While seeing a whale is an unexpected and exciting surprise around Vancouver, the BC Cetacean Sightings Network and Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) are encouraging boaters and interested citizens to give the animal space.  Chances of vessel strike and disturbance causing stress on the animal are greatly increased when boats and people get too close.  To learn how to best watch these animals safely while on the water, check out the Be Whale Wise guidelines here.   Watching from land is also a great way to reduce human impact!

Many observers reporting this whale have been concerned about the proximity of the whale to shore.  However, grey whales are regularly seen close to shore and in shallow water.  This is because they often feed in the sandy, silty bottoms found close to the beach.  Grey whales actually filter this sediment, looking for small invertebrates like amphipods and crab larvae.  At this time of year, they are very focused on feeding as they eat very little during the winter months that are spent in calving lagoons in Baja, Mexico.  When feeding, grey whales will roll onto their side to scoop up the sand and their pectoral fin and tail are often visible- in shallow water this can sometimes be mistaken for floundering, but is actually normal grey whale behavior.  Feeding grey whales should be given an extra wide berth, to make sure they have the room and ability to feed without being disturbed.   If you are concerned about the behavior of ANY cetacean, call the Marine Mammal Incident Reporting Line at 1 800 465 4336 immediately, but do not undertake any action yourself.  While well-intentioned, it may be dangerous for both the animal and humans involved.

Want to become a citizen scientist?  Report what you see!  If you’ve seen this whale (or any others) recently, file a report here or by calling 1 866 I SAW ONE (1 866 472 9663)!

From the field #2: Bubble nets!

We stopped in at Namu today to take a quick break from whale spotting and to have a peek at the old cannery and town site. A fish processing plant and cannery was established here in 1893 and continued operations until the late 1980s! While the town site is now quiet and mostly abandoned, save for some caretakers, the biological activity in the harbour was alive and well. Salmon were leaping clear of the water and birds were foraging all around us as we peered through binoculars at the old buildings that offer an interesting glimpse into the history of the central coast. Our quiet pondering of the past was interrupted when a loud and distinguishable ‘whoosh’ came from nearby. Humpback whale!

Humpbacks have made an incredible comeback in the past few decades (see story here) and our days on the water this week aboard the M/V ‘Skana‘ have proven that at this time of year they are the most plentiful cetacean along this section of coast. Humpbacks visit British Columbia usually between May and October to feed in our cold, rich waters. Humpback prey consists of krill and small species of baitfish such as herring, pilchards, and sandlance. Of course, being such a large whale, humpbacks need to eat huge quantities of this small prey in order to fill themselves. To ensure they are engulfing large amounts of prey with each feeding lunge, humpback whales concentrate their prey in a small area. As we shifted our focus from Namu to the whale, it showed us one of the amazing ways humpback whales do just that!

After watching the whale dive we began to notice an interesting disturbance in the water nearby. It looked as if the ocean was boiling in one small spot. What was going on? It suddenly dawned on me; the whale was bubble net feeding!

Bubble net feeding is a technique used by humpbacks to concentrate their food. The whale (or whales, as in some areas, particularly south east Alaska, large groups will use this technique as a team) blows bubbles from its blow hole in a circle pattern around a school of fish. As the bubbles rise, they create a wall around the school. The whale may continue to blow bubbles, spiraling inwards, making a tighter and tighter circle. The school then starts to condense as a response to the bubbles surrounding them, concentrating the school into a nice tight ball. In the Namu harbour, as we watched the circle of bubbles rise, we began to see the small fish breaking at the surface. This bubble net appeared to be working well! Just at the pivotal point, with bubbles and fish splashing frantically, up lunged the humpback, enormous mouth agape! We could see the baleen hanging from the whale’s top jaw, and the long pleats on its throat open forming the whales lower jaw into a huge scoop. As the whale began to sink once more under the surface, its mouth closing, we could see the salt water being pushed out through the baleen, ensuring that the whale was only swallowing the entrapped fish, and not the thousands of litres of salt water it had also taken in during the lunge. Spectacular!

For the next twenty minutes we continued to watch the whale as it fed in this manor around the harbour, ensuring that the ‘Skana‘ was at a good distance not to disturb the ‘net’ or the hard working whale. Bubble net feeding is not seen in many southern areas of British Columbia, so all of us aboard were awe-struck.  What a treat to see!

You can help us with our cetacean survey around the coast of BC this summer by reporting your sightings of whales, dolphins and porpoises. Report online here, via email at sightings@vanaqua.org, or by calling toll-free 1 866 I SAW ONE.

Check in next week for more news ‘From the Field’.

This family event celebrates the maritime heritage of our coast at the Britannia Shipyard, National Historic Site in Steveston featuring activities for all ages, entertainment, food and educational displays. Wild Whales will be on hand with an educational, interactive booth highlighting cetaceans found around British Columbia.

Festival runs Aug 20, 12-5, Aug 21, 10-5, and Aug 22, 10-5. For more information on the festival,check their site here.

From the Field #1:

If a picture is worth a thousand words, what is a video worth? To get a taste of the survey work being done by BCCSN supervisor Dr. Lance Barrett-Lennard, check out this video shot in early August on the central coast. This beautiful video was shot by Jeremy Levin using high powered cameras with large zoom! What luck!

In the Field Video

Help us with our cetacean survey around the coast of BC by reporting your sightings of whales, dolphins and porpoises. Report online here, via email at sightings@vanaqua.org, or by calling toll-free 1 866 I SAW ONE.

The day will include family oriented activities all about killer whales.  Come learn more about the southern resident killer whale community that frequents the waters around the Gulf Islands.

The festival runs from 1:00pm-5:00pm at Thieves Bay Park.  See OrcaDay.blogpot.com for more information.

But how do you figure out how much a wild dolphin needs to eat? It isn’t easy! To start, Erin will be working with the three rescued, but non-releasable Pacific white-sided dolphins that reside at the Vancouver Aquarium. These three dolphins are being trained to surface and rest in a metabolic dome, a bubble that sits on the water. By measuring their respirations in this dome, scientists can extrapolate their resting metabolic rate- essentially the number of calories an animal needs just for basic body functions while at rest. This is a standard rate, constant between both wild animals and animals that live in Aquariums.

From this resting metabolic rate, Erin can determine the minimum number of calories a dolphin would need. But of course, dolphins in the wild need much more than the minimum- this active, speedy species needs a lot of fuel! To begin estimating these ‘in-the-wild’ caloric needs, Erin hopes to establish an activity budget and average swimming speeds for wild dolphins. That is, how much time, on average, do they spend resting, foraging, traveling, milling and socializing, and how fast they swim in each activity state? Once she knows the answers to these questions, she can figure out how many calories they expend in each activity state. This is similar to the way humans know how many calories are burned in an hour of jogging, if you jog at a speed of 10km/hr. Erin is spending part of this summer in the Strait of Georgia around Nanaimo and surrounding area, studying wild Pacific white-sided dolphins to answer those questions.

Once Erin estimates the calories needed by a dolphin for an average day, it may be possible to determine how many fish it would take to sustain the animal. Of course, understanding their diets is essential in this step. What do dolphins eat? How many of each different type of fish? Previous studies have shown that while inshore dolphins focus on forage fish, but while offshore, their diet seems to be high in squid. This information, combined with Erin’s findings on the PWSD’s caloric needs, will lay the groundwork for researchers to better understand the role Pacific white-sided dolphins play in the coastal food web.

Want to help Erin with her research?  She needs to know where the dolphins are in order to study their activity.  You can help her by reporting your sightings of Pacific white-sided dolphin in and around Nanaimo and neighbouring waters to the B.C. Cetacean Sightings Network.  We will be communicating these sightings to Erin to help her with her field work.  Report your sightings in ‘real time’ by calling 1.866.I.SAW.ONE or report online here.

Elementary school children will have the chance to discover the amazing world of whales in Gold River on the 22nd (event not open to the public) and on June 23rd, everyone is welcome to attend the public presentation at the Tahsis Recreation Centre at 7:00pm.  Learn more about the whales, dolphins, porpoises and sea turtles in the area and how you can help with research and conservation of these amazing animals.

This event is sponsored by Tahtsa Dive Charters.

Sunday, June 20th, 9:30-5:00pm- Jericho Sailing Centre

For more information check here.

As the old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Photo-identification of cetaceans started in the early 1970s right here in British Columbia with a man named Dr. Michael Bigg, an early pioneer in killer whale research.  He was given the difficult chore of taking a census of killer whales off the coast of British Columbia.  The task no doubt seemed daunting at the time, as all that was understood was that there were killer whales on the coast, they appeared year-round, and could be seen in a variety of group sizes.   The idea for photo-identification came almost accidentally as Bigg and his colleagues ventured to the Johnstone Strait area to begin establishing a methodology for this census.  While there, they shot photographs without realizing how valuable they would be.  Dr Bigg described the discovery of ‘photo-identification’ in the Spring 1983 issue of Whalewatcher:

“Much to our surprise and eventual satisfaction, we discovered that a close examination of the photographs revealed several well-marked individuals.  Their dorsal fins possessed unique nicks, gouges and, occasionally, some major tissue losses.  The pigmented saddle pattern at the base of their dorsal fins also varied, and often bore identifiable scratches.  A whale with unique markings, we quickly realized, was equivalent to having an individually tagged animal.  All we had to do was obtain a good photograph of the whale, learn to recognize it, and follow its daily activities.”

By using photographs to individually identify animals, Dr. Bigg and his colleagues were able to relocate animals year to year and collect data on their life history.  They were also able to establish accurate population estimates and better understand movements by using photographs to assess how often animals were re-sighted, where they were sighted, and at what time of year.  Today, the populations of both resident and transient killer whales that reside off British Columbia are accurately catalogued and assessed every year.

While the idea for photo-identification in cetaceans may have started with killer whales, it has not stopped there.  A huge number of species are studied using photo-identification of individually recognizable individuals.  Depending on the species, their appearance and their behavior, different parts of the body are used for photo-identification.  For example, humpback whales can be identified by the unique markings on the underside of their tail flukes.   Obtaining these photos is facilitated by the humpback’s penchant for lifting its fluke prior to a long dive .   For other species, the flank of the animals may be easier to photograph and use, such as with the mottled patterned sides of grey whales.

Photo-identification projects can be enormous international undertakings, like the SPLASH project (described here) that compared photo-ID catalogues from around the entire North Pacific to estimate humpback populations, or smaller, more grassroots projects, like the minke whale catalogue being created by local researchers on northern Vancouver Island (minkes can be identified by their flanks and dorsal fins).  Big or small, all studies help researchers gain insight into the abundance, population dynamics, reproduction, range and sometimes even family lineages of cetacean species.

Of course, photo-identification is only as good as the photo.  Sharp, clear photos at the right angle and light are necessary to be able to make out the shape, pigment and marking subtleties that help differentiate animals.  The catalogues produced by Fisheries and Oceans Canada of killer whales and humpbacks give a good idea on the type of photos needed.  Do you have photos from your most recent sighting?  Feel free to send them in with your report.  If we are able to identify the individual it makes the sighting even more valuable.  Remember though, the ‘Be Whale Wise’ guidelines state that boats must stay at least 100m away from animals to reduce disturbance- don’t let your pursuit of a photo cause you to creep too close!

May 27- Fraser Power and Sail Squadron (Tsawwassen Golf and Country Club- Delta)-8pm

June 16- Surdel Power and Sail Squadron (Fleetwood Library- Surrey)- 7:30pm