Whales

Rare Whale Sighting Excites Researchers

Featured Image Credit: Maya’s Legacy Whale Watching
By Laura O’Brien

Three researchers from the Pacific Biological Station snapped some excellent pictures of an extremely rare sighting of a sperm whale named Yukusam within inshore waters. The sighting occurred close just off the coast of Nanaimo, B.C., on May 28th. Jessica Torode from the B.C. Cetacean Sightings Network stated, “it’s unclear to why he’s here. He could just be searching out a new region, looking for fish in this area. Normally, they’re found quite far offshore, usually off the continental slope, so you won’t really see them”. The sighting follows just two records of sperm whales in the area. The more recent sighting was in March when Yukusam was spotted in the Johnstone Strait, and the earlier record was an acoustic recording from the same strait in 1984.

Image Credit: Valerie Shores of Eagle Wing Tours

Torode described sperm whale’s defining features as “[a] large boxy square head, brownish grey tinged color and wrinkly skin like a prune”. Sperm whales also have a small, rounded bump for their dorsal hump, and can grow as large as 59 feet in some cases. In fact, Herman Melville’s iconic novel “Moby Dick” was based on a sperm whale. The huge cetaceans are known for their deep dives, which can force them to hold their breath for 90 minutes before surfacing. Sperm whales are also known to rest on the surface of the water, which puts them at great risk of vessel strikes.

Learn more from our sources: CBC, National Geographic, and Ocean Service.

Whales

Surprising Discovery In The Indian Ocean: A New Population Of Sperm Whales

Featured Image Credit: Westend61/Alamy
By Sarah Sharkey

Sperm whales are massive submarine like creatures that spend up to 90% of their lives in the deep waters of the ocean. They can shut off all of their organs minus the heart, brain, and power tail to swim to depths of up to 1 mile and hunt for giant squid, their favorite prey.

The species began to evolve around 25 million years ago and they have the largest brains on the planet. Sperm whales have a special oil in their heads that allows them to hear better at the great depths that they swim too. Unfortunately, their impressive size and valuable oils led to targeted harpoon hunting of the largest male whales.

Image Credit: National Wildlife Federation

Even though we don’t hunt these whales anymore, humans still have an effect on these animals. When stranded whales are examined, the amount of plastic in their system is appalling. The various chemical we put into the ocean affect their bodies and the sheer amount of disruptive noise that we put into the ocean affects their ability to hunt and communicate.

Even against all the pressure from humans, sperm whales are doing well. So well, that a new population of sperm whales was discovered in the Indian Ocean. Although these whales are doing well against the global standard of struggling whale populations, there are still concerns for the species’ long-term welfare. It can be hard to protect them, even from people who love whales. The tourism industry that has already boomed around this new population may cause harm to the population, just from well-wishing tourist hoping to swim with a whale.

Hopefully, these animals will continue to thrive in the face of human interference.

Learn more from our source here.

Whales

Who Wants A Belly Rub? These Resident Orcas, That’s Who!

Featured Image Credit: Michaela Hanusova
By Jessica Kittel

When you’ve got an itch sometimes you just really need to scratch it. Just ask these killer whales aka Orca whales (Ocinus Orca). As reported on cbc.ca, these Northern Resident Orcas were caught on camera rubbing up along a stretch of rocky shoreline near Sechelt B.C.; a behavior scientists claim is very common amongst this particular subpopulation of Orcas. While it is common for these Northern Resident Orcas, it is a behavior that is not seen in any other Orca group.

As explained on us.whales.org, there are a few different types of Orca groups: Resident, Transient, and Offshore. Each group not only have unique physical attributes that set them apart from the others, they also all have very unique behavioral and feeding patterns. These groups are so distinct that they are not thought to have interbred for upwards of 10,000 years, according to pbs.org. Physically, you can discern which type of orca you’re looking at by their dorsal fin. Resident orcas have rounded tips while transients have pointed ones.

Image Credit: PBS

Transient Orcas (aka Bigg’s Orcas) are likely where the “killer” part of “killer whale” was derived. This type of Orca feeds mainly on other marine mammals such as seals and whales. They’re known to eat anything from a harbor seal to a minke whale to a gray whale calf! They live in small familial groups that travel throughout their rather large home ranges that span from Southern California all the way up to the Arctic Circle.

Image Credit: Renee Beitzel

Resident Orcas (the group the aforementioned belly rubbing Orcas belong to) are the slightly gentler breed of Orcas. These are the fish eaters, whose small home ranges tend to center around large fish populations. The different resident populations tend to have a favorite meal, and usually, it’s salmon.

Image Credit: Dr. Astrid van Ginneken, Center For Whale Research

Then there are the offshore Orcas. These are the badass orcas. Due to the fact that they live far from shore (they’re usually found over the outer continental shelf) they are rarely encountered by humans and therefore remain rather mysterious. While we don’t know too much about their social structure or food preferences we do know that they are usually seen in extremely large groups (usually 50 orcas or more). They’ve also been observed eating fish and even sharks! Upon examination, it was noted that their teeth are often worn down suggesting they snack on critters that have rough skin (such as a shark) rather often. Offshore Orcas are the smallest of the three types, which is possibly why they like to hang out in such large groups.

Image Credit:PHOTOCETUS

Orcas are the first animals (besides humans) that we know has been evolutionarily influenced by their own culture. What this means is that all the separate orca populations (separated geographically) have developed their own cultures in the form of hunting and socialization systems, as explained on sciencealert.com. For example, while all resident orcas hunt fish, different populations in different areas might have created, adopted, and passed along a different strategy to achieve their desired result. Northern Resident Orcas using the rocks to scratch themselves is the perfect example of this cultural influence.

Learn more from our sources here: CBC, US Whales, PBS, and Science Alert.

Whales

Multiple Sightings Of Whales Missing Tails Off The Coast Of California

Featured Image Credit: Brookepalmerimage
By Sarah Sharkey

Usually, a whale sighting is something exciting and an overall positive experience, but this recent string of sighting is raising the alarm for gray whales off the California coast. The cause for concern is that the whales did not have flukes! That’s right, they were missing their tails.

As many as five gray whales have been since missing their tails. The sightings are taking place as thousands of gray whales make their migration north along the West Coast to their summer feeding grounds off Alaska.

Image Credit: Merrill Gosho, NOAA

A California whale researcher, Alisa Schilma-Janiger, said: “I can’t see any other reason besides entanglements.” Even though the number of reported whale entanglements has not been particularly high this season.

Although some of the whales are surviving without tails, at least one has died. She was a juvenile female that was unable to evade a killer whale attack due to her missing tail.

Apparently, crab fishing gear seems to be the culprit in most whale entanglements. It is unclear on what can be done to avoid future whale entanglements that have such a negative impact on a whale. Losing your tail is a huge problem in the ocean, even though some are surviving it will take an extreme amount of extra effort and luck to continue to survive tailless.

Learn from our source here.

Whales

64 Pounds Of Plastic Found Inside The Body Of A Whale

Featured Image Credit: Greenpeace Philippines
By Sarah Sharkey

A sperm whale has been found dead on the beach of Cabo de Palos in Spain. An autopsy showed that the whale swallowed 64 pounds of plastic before its death.

The experts from El Valle Wildlife Rescue Centre carried out the autopsy procedure and concluded that the whale could not digest or excrete because of the amount of plastic that was in its system. Basically, the plastic filled up his digestive system, so nothing else could get through. Although the official cause of death was peritonitis, an infection of the stomach lining, he would have eventually died of starvation because he was unable to digest anything. A death like this one is far too common in sea creatures. Every day we see turtles, seals, dolphins and more negatively affected by plastic in their ecosystem.

Image Credit: Bschuitdesign/Getty Images

The whale was a very large animal, 33 feet long, but even it was not immune to the dangers of plastic ingestion.

The many plastic bags and nets in this young male sperm whale’s digestive system are prompting officials to do more about the plastic problems facing our oceans. Hopefully, their actions will help.

Plastic is a huge problem in our oceans, it affects every creature in it. From the tiniest hermit crab to the largest whale, plastic is having a negative impact on their lives.

Learn more from our source here.

Whales

One Team Holds Out Hope For A North Atlantic Right Whale Baby

Featured Image Credit: BRIAN J. SKERRY, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CREATIVE
By Sarah Sharkey

According to most scientists, the calving season for the North Atlantic Right Whale is coming to an end. It has been a record-breaking year for all of the wrong reasons, not a single new calve has been born. It is another blow to a population that is already desperately small.

On top of a poor calving season, the population also lost many members this year due to boat strikes and other causes.

Image Credit: Brian J. Skerry, National Geographic Stock

A Cape Cod Bay based team is the only team of researchers is holding out hope that a calf will show up in the nursery. They are hoping that there is another calving ground that scientists just don’t know about yet.

Charles Mayo, director of the Right Whale Ecology Program at the Center for Coastal Studies, has this to say about the calving season, “I’m kind of inclined to think we will see a calf or several here. My belief is that these right whales may be calving in a slightly different location than the areas that we have known them to calve in before.”

Although there is no evidence yet, at least we can hang on to the hope that there might be some North Atlantic Right Whale calves out there. Without more calves, the population will continue its downward slide towards extinction.

Learn more from our source here.

Whales

Scientists Witness A New “Killer” Behavior In Killer Whales

Featured Image Credit: Jared Towers
By Sarah Sharkey

For the first time ever, marine biologists have witnessed a killer whale drown a calf of the same species. Although they were obviously horrified, there was nothing they could do except watch the tragedy unfold.

The incident occurred off the northeastern coast of Vancouver Island in December 2016, but it was not really described in detail until this week in their article of Scientific Reports.

Image Credit: Gary Sutton

After finding the pod and watching them Jason Towers, a cetacean ecologist and witness had this to say about the incidence. It seemed like the group might have found some prey, but “That’s when we realized that the calf — it was a brand-new calf in the group — it wasn’t surfacing at all. Then the male, who was unrelated to the mother of the calf, swam past the boat with the calf hanging out of its mouth, and that’s when we were really quite horrified and fascinated.”

The scene was unsettling, but important in terms of recorded behavior. After male had the calf in his mouth, the mother and her relative chase the male in a desperate attempt to save the baby. While the male’s mother attempted to protect him. Although the mother of the calf did her best and injured the male, she was unable to save her infant from his jaws.

After all of that, the male and his mother did not even eat the baby orca. Instead, they just left it. Apparently, scientists think that the male killed the baby in order to mate with its mother because after a calf dies a mother orca is able to reproduce again more quickly.

Learn more from our source here.

Whales

A Recent Mass Stranding In Western Australia Is Extremely Disconcerting

Featured Image Credit: Guardian News, Youtube Screenshot
By Sarah Sharkey

In Hamelin Bay of Western Australia, over 150 whales stranded last week. The short-finned pilot whales were first reported by a commercial fisherman on last Friday morning and local officials went out to try and rescue the animals.

According to Jeremy Chick, the rescue team leader, “Unfortunately, most of the whales beached themselves on dry land overnight and have not survived. Rescue operations will be hampered by deteriorating weather conditions and we need to ensure the safety of everyone involved before we move the whales.” It can be almost impossible for rescue teams to attempt saving stranded animals in rough weather.

Image Credit: Jim Watt

Samples were taken from the dead animals in hopes of finding a clue as to why they stranded. So far, nothing definitive has been cited as a source of this mass stranding.

The biggest mass stranding of whales in Western Australia was in 1996 when 320 long-finned pilot whales beached themselves. The causes of that incident are still unknown.

Wildlife officials are warning beachgoers in the area that Hamelin Bay will not be a suitable place to swim at for the time being. The whale carcasses are expected to attract a large number of sharks to the area.

Learn more from our source here.

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