Category: whale physiology

August #1 2022 – How do Whales Nurse Their Babies?

More Moms with calves are showing up here in the Salish Sea this season – 6 pairs sighted so far. Judging by their playful acrobatics and assertive blows the young ones are thriving. The mothers seem to be in good shape as well considering they lose 1/3 of their body weight during the >10,000km (6,000 mile) round trip migrations to Mexico, Central America or Hawaii and back. Add in the previous 4 months of nursing her hungry baby and it’s no surprise that a mother whale’s prime directive once she reaches the feeding waters is to feed.

“It’s Big Mama” “And she’s got a calf!”  Terry is jubilant. Big Mama is one of the whales we have met several times during the years we’ve been on the water. She is a prolific mother and veteran of the humpback comeback to the Salish Sea. Big Mama was the first whale to return to these waters in 1997. Since then she has brought each of her new calves back with her.

Big Mama and her new baby are accompanied by another adult whale. We couldn’t tell who it was because we couldn’t see the whale’s flukes or whether (s)he was female or male. If the companion whale migrated together with Big Mama and her calf from their southern mating/birthing area then this whale is probably a male who is interested in Big Mama as a potential mate. This “escort” can be an asset to Big Mama and her calf if a pod of killer whales attempts an attack on the young one as he will protect the calf with Big Mama. However, he can also be a nuisance if he attempts to mate with her and interferes with nursing.

Mother humpback whales nurse their babies for the first year even though the baby is already learning to fish as soon as she reaches the feeding area. The baby thrives on mother’s rich milk, which is between 45-60% fat  How do whales (and dolphins) nurse in their underwater environment? Terrestrial mammals like humans have nipples which are exposed and easy to suckle. But the mammary glands of cetaceans (whales and dolphins) are concealed inside 2 slits on either side of their genital slit low on the abdomen. The nipples are inverted inside these mammary slits. A whale calf must dive underneath the mother and nudge the mammary slits with her rostrum to release the nipple from the slit. Whale calves might be able to roll their tongues into a tube shape and press their rolled tongue around the nipple to channel milk. The mother could then squirt milk into the calf’s mouth using muscles around her mammary glands. Because of the high fat content the consistency of Mom’s milk is thick and doesn’t easily dissolve in water if some leaks out.

Mom and calf stay in close physical contact in the first months of the baby’s life. So much of what transpires between moms and babies is speculation because it happens underwater out of our visual range. Their vocal communication also happens outside of our human hearing range. Mother and baby communicate through touch and very quiet low frequency grunts, barks and groans. They “whisper”  so their sounds don’t attract killer whales. Because these “whispers” are so quiet Jude can only pick up a signal on her hydrophone within about 200m of the whales. However, since the whale whispers are too low for humans to hear it’s impossible in realtime to know whether any whale conversations are actually occurring. This can be very frustrating! It is only after recording in the vicinity of whales and afterwards importing the recordings into a software program called a spectograph which translates the sound waves into a visual representation that we can see whether we recorded something. It’s also possible to speed up the slow low frequency sound waves 2 or 3 times within the program so they can be heard in our human hearing range. Unfortunately there is no room in Blue P’s small cockpit for any more audiovisual or computer equipment and no budget for expensive hardware and software. All this has to be done later on our home system.

We learn that the whales are communicating all the time, which is obvious with any amount of time observing their interactions. In the plankton filled waters of the summer Salish Sea it is vibration and sound that carry myriad whale messages through the water. Once on the feeding grounds Big Mama and her calf may associate with various other whales through the season and even during one day. We watch them form a group, separate for a while and come back together obviously communicating with each other. Since all Big Mama’s children return to their mother’s feeding area some of these whale companions may be the new calf’s older brothers and sisters.  So many intriguing questions…….

 

September #1 2021 – How to Sex a Humpback Whale

Terry, the amphibious videographer and I are scanning the water between Powell River and Texada Island searching for a humpback whale that might be entangled. “She said they saw a white buoy on the whale’s back around the dorsal fin.” Reported Susan, the founder of the Wild Ocean Whales Society and monitor of the whale reporting hotline. “They couldn’t be any more specific than that and they weren’t sure but keep an eye out.” So we were, 4 eyes out to be exact. We’d seen half a dozen whales today but none with any trap gear attached. Sometimes the light playing on a wet black back can play tricks on human eyes.

We have been floating in the area of the Upper Sunshine Coast off Powell River for the past few days. We’ve floated around with 1 duo and 1 trio of humpback whales this morning who don’t seem to mind that they are snoozing and/or fishing in the middle of a ferry line used frequently by 2 local ferries that travel across the strait and back. Perhaps they like the predictability of a ferry schedule and time their activities around them although I wouldn’t stake my fishing bank on BC ferries schedules! Staying out of their way and minimizing the effects of rolling ferry wake and loud engine noise on video and underwater sound recordings is a challenge. But whales are where you find them so when 2 of the trio get lively and head South along Texada Island shore we are curious.

A Huge noisy Barge is heading towards them (and us). We’ve observed some sleeping whales reacting to the big wake of a heavy displacement ship with what seems to us to be an annoyed or startled tail slap. These 2 aren’t sleeping but one raises flukes high in the air and slams half their body down in a powerful peduncle throw. The other whale is tail lobbing repeatedly. “Are they pissed off because of the barge?” I wonder. But the barge passes and the high level activity continues.

The whales are raising their flukes high enough out of the water that their genital area is visible in some of the video. It is very difficult to determine the sex of a humpback whale. A very clear view of the underside of their body between flukes and bottom of their throat pleats is necessary. Both male and female whales have navels, longitudinal genital slits and a bump near the flukes called a carina. The females have 2 mammary slits which cover their nipples, one on either side of the genital slit. They also have a smaller “hemispherical lobe” which is a bump at the base of their genital slit.

Humpback Whale Genitalia

Does sexing the humpback whales in the video still elude you? Keep in mind that the clear illustration of Humpback Genitalia is not obscured by jets of seawater coursing over the whale’s body from the tremendous splashing caused by a peduncle throw. Also missing are the many barnacles clinging to all openings and bumpy skin surfaces. Good Luck!

July #1 2021 – Find the Sleeping Whale

Why do whales get runover by boats? The following video holds some clues.

Did you find the sleeping whale? Did you notice that even on a calm day it is difficult to spot a whale resting just under the surface of the water and barely breathing. Some days even strong blows won’t be visible due to atmospheric conditions. Add a brisk breeze and half-meter waves to people in a hurry and it’s a recipe for disaster.

Tragically, strikes on whales by speeding recreational or crew boats, fishing boats, cruise ships and tankers are increasing. More boats and ships are occupying whale migration routes and plying the coastlines where whales feed, mate and give birth to their babies. Whales are showing up with more split dorsal fins and propellor scars striping their backs. Careless fishers, crabbers and prawners abandon nets and traps or leave floating polypro lines and bouys which entangle baleen whales. Unlike dolphins, baleen whales don’t have the advantage of echolocation to help reveal hidden dangers in often murky waters.

Here is a site where you can find Best Practises to avoid whale entanglements in Fishing gear and what to do if you see an entangled whale.
https://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/fm-gp/mammals-mammiferes/whales-baleines/docs/entanglements-empetrements-pub-eng.html#best-practices

Whales are large and strong so they can carry heavy loads of fishing gear long distances for a long time. Nylon and steel lines don’t break in the way that kelp does when twisted so whales often become wrapped in lines and nets in their twisting attempts to break free.

An entangled whale or dolphin on the west coast of Canada has only one shot at getting help. The DFO (Department of Fisheries and Oceans) in their wisdom has assigned only one person, Paul Cottrell, to monitor the entire Pacific Coast. He alone can officially initiate and direct disentanglements. This means that he flies to wherever a whale is entangled on the whole Pacific coast with its many islands and inlets. It’s no wonder so many whales, pinnipeds, turtles and fish are dying.

Check out this article on the Tyee news website. https://thetyee.ca/News/2022/03/30/Whales-Back-BC-Fishing-Gear-Killing-Them/

This video shows some of the Dangers marine mammals endure.

You can help. If you are in a boat for any purpose watch for whales and SLOW DOWN in waters where whales are going about their business. Watch for whales the way you would watch for deadheads or reefs that could damage you and your vessel.

December 2020 #2 – Chain of Whales Feed Together

“I don’t know how many whales are out here! 6 of them – at least.” Terry is counting whales diving, surfacing, circling. They’re almost rubbing together they’re so close. I wonder: “Are they fishing? They must be fishing”.

It’s common in Alaska for humpback whales to form large feeding groups where each whale has a role to play. The iconic shot of all the whales surfacing together, mouths agape and pleated throats bulging is in every humpback whale documentary. Here in the Salish Sea we have yet to see anything like this group feeding buffet. Perhaps the schools of fish are bigger in Alaska or maybe the schools are in deeper water here and the whales finish gulping under the water. Even without the lunging at the surface half a dozen whales swirling and moving together is fascinating to see.

“Do you recognize anyone?” I ask camera man Terry as he zooms in on the action. “One is definitely ‘Zed’, with the chewed off left fluke.”

“Yeah” Terry answers “and I see Nick with them. See that white fluke? Could be Apollo or maybe even Neptune” Neptune is Apollo’s calf.

“Snouter!” I exclaim as a whale rostrum partially emerges from the water. Snouter is our affectionate name for a whale’s “face” also known by whale lovers as “pickeleface” because of the many bumps on a whale’s chin. Each bump contains at least one single sensing hair. Biologists are not sure what tubercule hairs are sensing but a good guess would be movement and vibration. Like the whiskers of seals and sealions humpback whales could sense schools of fish from the “trails” of disturbance their swimming leaves in the water. Tubercule hairs may even sense electrical charge or something more mysterious since they are rich in nerves.

Mother whales like to support their babies on their rostrums so they might have other functions as well – smell? There is an organ in a humpback’s chin whose function hasn’t been identified as yet. Could it have an olfactory function along with the tubercules? The deeper down the whale whole one ventures the more questions bubble out!

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.

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 #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

 

July 2019 #3 They just keep jumping

NOTE TO READERS: We have chosen to use the word “herm” as a pronoun for any non-human animal whose gender is unknown to us.

A cloudy morning in a bay on Cortes. Two aluminum work boats buzz in at 9am. The skippers jump ship on a tiny islet to pick clams on the sandy beach at low tide.

We are charging batteries and studying the GH5 camcorder manual yet again so we get a late start. No backs or blows are visible in the immediate area as we motor out of the bay. But we hear reports of some lively humpbacks between Marina Island and Francisco Point so we head south over calm seas.

An hour later Terry calls from the bow “Blows! about 1/2 km ahead”. Three , maybe four whales are resting peacefully on the water so we slow down and ease closer. A seine boat is approaching the whales from the SW. He’s not slowing down. Has he seen the whales? “Try and get him on channel 16” Terry shouts “No, it’s OK. He’s on a parallel course. He won’t run over them them.” The seine boat doesn’t hit them but his heavy wake breaks over the sleeping whales. One large whale arches herm’s back and slams the water with herm’s tail. Pissed off? Maybe, but it’s over immediately. Back to sleep now.

Whales and dolphins sleep with one hemisphere of their brains at a time. The other hemisphere stays awake. They have to stay awake because, unlike humans, they are conscious breathers.  In fact researchers learned the hard way that if you tranquilize a whale or dolphin they will drown. Cetaceans have to be awake to breathe. Wakefulness of half their brain may also allow them to respond instantly to changes in the ocean environment such as the arrival of predators, or breaking waves. It is mind bending to imagine the consciousness of a being who lives simultaneously in the dreamtime and wakefulness. Wouldn’t we love to know!

The whales float and we float with them. We listen to the music of their breathing and Jude plays some didjeridoo. “I think there’s a baby with them” Terry whispers.  “Listen… a little “Poof” compared to Mom’s “PITCHOOOO”  And the dorsal fin is close to the blowholes on the little one…. Yup. Mom and calf – you got your wish Jude”

We send our sighting to the WOWS group line and soon see other boats coming to join us. The downside of this is that lots of boats, respectful though they are of the whales’ space, create lots of wake. Bobbing and rocking from boat wake makes it difficult to shoot video that doesn’t cause vertigo in the viewer. It’s especially debilitating when the whales are far from the ship so telephoto lenses must be employed.

“I think they’re waking up now” Terry observes. Unexpectedly one of the whales breaches. And they’re off! – fins slapping the surface water and lots of splashing activity. Jude drops the hydrophone and listens to hear if they are talking to each other. But all the boats are moving with the whales so wake and engine noise drown out every other sound. A light breeze springs up. It keeps shifting direction, forcing Jude to stay on the helm so we don’t run into any whales or other boats. It’s necessary to abandon the audio recording.

A few herring leap near our bow. The whales must have woken up to a school of passing herring and are taking advantage of the buffet lunch. When it seems they’ve gone under to rest for a while Jude decides to go for a brief swim while Terry grabs some lunch. On her way to get a towel Jude glances ahead “A whale – breaching” Jude cries. By now the whales are 1/2 km away. All thoughts of swimming and lunch are quickly abandoned as Terry scrambles for a camera and Jude starts the engine. It does feel a bit like a chase when the whales are active. All the boats circle around and move with them. But the whales don’t seem to mind. They continue fin slapping, tail lobbing and breaching – probably fishing on a herring school. In spite of the constant wake and movement of other boats in the water Terry manages to film some of the action. And they just keep jumping!

After an hour of hyper-activity the whales enjoy another rest so we don’t follow them. Time for lunch and a swim. But 20 minutes later they are breaching again! What an active bunch! Terry takes some still photos of the whales’ flukes for ID purposes. Later we learn who they are.

2018-August – Humpback Whales Visit Us

My Mom was fascinated by the stories Terry and I told her about whales. She loved to hear about their curiousity and intellegence; how the grey whales enjoyed teasing the tourists in Baja and how the humpbacks here seemed be attracted to the sounds of the didjeridoo. Mom, Chayashi, died in May of this year from dementia. But even in advanced stages of dementia there were lucid moments during which hearing about whales would put a smile on her face. With all of the Mom care this year and the ongoing tasks that need to be done after a loved one dies we didn’t get out on the water until August.

We made the most of our abbreviated time out in SV Blue Parrot. Our complicated methodology was to sail or motor to the general area where we’d seen humpbacks feeding or traveling and hang around waiting for whales. Whenever we shut off the engine I would drop my hydrophone (underwater microphone) over the side of Blue Parrot to listen to the sounds underwater through headphones. Sound travels 5 times faster in water than in air so I could hear the bugle-like inbreath of distant humpbacks through my hydrophone before the sound traveled to me above the water. Very cool.

This video shows what happened when 2 curious Humpbacks whales decided to visit us twice in the same afternoon. We were drifting with our engine off at least 200 metres away from them while they were feeding. It was their clear choice to visit us.


The Amphibiographer’s Secrets to Enjoying Awesome Whale Encounters: It’s vital to respect these wondrous beings, not to chase, annoy, or disturb them while they are feeding or sleeping at the surface. Slow down in known whale feeding areas and be aware so you don’t run over one. If you see a blow slow down, there may be more around. If they approach you, stop moving, shut off your engine and enjoy the encounter until they leave you.

Whales have an enormous hearing capacity which is very useful over their huge migration range to stay in contact with each other. In their northern or southern feeding grounds they travel through water that is full of plankton and very murky. They depend on sound to communicate and to find their way underwater.

Humans hear sound frequencies from 20Herz to 20,000Herz. But long distance whale communications can be lower than 10Herz and travel thousands of kilometers. When orca, dolphins or porpoises are echolocating they produce a barrage of very loud staccato blips or clicks at frequencies higher than 100,000herz . Some research suggests that baleen whales like humpbacks may echolocate using low frequency sonar but they do not have the very high frequency capability of porpoises or dolphins or even the toothed whales. There doesn’t seem to be definitive research that nails down the range of frequencies humpback whales can hear. Happily we humans can thrill to their intricate songs because Humpbacks sing predominantly in the hearing range of humans.

Here is a fascinating and playful introduction to hearing ranges in familiar animals.

https://www.myihp.co.uk/animal-hearing-ranges/

I would love to know whether the humpbacks that Terry and I were serenading in this video sang back to us underwater. I will need a spectrograph that maps audio frequencies to interface with my hydrophone in order to discover whether they are vocalizing outside our human audible range. Stay tuned to find out!

2018-August – Whales Listen to Didgeridoo

Playing music for whales isn’t a new concept. It probably goes back as far as the first humans and whales. Musicians and interspecies communicators like Jim Nollman were playing music for whales and recording it in the 1970s. The songs of the humpback whales are legend all over the world. Research has shown that humpbacks are especially attracted to sounds in the 400hz – 700hz range. This is medium – high range for a human soprano voice. “That’s doable” we surmised. So we decided to try playing a little whale music ourselves. Jude brought her didgeridoo onboard(actually it’s a PVC pipe with a beeswax mouthpiece), and Terry planned to experiment with chanting/singing .

Flashing white pectoral fins and splashing tails in the distance attracted our attention so we swung off our course towards the two humpbacks making a fuss. They dove while we were a couple of hundred metres away then popped up near us and a couple of other boats. It was an opportunity too good to miss. We started making some sounds to see what the whales would do. It was all ‘play the moment’, experimental, on the fly, while videoing and controlling the sailboat at the same time, so please forgive any weird sounds and unprofessional performance. Terry makes no pretence to being a musician; he was just trying to keep the whales interested enough to stay with us a while. And they did stay for almost 5 minutes. It seems our music put them to sleep! Or at least they appeared to be resting and listening. What do you think?

(Sorry for the wobbly video, using telephoto on a rolling boat in even little waves makes for unsteady footage).

Near Harwood Island, Tla’amin Territory, Powell River, British Columbia, Canada. August, 2018