Whales

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Whales Dolphins

• Janae Barrett
• Based on NEAq resources Lowell lectures given
  by John Calembokidis
• Dr. Scott Kraus

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Figure 9.1
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Classification

• Kingdom Animalia
• Phylum Chordata
• Class Mammalia
• Order Cetacea
• Suborder Odontoceti- toothed whales dolphins,
  porpoises, sperm whale, killer whale, pilot whale
  beaked whales
• 1 blow hole opening
• Suborder Mysticeti- baleen whales
• Baleen is made of keratin
• 2 blow hole openings

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Evolutionary History

• Evolved from land-dwelling ancestor
• First mammals arose in Cenozoic Era
• 65 mya
• First whales appear 60 mya
• Seals and walruses 30 mya
• Sea otters 5 mya

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Figure 9.18
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Figure 9.25
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Echolocation
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Figure 9.31
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Diet of Great Whales
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Impact of Whaling
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Conservation

• Some species fall under the National Endangered
  Species Act, 1973
• All fall under the jurisdiction of the Marine
  Mammal Protection Act passed in 1972
• States it is a federal offense to kill, capture,
  disturb any marine mammal

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Right Whales the Right whale to hunt
Why the RIGHT Whale? -Live close to shore
-Floated after killed -Yielded much oil long
baleen plates
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History

• Began hunting them 1,000 years ago
• By 1788, British, French and American ships were
  hunting the Southern Right whales off the South
  African coast. Over the next 30 years an
  estimated 12,000 whales were killed
• Last right whale killed in US, FL- 1935
• Really none left in eastern N. Atlantic
• Individuals have been tracked over time spanning
  whaling whale research eras because they are so
  recognizable
• Research began in 1979 in Gulf of Maine
• NMFS surveyed for potential oil refinery in
  Eastport Harbor, ME
• Found there were far more right whales than they
  expected
• Oil refinery never built

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Cataloging Whales

• Calluses form patterns on head/nose
• 1. broken callosities
• 2. continuous callosities
• 3 main areas
• Eyebrow
• Chin
• Nose
• Whales are given number identification and
  sometimes names based on the pattern of calluses

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Callosities -located on head of right whales
identifies individuals helps to give them names.
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Research Methods

• 1. Aerial shipboard photo identification
• Research trips
• 1980 Bay of Fundy
• 1983 Scotia Shelf
• 1984 Southeast US
• Gather data on distribution, abundance, births,
  deaths movements
• Have researched historical whaling grounds of
  Labrador, Greenland, Iceland
• Not many right whales found in these areas
• Appears they have avoided these regions

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Right Whale Breaching
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Movements

• Winter SE US, for calving, about 1/3 of pop.
• Spring Cape Cod Bay Great South Channel, for
  spring feeding, about 2/3 of pop.
• Summer/ Fall Bay of Fundy Scotia Shelf, about
  2/3 of pop.
• About 1/3 of pop. is always missing
• Where do they go? Maybe another summering ground?

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Right Whale mother calf
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More Research Methods

• 2. Biopsy darts
• Only take a sample of blubber
• Genetic info sex family relationships b/c of
  small pop. Size
• Contaminants
• Overall health of individual
• 3. Ultrasound device (just like human prenatal
  care)
• Nutrition general health
• Blubber thickness changes as females become
  pregnant, give birth, lactate

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More Research Methods

• 4. Fecal Sampling
• Began after decline in reproduction in 1990s
• Fecal masses float in large fields on surface
• Info on red tides or other biotoxins
• Disease parasites
• Reproductive hormones
• Stress general health

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Results of Research

• One of the best known wild populations in world
• Genetic profiles of many indiv. to construct
  family trees
• Low genetic diversity (not as low as cheetahs)
  makes pop. vulnerable to crash
• At least 5 reproductive females made it through
  the population bottleneck following whaling

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Current Population Size

• About 350 individuals in N. Atlantic!
• Problem small pop. size cannot provide good
  statistics to make predictions about this pop.
• Isolated from all other pops.
• Cant cross equator b/c thick blubber
• Other pops. North Pacific (western region)
  southern hemisphere
• N. A. pop. declining in size due to less
  reproduction increased mortality due to
  shipping fishing
• Many females not calving, why?
• 2002- 31 calves, but decline over past 2 years
• Over the past 20 years average 12 calves/ year
• Spike years and then steady decline until another
  spike in of calves
• Females give birth every 3 to 6 years- low
  reproductive rate

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Protection

• MMPA- marine mammal protection act
• Endangered Species Act protects critical habitat
  for these whales- calving grounds
• 2 regions in Canada
• 2 regions in US SE US Cape Cod Bay

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Why low reproductive rate?

• Feeding nutrition 1 factor that influences
  reproduction in mammals
• Contaminants eat mostly copepods- low on food
  chain- little bioaccumulation
• Disease parasites
• Genetics potential inbreeding
• Habitat requirements- is it just food that
  matters or are factors like ambient/ human noise
  disrupting their communication behavior?

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Mortalities

• 1974-2002 62 deaths
• 22 from ship collisions
• 6 from fishing gear
• 72 of all right whales have gear entanglement
  scars- fostered new research with fishing
  industry to develop new equipment/ techniques
• Human causes 45
• 17 unknown cause 27.5
• 17 natural causes 27.5
• Not all deaths accounted for

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Changes in US

• 2003 moved shipping lanes in Bay of Fundy to
  better avoid areas where right whales congregate
  in spring, summer, fall
• Parties involved Canada, US, Irving Oil, Dept.
  of Fisheries, NEAq
• Hit by ships because they are surface feeders
  conduct courtship rituals at the surface
• Result 95 decrease in probability of a
  collision with a right whale

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Right Whale showing skimming feeding behavior
Unlike many other baleen whales, Right whales do
not have dorsal fins or pleated throat grooves.
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Yearly Travels of the Urban Whale

• Calf born in Jan. off FL/ GA coast
• Close to shore- about 40 miles offshore
• 3,000 ships in/out per year in this area
• Paper mill emissions acid rain offshore
• Late Feb./ March begin migration north within 40
  miles of shore always
• Pass by 12 major cities/ ports with lots of
  agricultural runoff shipping noise
• Norfolk Chesapeake Bay ? Delaware Bay loaded
  with fishing gear and shipping traffic
• ?NYC harbor pharmaceutical runoff hormones
  increase in effluent, not treated in sewage
  birth control hormones in ocean! Is this
  affecting the whales?
• Providence? Buzzards Bay ? Cape Cod Bay ? Gulf of
  Maine ? Bay of Fundy drastic increase in fishing
  gear and ship traffic in summer months when they
  are up in this area

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The Blue Whale The Largest Creature to live on
Earth
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Balaenoptera musculus
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Cascadia Research on the Blue Whale

• Began research in 1986 while studying Humpbacks
  off of CA
• Big target in commerical whaling, thought to be
  virtually wiped out
• Led to long term research in Pacific
• Types of data collected
• Photo ID
• Tagging
• Feeding
• Abundance
• Movements
• Vocalization recordings

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Not much of a catalog of indiv. unlike many other
whale species
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Research Methods

• Use small boats- 20 ft or less
• Lower cost
• Maneuverable
• Quick to relocate
• Ability to approach closely
• Research area from British Columbia to Baja
• Photo ID
• Most photos of tail fluke mottling pattern on
  dorsal side and fluke
• Have identified a pale while indiv. not sure if
  its an albino

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Where are the Whales?

• Coordinated research on Humpbacks in N. Pacific
  has produced much data on blue whales
• Research cruise found blue whales in areas that
  they hadnt been typically found in for decades
  (former whaling grounds)
• Shift in migration pattern
• Pre-whaling- often in Gulf of Alaska little
  time in CA waters
• Post-whaling- shows reverse pattern
• Today often found in area called Costa Rica Dome
  off of Mexico and CR, identified area in 1999
• Some stay here year-round and dont migrate
• CA blue whales migrate here for winter
• Jan-March about 1400
• June- August about 200-600
• About 1500 indiv. identified in CA waters
• May be whales migrating here from S. Pacific
  Southern Ocean
• Total estimate in Eastern N. Pacific- about
  2,000- much more than previously thought!

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NOAA map of blue whale tags in Pacific Northwest
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Vocalizations

• Largest animal on Earth loudest low frequency
  sounds- most of it we cant hear
• Can travel the longest distances- 1,000 km!
• Call Types
• A deep, low, repetitive thudding
• B low, descending rumble
• D- short, low rumble
• A B- mostly males
• D- both genders, assoc. with feeding
• We can identify the whale species by the song,
  but its harder to determine the indiv. based on
  the song
• To solve this problem tag the animal and record
  songs
• What does it mean when they arent calling? Why
  does call rate/ types vary through the year?
  trying to answer these ?s by correlations to
  behavior

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Blue Whale Songs

• Some whales call regularly- very few do this
• Mostly migrating individuals, not feeding
• Most whales are irregular callers
• b/c most are engaged in feeding
• Harder to call when engaged in deep diving
• Very little air to produce a sound

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Sonar Vocalizations

• Navys low freq. sonar is in this range- may
  affect whales?
• Navy hydrophone techs were 1st to hear describe
  whale songs determine they were, in fact, made
  by animals
• Air gun array produces 263 dB
• LFA- low frequency active- 240 dB
• Navy mid-freq. sonar- 235 dB
• Has been implicated in mass strandings of
  Cuviers beaked whales in 1996 2002

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Aerial View of a Blue Whale
Blue Whale Breaching the Surface
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Tagging Research

• 1. Movement
• Visible tags
• VHF
• Satellite
• Deployed into blubber- more invasive good
  tracking of a year in some cases
• 2. Behavior
• TDR- time depth recorders
• Cameras other instruments
• 3. Physiological measurements
• 4. Acoustic Tags

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More Tagging

• Non-invasive tag for diving pressure sensor
• Natl Geo Crittercam hi 8 video, hydrophone,
  pressure
• Film 2-3 hours, releases, pick up
• Secured by suction cups

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Crittercam Data

• Krill usually around 60 m down in layer during
  summertime
• Records feeding/ diving behavior
• Whales dive below the krill then up down into
  the layer several times
• Dives to 300 m have been recorded
• Krill layer shifts during the day
• Shallow at night
• Deeper during the day
• Can range in depth from 300 m to 10 m

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Crittercam continued

• Even though there is nothing to see on the film
  because there is no light at these depths the
  sound of water turbulence tells them what the
  whale is doing as far as how fast it is swimming,
  etc.
• Natl Geo. was disappointed with the film footage
  because most of diving was pitch black

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Bioacoustic Senors

• Stay on longer than other probes
• High quality audio secured by suction cups
• Pick up after 1 day
• Records depth, pitch, roll of whales movements
• steep dive, about 80 angle, very few fluke
  beats- mostly gliding down
• must beat flukes a lot when they ascend b/c
  lungs are empty (no buoyancy)
• lungs collapse, about 100 m, force air out of
  lungs push oxygen into tissues so they can sink
  glide down on the dive

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Just after a gulp of tasty krill in shallow water
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Diving Pattern

• Shallow, resting depths at night
• Active diving during the day
• Do not participate in any kind of cooperative
  feeding behavior like Humpbacks other cetaceans
  even when seen in male/female pairs

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Mother calf from above