Whale Watching and Whale Matching

Team members Amy Knowlton and Moe Brown were up before 5:00 AM checking the weather but the forecast for heavy winds forced them to cancel the Nereid's surveying efforts for the day. Because the Nereid did not go out the two Merediths got to sleep in until 7:30. After breakfast, which is "on your own" at the Whale House, the student scientists and Mr. McWeeny drove into Canada to Campobello Island to go on the Island Cruises Whale Watch with Mackie Green. In addition to running the whale watch boat, Mister Matthew, Mackie is on the Campobello Whale Rescue Team (CWRT). "Not only will we see whales and other sea creatures but we just might hear some stories of rescued whales." Meredith Olivari said hopefully. She was not disappointed. Robert, Mackie's first mate and fellow CWRT teammate, told us all about a rescue they did two years ago of a right whale caught in some fishing gear up near St. John, New Brunswick. "The work sounds exciting and dangerous, " Meredith Houghton commented thoughtfully.

The boat ride took us out past East Quoddy Lighthouse on Campobello's North Head. (East Quoddy Lighthouse has a red cross on it and should not be confused with the red striped West Quoddy Lighthouse in the United States.) The wind was light but Cobscook Bay was all churned up with the incoming tide running very strong around all sorts of islands, rocks and jetties. Harbor porpoise fed skillfully in the eddies using a bubble feeding technique to round up their prey while swarms of screeching gulls snatched up scraps of fish left over at the surface. Soon enough we were upon a couple of minke whales. Here is Meredith Olivari's account:

"Whale watching off Campobello Island was awesome and we saw three Minke whales. Meredith and I named all the whales we saw. The first whale was Jacqueline and her smaller friend Brady. It seemed that if we gave the whales names we would have a stronger connection with them, almost like a human connection, and that way we kind of remember them better like people we meet or like new friends. When we moved to a different part of the bay we spotted a large Minke and for some odd reason the name Lars immediately popped into my head, Lars the Swedish Minke. I told Meredith and together we came up with this whole story about Lars like he came from Swedish waters and, since he was quite playful, was enjoying the "warm" Canadian bay. Lars came right up by the boat and we could see him very well, he was smooth and slick and we admired him while we could but in just a couple seconds he was gone, into the ocean again."

Meredith's "game" of naming the whales has some very practical uses in the world of science. Jane Goodall named her chimps with very descriptive names (David Gray Beard) and could tell immediately which family an individual was from by the first letter in its name. The Right Whale Research team has named many right whales with descriptive names (Crescent, Stumpy, Stripe) and some names that describe a whale's behavior like Shackleton for a right whale that explored the Delaware River up to Philadelphia. The student scientists intuitive act of naming the whales they saw may come in handy if they become scientists and if they learn to use descriptive and not just "cute" names.

The highlight of the whale watch was the rescue of a creature in grave danger. An eagle had fallen into the water and was unable to fly. It could swim for a while but would eventually die if it were unable to reach land. The description of the event will appear in a subsequent posting entitled "Calvineers Visit: The Rescue".

Back in Lubec, at the Whale House, the Calvineers had left over pastas for lunch. During lunch they had quite a story to share with the scientists who had been working at their computers all morning. After lunch the student scientists learned how to match right whales. The image coding they had been doing would now pay off by helping them find matching images of unknown pictures of whales. Each series of pictures of a whale taken during a survey day (there can be 30 or 40 or more sightings each survey day) has to be matched to a known picture of the same whale. This is the beauty of DIGITS. The program saves hours of searching by using the coded images. Meredith Houghton explains, "Matching was definitely much harder than coding, but we managed to match a whale with Mr. McWeeny and Amy's help. We correctly identified the whale as Eg #2360! The next whale we tried to match did not go so well, and after looking through over 1000 pictures, we found one that was almost exactly the same, and marked it as an unsure match. It felt so awesome to be sitting behind a computer, doing the same exact things that the scientists here do everyday!

The student scientists spent a good two hours matching just two animals and gained an appreciation for the amount of work that goes into maintaining the data base for the scientific community. Meredith Houghton wished that we could stay in Lubec for another week helping the team.

The day was coming to an end and soon the two, would be scientists would be on their way back to Castine, ME. They both thought the experience was one they would always remember, and Meredith Olivari had this final thought: "Well, if anything, I certainly learned that there is one thing these scientists and whales really have in common; they each have HUGE appetites!"


You can match whales to with the new right whale matching game!

Stay Tuned for the Calvineers' description of the exciting eagle rescue by the Campobello Whale Rescue Team.

Photo Captions:
1) Mackie Green shows the Calvineers what it's like to be a captain.
2) The Calvineers in front of East Quoddy Head
3) Struggling Eagle

All photos taken by Bill McWeeney

Bill

Labels: Bill, Calvineers, DIGITS, Right Whales, The Calvin Project

The recent north winds blew out the fog and then calmed down nicely this morning, giving us our first good weather window in two weeks. Excited to be out on the water again, we awoke at 4:15 this morning to check the weather, put on lots of layers, ate breakfast and loaded the boat with equipment. By 5:30 we were off the dock and headed out to find the whales!

We went to the eastern part of the Bay as we had heard that whales were recently seen there. After a few hours of surveying we found our first whale and quickly began to see others. As we photographed each whale, we would head over to photograph the next one that surfaced and soon found ourselves so far east that we were sitting in the middle of the outbound shipping lane! Keeping a keen eye out for ships (although we didn't see any all day) so we could be quick to move out of their way, we photographed four mother and calf pairs and six other individuals. Four of these individuals were involved in a surface active group (SAG).

We photographed the whales as they energetically rolled and twisted around each other. The female in the SAG was a well known whale named Morse (go to the right whale catalog and search for #1608). Morse was born in 1986 and was given her name because a few white scars on her head reminded researchers of Morse code. After a good day with the whales, it will be a quite night at the "Whale house" as we all head to bed early in hopes that we will be woken by a subtle knock and the words "we're good to go."


We were able to get out on the water today for a brief window. Here is some footage of researchers Yan, Dan, Cyndi, Monica and Erin Burke (Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries) hard at work documenting a mother and calf pair. The mom's name is Arpeggio (go to the right whale catalog and search for #2753). Listen and look closely and you will hear the sounds of camera shutters clicking as researcher describe the scene and see the distinctive propeller scar on the right flank of Arpeggio.

Photo of Morse (EG #1608) taken by Erin Burke.
Video of Arpeggio (EG #2753) and her calf taken by Jonathan Cunha.

- Cyndi/Jonathan

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Labels: Cyndi, Jonathan, mother and calf pairs, Right Whales, SAG

One of the terms we frequently use when describing right whale behavior is surface active group (SAG). A SAG has a fairly broad definition--two or more whales within a body length interacting at the surface--but typically, the SAG is comprised of one female and a number of males competing with each other in order to mate with her. Some SAGs are extremely active, with a lot of rolling and white water, whereas others are more sedate. The number of animals in a SAG can range from two or three to more than 40!

For years researchers presumed that the primary reason for a SAG was mating. However, conception is thought to take place in the winter (since gestation is about 12 months and right whales usually give birth between December and February), yet SAGs occur year round. Recent analyses of the composition and seasonality of these SAGs indicate that actually only about half of them include females able to reproduce. Thus, SAGs are not just for mating purposes.

Some have been documented to be all male, or all female, or all youngsters. Our colleague, Dr. Susan Parks from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, wrote a paper about SAG behavior in collaboration with Aquarium researchers (see below). She hypothesizes that, in addition to conception, SAGs may serve a variety of different roles including practice, play and social bonding.

Studying the behavior of marine mammals such as right whales is much more difficult than that of terrestrial species, because we get just a glimpse of these animals when they're at the water's surface. But the long-term photo-identification aspect of the Aquarium's program has enabled researchers to answer some very basic and important questions. To see video of a SAG see entry #11 Behavior Video (SAG).

Top photo: Taken by Monica Zani in the Southeast U.S.
Bottom photo: A typically boisterous SAG in the Bay of Fundy. Photo taken by Moira Brown

Parks, S. E. et al. 2007. Occurrence, Composition, And Potential Functions Of North Atlantic Right Whale (Eubalaena glacialis) Surface Active Groups. Marine Mammal Science 23(4): 868-887.

Marilyn

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Labels: Behaviors, Marilyn, Right Whales, SAG

Waiting for Whales

The fog and wind finally let up enough for us to return to the Bay of Fundy to search for right whales. We saw several of them today, but we were only able to photograph one individual. Each opportunity we have to return to the Bay is exciting in its own way, and each whale we encounter presents its own challenges – some of the whales seem to say "let me pose for the photograph," while others say "catch me if you can!" In the latter case, we're usually waiting for the right whale to surface from a feeding dive (typically lasting 10 minutes). When the right whale is surfacing, it will let out a deep and powerful breath. The sound of the breath is a good clue to the animal's position on foggy days like today.

Food is thought to be one of the primary reasons right whales visit the Bay of Fundy. Just what does a 70-ton right whale eat? What else, but rice-grain sized crustaceans known as copepods. Right whales eat by swimming forward with their mouths open, capturing copepods that are too slow or oblivious to get out of the way. Rather than chew their food with teeth, these whales trap their prey with fine comb-like strainers, known as baleen, that hang from the roof of the whale's mouth.

It takes a lot of copepods to satisfy the appetite of a whale, and it takes tons of energy (pun intended) to propel such a large animal forward with its mouth open. To make up for the extraordinarily large number of calories expended in the feeding process, right whales must find and forage in areas containing many thousands of copepods per cubic meter of water. In the Bay of Fundy, these dense concentrations usually occur 100+ meters below the surface.

The sight of the whale's tail (a.k.a. flukes), like a wave goodbye as the whale begins its dive, tells us that if we want to see it again we need to keep our eyes on our watch and our ears tuned to the telltale "blow" of the whale when it resurfaces.

Dan

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Labels: Dan, Feeding, Right Whales

Surface Active Group



This is a video of a Surface Active Group (SAG) of North Atlantic Right Whales in the Bay of Fundy. Stay tuned for more information about right whale behaviors!

Jonathan

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Labels: Bay of Fundy, Jonathan, Right Whales, SAG

Labels: Bay of Fundy, Monica, mother and calf pairs, Right Whales

The Fundy Tides...

After another two days out in the Bay of Fundy, we are all thoroughly exhausted! Thursday shaped up to be another amazing day full of right whales. Many of these whales we had seen on the previous day, but we documented the presence of a few whales that we had not seen before. Within two days, we documented at least 53 right whales in the Bay of Fundy. Not bad for two days of work!

Today (Friday), we woke up bright and early and headed out into the Bay expecting to have yet another whale-filled day. After fueling the boat, we decided to head north, around the northern point of Campobello Island (known as East Quoddy Head). During the past two days on the water we continued to see whales to the east of us that we didn't have time to get to. In an attempt to find the eastern-most whales, we began our search for right whales by heading south-east. We soon found one right whale, who declared her presence by breaching. As we approached the whale started to "log." Logging is a resting behavior that is frequently seen and we describe it as "lying still at the surface of the water." From a distance, a resting whale can look like a log in the water, hence the term "logging."


Along with the callosity, this whale was identified as #2791 in the North Atlantic Right Whale Catalog by a distinctive scar on her flukes. She is a female who last calved in 2006. As we resumed heading to the southeast, the seas slowly began building and we started to see lots of white caps. The wind was light, but coming from the northwest and the tide had started coming in. In the Bay of Fundy, having even a light breeze against the powerful tide can ruin your day!

The Bay of Fundy has the highest vertical tidal range in the world. This dynamic body of water sitting between Canada's New Brunswick and Nova Scotia can rise, at high tide, to just over 50 feet. Approximately 115 billion tons of water flood in and out of the Bay during each tide cycle. While folklore claims that these tides are caused by a giant whale splashing water into the Bay, oceanographers have another explanation. The tide of the ocean at the mouth of the funnel shaped Bay of Fundy creates a wave of water the builds as it travels up the Bay. Other factors such as storms, atmospheric pressure and position of the moon can influence the height of the Fundy tide. Unfortunately we decided that this wind vs. tide effect would cause the sea to be too rough to find and photograph right whales and so we turned towards home early today.


Top photo taken by Bob Bowman. The research vessel Nereid heading for home as Monica and Jon stand on the bow searching for marine life and debris to record.

Lower photo taken by Marilyn. the distinctive flukes of right whale # 2791.

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Labels: Bay of Fundy, Cyndi, research, Right Whales

We were only able to get out for half a day today, but we did collect a right whale fecal sample. The fecal samples are analysed by Dr. Rosalind Rolland of the New England Aquarium for health and reproduction analysis of right whales.
*photo taken by Claudia

Jonathan

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Labels: Jonathan, Right Whales, Rosalind Rolland

What a Typical Day is Like

Yesterday was our first day on the water, and it was great! Because it takes us about 2 hours to get from Lubec to our survey area in the Bay of Fundy, we left the dock aboard our research vessel Nereid at 6:15 a.m. The crew consisted of Amy, Philip, Marilyn, Cyndi, Yan, Jonathan and two guests: Bill and Claudia. The weather was fine--winds were light and sky partly cloudy. By 9:15 we had found our first whales and the hours flew by as we worked one after another. By "worked" I mean we gathered all the information possible for each whale--the time of its sighting and its location (latitude and longitude), photographs of the head (for the callosity pattern) and the body and flukes (for any scars or marks), behaviors, and associations (whether it was alone or with other whales).

It was good to be back on the water, and we all fell into the various jobs without too much trouble. We took turns photographing, driving and recording the data. One person is the designated "whalewatcher" and that person has to let the rest of us know which whale we're photographing, whether it's a new whale for the day or not, and what information we need from it. It's actually just about the toughest job on the boat--a lot of pressure and no breaks! Yesterday, Philip was whalewatcher, and, as always, he knew many of the whales on sight.

In the eight hours we were on the Bay, we photographed 36 individuals, including four mothers with calves! We also saw three calves without their mothers, but that's not unusual for this time of year in the Bay of Fundy. Calves are getting older and a bit more independent, so although they're still nursing, they may go off exploring on their own for hours at a time while mom is feeding. They reunite when one calls for the other.

The highlights of the day were the curious approaches from three different calves. Just like other baby mammals, right whale calves are curious about their surroundings, and it's not unusual to see a calf lifting seaweed onto its head or playing with a log. Sometimes it's the boat that interests calves and they have been known to spend many minutes swimming underneath and all around our boat, looking at it (and us?) from all angles.


After many hours on the water we finally began heading in at 5:00 returning to the dock at 7p.m., nearly 13 hours after we left! But our day wasn't finished yet. After a quick dinner (thanks, Monica!), we still had to process the data (all the information we entered into the computer for each sighting), upload images from the digital cameras (more than 700!), wipe down the equipment (salt air is tough on electronics), and prepare for the next trip out. Exhausted, none of us had any trouble getting to sleep.

Marilyn

First image caption: Hard at work: Marilyn recording data, Jon checking his photos, Philip ready for the next whale. Photo taken by Claudia

Second image caption: One of the curious calves.

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Labels: Bay of Fundy, Marilyn, Right Whales

Video of a right whale! We saw a lot today!



To see more pictures from our first day out go to our web albums.
Here are some of those images:

Yan photographing a right whale.

A fluke recorded during the expedition. Flukes are one of the many features used to identify individual whales.

- Jonathan

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Labels: Jonathan, Right Whales, sightings

Boat Safety Training



Monica Zani (left) and Amy Knowlton (right) examining a buoy that holds a satellite transmitter. The buoy is used to help track entangled large whales making it easier for the Atlantic Large Whale Dissentanglement Network to respond to the distressed animal.

-Jonathan

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Labels: Entanglement, Jonathan, nereid, Right Whales

Getting Stir Crazy

We have been here for 4 or 5 days now and the weather has been uncooperative. First thick fog, then rain, then rain and fog. We need good visibility to find the whales and dry conditions and relatively calm seas to use the equipment we need to work (cameras, video, computers).

So we have been spending our time setting up the office, reviewing research protocols, and remembering how to live co-operatively in a large house with 10 to 15 people. Although there is plenty to do to set up and plenty more to do to process back-logged data, we are all growing antsy--a feeling which is magnified by the knowledge that right whales have been seen in the Bay of Fundy.

Laurie Murison, our colleague from the Grand Manan Whale and Research Station, made several trips into the Bay before the weather turned bad and reported 20 to 30 right whales. Knowing of our particular interest in mothers with calves of the year, she forwarded some excellent photographs she took. Low and behold, she had documented a new mother for the year! Most of the mothers and calves are first seen off the coast of the southeast U.S., but a few are first seen further north. This whale, #3115, is a 7-year-old female that gave birth to her first calf this year.










Photo of #3115 from Laurie Murison's July 28th sighting in the Bay of Fundy.
See more pictures and sighting history on the North Atlantic Right Whale Catalog web site.

This brings the calf total for the year up to at least 21. The weather does not look good for the next few days (in fact, we just had torrential rains and lightening that knocked out the power twice), but we will keep our fingers crossed for a change so we can see some of these youngsters for ourselves.

And for those of you in the sweltering summer heat, you may be surprised to hear that it is cold in Lubec. All of us already bundled in our sweaters and wondering if it is too early to turn on the heat!

-Philip

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Labels: Bay of Fundy, Lubec, Philip, Right Whales

Weather Has Not Improved


Weather conditions have not improved. We are all fogged up!! You can see how bad the visibility is by comparing the above image of the Nereid to the image taken yesterday from the same spot. The bridge is disappearing!

- Jonathan

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Labels: Bay of Fundy, Jonathan, Lubec, Right Whales

First Day in the Bay of Fundy

Hi all. It is August 1st, the time of year when right whale researchers at the New England Aquarium and other organizations gather in Lubec, Maine for an annual field season. It's our 29th year in a row! We are about to head out to the Bay of Fundy on our research vessel Nereid in hopes of finding right whales. Earlier this week, there were reports of as many as 20 right whales in the Bay of Fundy already, including several mother calf pairs that have migrated over 1,500 miles to get here from the calving grounds off Florida! Record numbers of right whales were reported on the calving grounds in the Southeastern United States this past winter and on the feeding grounds in Cape Cod Bay this spring. We are hoping for record numbers of whales into the summer months in the Bay of Fundy.

The weather today is not conducive for surveying. We woke up at 5 a.m. to check the weather conditions and saw there was rain and fog in our survey area. We looked at the weather radar and it appeared that the rain was moving to the northeast of us. We were optimistically hoping that the rain would pass allowing the sun to shine through the clouds and burn away the fog making it a beautiful day for surveying. We checked the weather again at 6:15 a.m., but no such luck. It was still raining. We are all keeping our fingers crossed for tomorrow!

We will be here until October so stay tuned for photos of who was sighted and stories from other right whale researchers about their days spent in the Bay of Fundy.

From the field,
Jonathan

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Labels: Jonathan, mother and calf pairs, nereid, Right Whales, season start