sound. How are they making that sound?

What are they singing about? What emotions are they expressing?  Do groups of males get together to sing in unison? Are these whales singing together?  The 2 whales don’t seem to be singing the same part of the song. Are they friends? Do whales sing over each other like birds do when they are proclaiming their territory? – So many questions but mostly exhilaration and awe.

Aerial whalesong might be what attracts a curious young seal to Blue Parrot. Seal circles our ship, peering into the cockpit at us. S/he dives underwater and we hear whiskers snuffling against the hydrophone “Hey! Get off of there!” Jude yells into the water. Up comes seal but s/he doesn’t leave. S/he stays with us checking out our dinghy – looking and looking. “Maybe s/he’s a seal scientist or engineer and s/he’s calculating the logistics of how we could be hiding a humpback whale in the cockpit of our little boat!” Terry laughs. Jude holds the speaker out where seal can see it and turns it off and on to demonstrate to seal where the whalesong is coming from. Seal disappears underwater and then surfaces again.  The whalesong must be very loud underwater. And the same song is coming from our boat – probably delayed by a few seconds. It must be a profound puzzle for a curious seal.

 

Could this curious seal be the one under our boat listening to the whalesong?

Humpback Whales singing at the Pinnacles in the Salish Sea

Eventually seal departs. But the blessed reprieve from boat noise is soon blasted apart by the engines of several tugs towing heavily loaded barges northward up the Strait. The bass throbbing of those engines chugs on and on for hours.

After 2 1/2 hours the whales seem to have stopped singing. We scan the sea looking for blows or surfacing whales. “A BREACH” Terry yells as one whale launches himself out of the water 500m away. Another whale is with him but we aren’t close enough for ID. “Of course I don’t have my camera!” Terry mutters. And of course the whales swim off to the west – away from us. On these shorter days we have to head back to the anchorage before the light fades. So we do.

Tomorrow is another day.

 

November 2019 #3 Entangled!

NOTE TO READERS: All “Quotes” in this blog are approximations of conversations and are NOT the actual words that were said by any of the people quoted.

“Let’s check out the other side of Harwood” Terry suggests. The 2 frolicking humpback whales and their sealion friends have left and it’s a sunny afternoon. We’re drifting around Harwood when the VHF radio crackles with an incoming alert. “Susan, where’s your boat?” It’s a call from Nick Templeman of Campbell River Whale Safaris to Susan MacKay, local whale naturalist and sightings recorder, founder of WOWS.  “I’m with 3 whales**. I think the calf got entangled in a prawn trap line. It’s been thrashing around trying to free itself. It might be panicking.” “Is it trailing line or a buoy?” Susan radios back. “I’m out in my skiff and heading over there. Can you stay with the whales?” “Roger that” Nick replies.

We have just passed the prawn traps they are talking about. We scout for escaped buoys and detached floating polypro line but don’t immediately find anything. So we head in the direction of Nick’s fast zodiac while calling him on our VHF radio. “Blue Parrot to Nick. How is the whale now?” “Looks like the 2 adults have broken off the buoy. The young one’s managed to shake off the line. I don’t see anything else on the calf. All 3 whales are looking more relaxed. I’m going to stay with them for a while longer to make sure they’re alright.” he answers. “I’ll see if I can find the broken line and buoy” Susan calls “They’re supposed to be using sinking line on prawn and crab traps so these entanglements don’t happen.”

This time the whale gets free. Susan ensures that no lines remain on the calf and finds the broken off  buoy. Later she tells us that too many people are abandoning line, traps and buoys. Susan has photographed derelict buoys all over the Salish Sea. They are a death trap to whales and other marine mammals.

Many people believe that all whales use echolocation to precisely image their surroundings. But only toothed whales have the physiology necessary to echolocate. Baleen whales like humpbacks, right whales, blue whales and grey whales do not have that ability. They may use a form of sonar to find large schools of fish and krill but fine distinctions of materials and spatial location are not available to them. Even young orca who have extremely sensitive echolocating abilities get entangled in lines and nets because they are curious, playful, and unaware of the dangers human contraptions pose to them.

It’s not difficult to change this situation and protect our marine friends from entanglement and drowning if people follow guidelines for using sinking line on prawn and crab traps. Please do it.

** The 3 whales are later identified by Nick as BCX0545 Europa / Bounty, her calf BCX Pony, and BCY Dalmatian

 

November 2019 #2 Fall Frolic

Now that the Whales are talking and singing Jude drops her hydrophone off Blue Parrot at every available opportunity.  We are floating near Grant Reefs when she hears “Orp Orp Orp – PT’CHOOOO” in the headphones. So we fire up ol’ Lazarus (our WWII Atomic 4 engine) and beetle over there to investigate. A roiling mass of intertwined flippers and fins greets us accompanied by excited Humpback bugles and sealion barks. “Terry, it’s a sealion – Humpback Frolic!”

We approach cautiously as two Humpbacks and several sealions wrestle noisily.  Flukes and flippers appear and submerge. “The sealions are doing flips over the backs of the whales!” Terry laughs “Don’t they look tiny when you see them together?”.  Splash!  Trumpet!  Orp!  “It must be a circus under the water!”

Meanwhile the tide and a breeze behind us are pushing us towards the action. “Damn!” whispers Jude “I don’t want to disturb them” Suddenly the cetacean/pinniped play pauses. The sealions crane their necks to look around. (They really do resemble bears). The 2 Whales relax and rest on the surface breathing quietly. Did we drift too close?

No – The Whales are coming over! Will they visit with us a while? They are SOOOOO BiiiiiiiiiiiiG! With a slow-motion flick of flukes one whale dives and disappears. Now the other whale lazily rolls over to reveal a curious eye watching us. Then Whale dives under Blue P’s stern. The Whales leave  smooth round “footprints” beside Blue P as they sound and dive under her hull. They surface 200m away trending NE toward the mainland shore.  The curious seabears hang around a while longer checking us out – perhaps for possible playmate material. Obviously we fail the test because they soon grow bored and swim away.

We discuss whether we might have interrupted their fun. “The Whales might have used the opportunity to get away from the seabears. Maybe they were bothering them again.” Terry says. “Wouldn’t I love to be able to mind meld and understand them telepathically” says Jude.

It takes years of dedicated observation to understand the body language and emotional reactions of species with whom we share our domestic lives like cats, dogs and farm animals. Though Whales are mammals like us they are very different in physiology and perceptions. We can only be part of the 1% of their lives that they spend at the surface of the water. What are they doing the other 99% of the time? “If only I could genetically engineer myself a pair of gills” Jude muses “I would love to live with them in their world for a while…….”

 

November 2019 #1 Whalesong!

“I’ll pump it up some more. Did you find the methylhydrate?” Terry is rummaging around in the starboard lazerette looking for a bicycle pump to pressurize the kerosene tank. The tank feeds an old Force 10 heater in Blue P’s cabin. It could take the chill off a 0°C morning. A little warmth, however stinky, would be appreciated. But the old heater won’t stay lit. The upside is that we are generating considerable body heat in efforts to get it started. Pumping up the tank and a couple of cups of hot tea get us out in the cold and under way.

Another frigid Autumn morning of no wind. At least old Lazarus (our ceaselessly ressucitated WWII Atomic 4 engine) starts easily. We’re off. Terry is scanning the horizon for whales “A blow! Inside Grant Reefs, south end.” Wow! Whales in the morning! That’ll wake you up fast! “Why don’t you drop the hydrophone to listen and I’ll shut down the motor?”

“I think I hear them Yes! There’s some low burbles – and higher squeaking – Woah! that was LOUD! A long high note – a growl” Jude does a bad imitation of a whale growl and hands Terry the headphones. He pulls them over his ears. The thrilling, haunting sound of whalesong floats through the hydrophone line from deep underwater.

“YES!” A huge grin spreads along his face.  Jude is leaning over the toe rail holding the hydrophone cable off Blue Parrot’s hull “I’m trying to keep the cable from knocking against the hull. It’s vibrating and making that low throbbing bass rumble” Blue P is still moving. Sailboats have a great deal of momentum once they’re in motion. A 5 knot NW breeze is pushing us SE. Movement of water over the cable causes the cable to vibrate. Finally the breeze calms and Blue Parrot slows enough for a clearer sound.

“Of course now I can hear the Comox ferry” Jude sighs “I hear 2 whales – there’s a singer close to us and 1  farther away – at least one. I don’t know where” We watch for the whales to surface to breathe but no blows are visible anywhere “Where are they? We saw that blow at 2:15 and now it’s 3:30. Can they stay down that long when they’re singing?”

The whales sing. We can hear repeated phrases and the range of vocalizations soar from deep grunts to mid-range groans to whoops, screeches and whistles. There are also percussive knocks or clicks. And those are only the sounds in the range that humans are capable of hearing! There could be subsonic and supersonic vocalizations that we humans would never pick up. Researchers can use spectral analysis software to get a visual representation of these sounds.

“Let’s send the recordings to Jim Darling. I can ask him if the whales are singing the same song in Hawaii” Jude enthuses “I want to know if some of our whales are wintering there.” Jim is a bioacoustician who co-founded Whale Trust. He’s based in Hawaii and Tofino, migrating between the 2 locations much like a migrating whale.  “It would be great to know which individual whales winter in Hawaii and feed here in the summer.” “And we should go to Hawaii to meet them there.” Terry adds. It is our dream to freedive in warm, clear water when the whales are singing, feeling all our bones resonating with their music.

After about 1 1/2 hours the singing becomes sparser and the sun is setting. “We’d better head over to Blubber Bay tonight. We can drop the hydrophone there and hear if they’re singing closer to Rebecca Rocks or even Texada.” So we head off under motor and jib. As we round Harwood Pt. we see several humpbacks splashing around Revecca Rocks. Are these our singers?

Maybe we’ll find out tomorrow.

A little information from  https://dosits.org/animals/sound-production/how-do-marine-mammals-produce-sounds/

HOW DO WHALES SING? Unlike humans, whales don’t have to exhale to produce sound.  Whales don’t have vocal cords either. Like humans,  humpback whales have a larynx. Instead of vocal cords they have a thick, u-shaped, ridge of tissue. This ‘u-fold’ serves the same purpose as our vocal cords. Adjacent to their larynx is a large inflatable pouch called the laryngeal sac. When Humpback whales contract muscles in their throat and chest, air flows between the lungs and the laryngeal sac. Alternating expansion and contraction of the lungs and sac drives air across the u-fold, causing it to vibrate and produce sound. The  vibrations vibrate through the whale’s body into the surrounding water. Changes in the laryngeal sac shape may alter the frequency and/or loudness of sounds produced.

Schematic diagram displaying a potential mechanism for sound production in baleen whales. Baleen whales contract muscles in the throat and chest, causing air to flow between the lungs and the laryngeal sac (pink tissue in the diagram). Alternating expansion and contraction of the lungs and sac drives air across a u-shaped ridge of tissue, the u-fold (yellow), causing it to vibrate and produce sound. Vibrations from the laryngeal sac (green lines) may propagate through the ventral throat pleats into the surrounding water as sound waves. Note: the respiratory tract of the whale is shown red, digestive tract in blue, and associate cartilage in white. Image credit: Dr. Joy Reidenberg. Adapted from Joy S. Reidenberg and Jeffrey T. Laitman. 2007. Discovery of a low frequency sound source in Mysticeti (baleen whales): Anatomical establishment of a vocal fold homolog. The Anatomical Record. Volume 290, Issue 6, pages 745–759.