Filming Conger the Humpback Whale – Planet Earth III

Can you imagine what our team felt when we heard Sir David Attenborough say the name of Conger the Humpback Whale? That happened when episode 7 (Human) of the BBC’s Planet Earth III aired in Europe on December 3rd. Sir David said the name of Conger, a whale we nicknamed in 2009, the first year we ever saw him (Conger’s catalogue designation is BCY0728).

We worked with the BBC in 2021 and 2022 to film the Humpbacks who return to feed around northeast Vancouver Island in the Territory of the Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw (the Kwak̕wala-speaking Peoples). The hope is that the global reach of Planet Earth III will lead to significant positive action for conservation.

That moment when David Attenborough said “Conger” was the culmination of so many years where we have worked to increase understanding of the whales as individuals. Who they are – their life histories, feeding strategies, habitat use, relationships, and how they are impacted by threats such as collision and entanglement. In our education efforts, we speak about who the whales are, using their nicknames, to create connection and care about them as individuals. Conger is nicknamed for an eel-like marking on the underside of his tail; a shape like Conger Eel.

The main conservation message of the Planet Earth III segment featuring the Humpbacks we study was about the importance of individual whales – that every large whale helps life on Earth by sequestering approximately 33 tons of carbon from the atmosphere (the equivalent of 30,000 trees).

But . . . why Conger?
Why, of all the Humpback Whales from whom we have learned and who were filmed by the BBC, was Conger the lead ambassador? Many other whales also return to the area near northeastern Vancouver Island to feed and we would also be able to anticipate and interpret their behaviour for the film crew.

It’s because Conger was the first whale we ever saw trap-feeding. This feeding behaviour had never been seen anywhere else in the world with any other Humpback before we documented it in 2011 with Conger. This is what initially drew the attention of the BBC. We published on trap-feeding and continue to document which whales learn this behaviour.

So it was Conger who was the whale who we most often focussed on (literally) with the film crew. Filming him using this new feeding strategy would lead to talking about the importance It was important to get footage of him trap-feeding and lunge-feeding. See here for the difference in those behaviours.

But, very unexpectedly, it became extremely challenging to film Humpbacks feeding near the surface in September 2021. This was NOT because of Conger. Rather, there was an “intrusion” of a species of bird that changed things. Short-tailed Shearwaters (Ardenna tenuirostris) came into the area in the thousands. Commonly, they are in huge numbers further to the north. But this had never been documented before around northeast Vancouver Island.

How did they change the dynamics of Humpback feeding? The diving bird species that are usually in the area, namely Common Murres and Rhinoceros Auklets, coral juvenile Herring near the surface into a big ball. Gulls also try to snatch the Herring being pushed to the surface by these diving birds. Humpbacks target these “Herring balls” – engulfing the ball when they lunge-feed. Or, if the Herring are in a less concentrated aggregation, the whales might trap-feed.

However, the Shearwaters “bomb” the juvenile Herring at the surface, splitting up the ball and driving the Herring deeper. Thereby, there was far less feeding at the surface by Humpbacks.

This led to us having the joy of a second session of filming with the BBC. In 2022, in the absence of Short-tailed Shearwaters, abundant Humpback feeding was filmed. We spent so much time observing Conger with the film crew when they were using a drone to capture his behaviour, that we laughingly referenced that we were often “in a Conger line” (a word play on being in a conga line).  

Conger feeding in an area with significant large vessel traffic.

With Conger being such a powerful ambassador for whales, their sentience, and how they contribute to life on Earth, he is now one of our sponsorship whales. Through sponsorship, you get a detailed backgrounder about Conger, receive updates about him, and support our work to reduce threats to the whales. Please learn more about our Humpback sponsorship program at this link.

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Related links:

• The Making of Planet Earth III – A second chance with giants: Learning from humpback whales
• How we nickname and catalogue Humpback Whales
• Trap-feeding – our research paper with videos
• How you can help the whales, wherever you are
• Our Humpback Whale sponsorship program

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Episode 7 of Planet Earth III “Human” also airs on :

• December 16, 2023 via BBC America
• April 21, 2024 in Canada

On the production we worked with:

• Fredi Devas, producer, whose work includes BBC’s “Seven Worlds One Planet”, Planet Earth II “Cities”, and “Frozen Planet”.
• Bertie Gregory, film-maker whose work includes BBB’s “Seven Worlds One Planet”, and star of National Geographic’s “Epic Adventures with Bertie Gregory”.
• Hayes Baxley, cinematographer whose work includes Emmy award-winning “Secrets of the Whales” (Disney +).
• Tavish Campbell, dear friend of MERS and a BC cinematographer deeply dedicated to conservation on our coast.

What Whales Do for You – Whale Pump, Whale Poo

[Update December 1, 2023.
Also see our article featured on the BBC’s “Making Planet Earth III” page at this link.]

This blog is full of it – whale poo and how it enriches life on Earth.

That’s one of the key messages of the BBC’s Planet Earth III footage we were involved with. We spent many hours ensuring whale poo was filmed. That footage, with narration by Sir David Attenborough, will have aired for the first time in Europe on December 3, America on December 16, and in Canada in March.

While we’re clearly very serious scientists, you may notice an occasional crappy pun in this blog.

The red colour of Inukshuk’s (BCZ0339) waste suggests he has been eating a lot of krill.
Photo ©MERS, Marine Mammal License MML-57.

By contrast, Conger (BCY0728) appears to have been eating a lot of fish (we know him to feed on a lot of juvenile herring). Photo ©MERS, Marine Mammal License MML-57.

Photo ©Ocean Wise, Marine Mammal License MML-18.

Why Whale Poo Is So Important

Whales may feed at depth but they always defecate at the surface. As a result they bring nutrients from deeper water to the surface. This is referenced as the “whale pump“ (Roman and McCarthy, 2010).

In the photos in this blog, you can see how this poo spreads out and does not sink. Thereby, the “flocculent fecal plumes” fertilize the plant-like plankton (phytoplankton) at the surface. With more phytoplankton, there is more food for the food web and more photosynthesis by which oxygen is made and carbon dioxide is absorbed.

How the whale pump works from Roman and McCarthy, 2010.

It’s poo-fect!

And it’s not just whale poo that helps we humans who have put too much carbon into the atmosphere. The whales are also literally acting as carbon sinks when they die and their bodies go to the bottom of the ocean.

It’s estimated that every large whale sequesters approximately 33 tons of carbon. That’s the equivalent of around 30,000 trees (Chami et al. , 2019):

Oh, and baleen whales like Humpbacks also transport nutrients from the cold-water feeding grounds to the warm-water breeding grounds when they urinate. This is known as the Whale Conveyor Belt.

From Chami et al. , 2019

From the International Monetary Fund’s report “Nature’s Solution to Climate Change: A strategy to protect whales can limit greenhouse gases and global warming“ (Chami et al., 2019):

Despite the drastic reduction in commercial whaling, whales still face significant life-threatening hazards, including ship strikes, entanglement in fishing nets, waterborne plastic waste, and noise pollution. While some species of whales are recovering—slowly—many are not.

Enhancing protection of whales from human-made dangers would deliver benefits to humans, the planet, and of course, the whales themselves. This “earth-tech” approach to carbon sequestration also avoids the risk of unanticipated harm from suggested untested high-tech fixes. Nature has had millions of years to perfect her whale-based carbon sink technology. All we need to do is let the whales live.

Spike (BCX1847) defecating. She has since died from being hit by a large vessel.
Photo: Ocean Wise, Marine Mammal License MML-18.

How we hope that by being involved with Planet Earth III will lead to meaningful conservation action – for the whales and all that depends on them.

Whales inspire. Whales connect. Whales aid human survival. They remind us of mistakes made and capacity for positive change. May human values contribute to a future deserving of whales.

Please see our website for how you can get involved – www.mersociety.org
Sign up for our newsletter to see just how much your support fertilizes.

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More from the International Monetary Fund’s report:

The carbon capture potential of whales is truly startling. Whales accumulate carbon in their bodies during their long lives. When they die, they sink to the bottom of the ocean; each great whale sequesters 33 tons of CO on average, taking that carbon out of the atmosphere for centuries. A tree, meanwhile, absorbs only up to 48 pounds of CO a year.

Protecting whales could add significantly to carbon capture because the current population of the largest great whales is only a small fraction of what it once was. Sadly, after decades of industrialized whaling, biologists estimate that overall whale populations are now less than one-fourth what they once were. Some species, like the blue whales, have been reduced to only 3 percent of their previous abundance. Thus,the benefits from whales’ ecosystem services to us and to our survival are much less than they could be. But this is only the beginning of the story.

Wherever whales, the largest living things on earth, are found, so are populations of some of the smallest, phytoplankton. Not only do these microscopic creatures contribute at least 50 percent of all oxygen to our atmosphere, they do so by capturing about 37 billion metric tons of CO , an estimated 40 percent of all CO produced. To put things in perspective, we calculate that this is equivalent to the amount of CO captured by 1.70 trillion trees—four Amazon forests’ worth—or 70 times the amount absorbed by all the trees in the US Redwood National and State Parks each year. More phytoplankton means more carbon capture. In recent years, scientists have discovered that whales have a multiplier effect of increasing phytoplankton production wherever they go. How? It turns out that whales’ waste products contain exactly the substances—notably iron and nitrogen—phytoplankton need to grow. Whales bring minerals up to the ocean surface through their vertical movement, called the “whale pump,” and through their migration across oceans, called the “whale conveyor belt” (see Chart 1). Preliminary modeling and estimates indicate that this fertilizing activity adds significantly to phytoplankton growth in the areas whales frequent.

Despite the fact that nutrients are carried into the ocean through dust storms, river sediments, and upwelling from wind and waves, nitrogen and phosphorus remain scarce and limit the amount of phytoplankton that can bloom in warmer parts of the oceans. In colder regions, such as in the Southern Ocean, the limiting mineral tends to be iron. If more of these missing minerals became available in parts of the ocean where they are scarce, more phytoplankton could grow, potentially absorbing much more carbon than otherwise possible . . .

If whales were allowed to return to their prewhaling number of 4 to 5 million—from slightly more than 1.3 million today—it could add significantly to the amount of phytoplankton in the oceans and to the carbon they capture each year. At a minimum, even a 1 percent increase in phytoplankton productivity thanks to whale activity would capture hundreds of millions of tons of additional CO₂ a year, equivalent to the sudden appearance of 2 billion mature trees. Imagine the impact over the average lifespan of a whale, more than 60 years.”

Conger defecating again. Photo ©MERS, Marine Mammal License MML-57.

Merge (BCX1348). Photo ©MERS, Marine Mammal License MML-57.

Related Links:

• BBC backgrounder on Episode 7 – https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/mediapacks/planet-earth-three-episode-5-human
• MERS Blog – Filming with the BBC – https://mersociety.wordpress.com/2023/11/26/working-with-the-bbc-on-planet-earth-iii/

Whoo hoo! Whale Poo.

Freckles the Humpback is back, with a splash!
And yes, that’s whale poo.

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Freckles was tail-lobbing which makes it easier to see that she had been defecating. The colour suggests she’s been eating both krill and small schooling fish (most likely herring). When a Humpback’s diet is fish, the colour is grey and when the diet is krill, the colour is intense orange (see photo at the bottom of this blog).

This photo is a brilliant capture by MERS team member Marieke when doing her second job as naturalist for Mackay Whale Watching.

We share the image with you because:

1) To increase awareness of the importance of whale poo. Whales always defecate at the surface, fertilizing the phytoplankton / algae there. Through photosynthesis, this leads to more oxygen being produced and more carbon dioxide being absorbed. More phytoplankton also means more food, not only for the local marine ecosystem, but across ocean basins when the whales urinate in the nutrient-poor warm waters of their breeding grounds.

2) Because Freckles (BCY0727) is back! She’s such a recognizable Humpback Whale thanks to those little white marks on her sides that are the inspiration for her nickname.

Since 2009, she very predictably returned from the breeding grounds to feed around northeastern Vancouver Island.

But we did not see her from 2020 to 2022 (she had her first known calf in 2022). In those years, she was feeding in Alaska, known thanks to our colleagues at Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve and sightings contributions to Happywhale. She was there earlier this year too.

We are so glad to see you back Freckles, for the many gifts you bring!
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#WhalePump #WhatWhalesDoForYou #CarbonCapture

Planet Earth III

Updated November 23, 2023.
Reading this makes our hearts race.
It’s real. It’s happening.
For all of you who help us, you have helped with THIS.

Here is what we have been able to post previously about our involvement in #PlanetEarthIII (from our January 1st social media post):

“Giant news for 2023.
Our work will contribute to the BBC’s Planet Earth III.

We may now share this news that still has us blinking. We have been filming with the BBC in 2021 and 2022. The content will air in Europe on December 3rd, 2023 (on December 16 via BBC American and in March 2024 in Canada). This is what we have been nebulously referencing as “working with a film crew for a well-known documentary series.”

Contributing to the conservation messaging of the world’s furthest-reaching nature documentary, Planet Earth III, is beyond anything we could ever have imagined.

For all of you who have helped us, you have helped THIS.

On the production, we worked with:

• Fredi Devas, producer, whose work includes BBC’s “Seven Worlds One Planet”, Planet Earth II “Cities”, and “Frozen Planet”.
• Bertie Gregory, film-maker whose work includes BBB’s “Seven Worlds One Planet”, and star of National Geographic’s “Epic Adventures with Bertie Gregory”.
• Hayes Baxley, cinematographer whose work includes Emmy award-winning “Secrets of the Whales” (Disney +).
• Tavish Campbell, dear friend and British Columbia’s cinematographer deeply dedicated to conservation on our coast.

We filmed in ‘Namgis and Mamalilikulla Territories.
All filming was done under the filming license issued by Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO).”

From The Guardian:
“David Attenborough is to present the third instalment of the BBC’s award-winning natural history programme Planet Earth. This outing of the epic homage to nature’s variety will air later this year on BBC One.

“Planet Earth wouldn’t be Planet Earth without David, so I’m delighted he is presenting the third series,” says Mike Gunton, Planet Earth III’s executive producer. “As ever, he has brought his huge enthusiasm and wisdom, has been encouraging about our new perspective and has, I know, really enjoyed seeing the extraordinary new wonders brought to the screen.”

Filming on the series has already begun, including footage of Attenborough on location in Britain. The series will start with the 97-year-old presenter following in the footsteps of one of his personal heroes.

“The opening of the series with David was filmed in the beautiful British countryside in exactly the location where Charles Darwin used to walk while thinking over his Earth-shaking ideas about evolution,” says Gunton.

“It seemed the perfect place for David to introduce Planet Earth III and remind us of the wonders and the fragility of our planet.”

Attenborough’s participation in the series comes despite reports that his previous BBC series, Wild Isles – which aired in March – would be his last on-location shoot. Filming at sites such as Skomer Island off the west coast of Wales involved the presenter being accompanied by a doctor with a defibrillator each time he made the climb up the 87 steep concrete steps from the landing jetty to the top of Skomer Island.

Producers also claimed that they had to change their filming plans due to fears that placing Attenborough too close to the seabirds they intended to shoot could potentially end up killing the nonagenarian – due to an avian flu outbreak on the neighbouring island of Grassholm.

“I have an old friend who’s an expert on infectious diseases and I rang him up for his opinion,” says Wild Isles series producer Alastair Fothergill. “He said: ‘Well, bird flu is actually extremely hard to catch, but if he [Attenborough] gets it, he will die.”

Planet Earth is one of the BBC’s most popular natural history franchises. Previous instalments have won numerous awards including Baftas and Royal Television Society awards. The third series will consist of eight hour-long episodes.”

We do not know when Planet Earth III will air in Canada.

#ForTheWhales

Four Large Vessel Collisions With Whales – BC coast

[Update: August 30, 2023: Fourth known large vessel strike of a Humpback off the coast of BC between July 20, 2023 and: August 29, 2023. The latest vessel strike was by the BC Ferry, the Northern Expedition, in Fitz Hugh Sound.]

There have been three known large vessel strikes of whales off British Columbia’s coast between July 20 and July 29.

One dead Humpback Whale was found. There was no opportunity to know if this is from one of these collisions.

We were interviewed. Our comments are about increasing awareness. It’s about needing a culture of openness and learning that allows for the threat of collision to be reduced.

This is #ForTheWhales but also, regarding smaller vessels, it’s about boater safety.

There is such gratitude to all who insist on this – from those within federal government agencies, to First Nations, to colleague researchers and journalists, to those who dared make sure that the collisions were known.

The full article is at this link.

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Quotes from the article follow:

“Nobody ever wants to hit a whale,” Hildering stressed [Marine Education & Research Society]. “But it’s not acceptable to just accept [whale deaths] as collateral damage.

“There’s so much we can do, and the core of that is learning all we can about these accidents.”

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Any vessel that hits a whale must report it to the DFO. However, there’s no policy or protocol for vessels involved or DFO to relay information in a timely way to other groups that monitor whales — which are often operating in nearby waters and able to respond to incidents more quickly, Hildering said.

When research groups and First Nations guardian programs don’t get key information about the incidents when they happen, it’s a missed opportunity to capture data crucial to protecting whales into the future, she said.

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Shipping traffic and humpback whale populations are both on the rise — often in the same areas — escalating the risk of vessel strikes to humpbacks, the greatest threat to the species of special concern along with entanglements in fishing gear.

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Janie Wray, CEO of the North Coast Cetacean Society (BCWhales), agreed, noting the research team and the Gitga’at Guardians could have had boats on the water quickly to respond to the vessel strikes in the waters around Kitimat.

The research group and the Gitga’at Guardians were informed about a dead whale floating in nearby waters on July 30, but by the time they heard about it and responded, they couldn’t locate the mammal, Wray said.

Confirming and identifying a whale fatality also helps determine impacts on the local population and allows researchers to secure the carcass for DFO for a necropsy and analysis, she said.

Understanding other details like vessel speed, size, weather conditions and location of the strike are all important to determine hot spots of concern where whales and ships are most often coming into contact.

“Those are all parts of the equation, with the whole idea being to reduce the risk of vessel strikes to whales, especially in some areas along the coast where we know we have high populations,” she said.

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The most effective way to reduce the danger of collisions for humpbacks and other threatened whales is implementing shipping slow zones, or even steering clear of known hot spots of whale activity along the B.C. coast, says Hussein Alidina WWF-Canada

Multiple Dead Humpback Whales – What you can do.

Update: Known dead Humpbacks between October 12 and November 30, 2022 are:

• October 12, 2022 – Dead Humpback #1. Floating near Lax Kw’alaams, northern BC. 
• October 15, 2022 – Dead Humpback was seen floating from a distance near Wales Island. Presumed to be Whale #1. 
Colouration on the underside of the whale and location suggest this is likely. 
• October 23, 2022 – Dead Humpback #2 on the north side of Malcolm Island. We secured her body and identified her. She was Spike (BCX1847) a young female. Signs of blunt-force trauma. 
• November 5, 2022 – Dead Humpback #3 (male). Naikoon Provincial Park, Haida Gwaii To date we in the Canadian Pacific Humpback Collaboration have not been able to identify this individual. He is likely a previously undocumented 
Humpback. He has very distinctive markings allowing us to know this is not the same whale as dead Humpback #1. Signs of blunt-force trauma. 
• November 13, 2022 – Dead Humpback #4 (male). Naikoon Provincial Park, Haida Gwaii. This whale was in a further 
state of decay confounding the ability to ID who this might be. We were however able to conclude by comparing photos of a pectoral fin and underside of the body that this is not the same whale as dead Humpback #1.
• November 20, 2022 – Dead Humpback #5 (3rd dead Humpback on East Beach, Haida Gwaii). Very decomposed but photos allowing us to compare the shape of the right pectoral fin to dead Humpback #1 lead us to believe this is an additional dead Humpback.
  
  Original post:

With more Humpbacks along the coast, there is more overlap with fishing gear and vessel traffic and indeed: “Dead whales most often sink. So, as bad as the situation appears, it is likely worse.”

We are heartened that there has been this level of concern and have strived to speak about these whales as ambassadors.

See below for what you can do to increase whale and boater safety. Thank you.

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Summary of the known dead Humpback Whales:

1. October 12, 2022 – Dead Humpback #1. Floating near Lax Kw’alaams, northern BC.

2. October 15, 2022 – Dead Humpback seen floating from a distance near Wales Island. Presumed to be Whale #1. Colouration on the underside of the whale and location suggest this is likely.

3. October 23, 2022 – Dead Humpback #2 on the north side of Malcolm Island. We secured her body and identified her. She was Spike (BCX1847) a young female. Signs of blunt-force trauma.

4. November 5, 2022 – Dead Humpback #3 (male). Naikoon Provincial Park, Haida Gwaii To date we in the Canadian Pacific Humpback Collaboration have not been able to identify this individual. He is likely a previously undocumented Humpback. He has very distinctive markings allowing us to know this is not the same whale as dead Humpback #1. Signs of blunt-force trauma.

5. November 13, 2022 – Dead Humpback #4 (male). Naikoon Provincial Park, Haida Gwaii. This whale was in a further state of decay confounding the ability to ID who this might be. We were however able to conclude by comparing photos of a pectoral fin and underside of the body that this is not the same whale as dead Humpback #1.

6. November 20, 2022 – Dead Humpback #5 (3rd dead Humpback on East Beach, Haida Gwaii). Very decomposed but photos allowing us to compare the shape of the right pectoral fin to dead Humpback #1 lead us to believe this is an additional dead Humpback.

Note that there are currently at least 3 Humpback Whales known to be entangled along BC’s coast. This has been reported to the Incident Reporting Line 1-800-465-4336.

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What to do?

– Know the laws and best practices to reduce the chance of collision, and what to do if you see entanglement, a dead marine mammal, violations or other incidents of concern. See www.SeeABlowGoSlow.org.

– If you are a coastal British Columbian, put the Incident Reporting Line number into your phone 1-800-465-4336.

– Model best boater behaviour including the use of the Whale Warning Flag in the waters of British Columbia and Washington State. See www.whaleflag.org.

– Use your voice for the other large whale species that is very vulnerable to vessel strike. Up to December 2nd you can weigh in that protection should not be reduced for Fin Whales when it is not known how many whales there are and threats are increasing. Please see our information at this link.

– Use the Whale Report Alert System. See https://wildwhales.org/wras

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Please note that the source of the Humpback Whale population estimate used in last night’s news report is not known to BC’s Humpback Whale researchers. There have not been multi-year surveys to allow for an accurate / reliable population estimate.

There is one study (SPLASH) that led to the estimate that in 2006, the number of Humpback Whales along BC’s coast was 2,145 whales. This estimate did not include 1st-year calves nor Humpbacks in BC’s non-coastal waters.

A survey was done in 2018 (PRISMM) that will lead to another estimate for all of BC’s waters. But that will be based on one year of data and this was a year where whale presence / absence is likely to have been impacted by a marine heat wave.

CBC “The National” news coverage – www.cbc.ca/player/play/2122714691987

Great thanks to all who have helped raise awareness, especially the journalists who have reported with such understanding.

Deep Dive – Inukshuk the Humpback

Inukshuk is back. We saw him back for the first time this year in the feeding grounds near northeastern Vancouver Island on May 23, 2022. We know he migrated to the breeding grounds of Mexico because he was photographed there by CaboTrek on February 19th (known thanks to Happywhale).

Of all the male Humpbacks in our study area, he is the one where it has been the easiest to know HE is the one singing. Why? Because most other male Humpbacks in our study area sing at night when we can’t identify the singer in the dark. But Inukshuk, he often sings during the day. So, if you put in a hydrophone into the water to listen below the surface, you can then identify it is him making the amazing repertoire of sounds. [See below for samples of him singing.]

Why is he different in this regard? We think it is because he more often feeds on krill at night where the other Humpbacks, specifically in our study area around NE Vancouver Island, often feed on juvenile herring during the day.

ID photos from our public catalogue.

To put to pieces together between feeding and when a male Humpback might sing.

• – If you are Humpback who likes to snack on krill, it’s often the case that you will be feeding at night because that’s when the krill is often closer to the surface (unless there are big upwellings of current during the day). Birds are active during the day and krill moves deeper to avoid being eaten by them.
  
• – If you are a Humpback Whale feeding on herring, it often helps that the birds are also going after that prey. The herring goes into a dense mass to try to get away from the birds which makes for a big mouthful of herring for Humpbacks. Because birds roost at night, Humpbacks feeding on herring near the surface is more likely to happen during the day.
  
  So, if Inukshuk is more often feeding on krill. He is likely to be feeding at night, and resting, socializing and singing during the day. For the Humpbacks feeding on herring near the surface, they are more likely to be feeding during the day and resting, socializing and singing at night.

Do we have anything other than his daytime singing to support our hypothesis? Why yes we do!

• 1) We have often documented Inukshuk pooing and it’s pink = krill diet. In fact, people have even mistaken the krill poo as blood. Humpbacks feeding on fish have silvery poo.
  
• 2) Where we rarely see other Humpbacks resting during the day, we have repeatedly found Inukshuk doing so. We’ve even had people report him to us as a whale that might be dead because he was just lying at the surface and, once, we even mistook him for a log in the tideline where he was resting.

Inukshuk pooing at the surface. The red colour indicates he has been feeding on krill.

Nickname:
We nicknamed Inukshuk for the black markings in the lower center part of his tail, which – to us – look like an inukshuk, the rock figures traditionally built in northern Canada by the Inuit as “helpers” in communication. His catalogue designation is BCZ0339.

More on Humpback Whale song:
Humpback males sing more in the breeding grounds and the songs are unique to each area. All males humpbacks in the same area sing the same song (not in unison), and if the song changes, all the singers will adopt the change together. The leading hypothesis is that they are establishing acoustic territory through song. While both male and females Humpbacks can vocalize at any time of the year and for many reasons, the males may feel a greater urge to practice fragments of song toward the fall in the Northern Hemisphere. This is when their energy budget shifts from being largely about feeding to include mating related behaviours.

Samples of Inukshuk singing:

Recording by Scott Turton.

More on whale poo:
Know that whales pooping at the surface is not only important to researchers (and whales). It’s important to all of us! As whales feed at depth and poop at the surface, they transport nutrients up the water column and help fertilize the phytoplankton. This process is literally termed the “whale pump”. Just like plants on land, phytoplankton need sunlight to photosynthesize so they need to be at the surface. Whale poop fertilizes them there so they pull more carbon out of the atmosphere, helping regulate our climate. They also produce the oxygen we breathe and food to fuel the marine food web. At least half of the oxygen we breathe comes from the ocean.

The Return of Giants- Why Humpback Whales are a game changer for boaters

This article also appeared in the Canadian Power Squadron members’ magazine, The Port Hole, in December 2021.

Humpback Whales were heavily targeted by whaling. The last whaling station in BC only closed in 1967. Humpbacks remained an uncommon sight off our coast for many decades. 

As an indication of how quickly the numbers of Humpbacks have increased, in 2003, when we began research in our core study area around north eastern Vancouver Island, we documented only seven Humpbacks in the whole year. Come 2019, we documented 95 in the same area with the same amount of research effort.

With the return of these giants, there is an increased overlap with human activities. Therefore, it is essential that coastal British Columbians know about large whales like Humpbacks, for the sake of whale AND boater safety. Not only have whales died as a result of collision and entanglement, there has been significant human injury (one boater is paralyzed as the result of collision), kayaks have been flipped, and motorized vessels have been disabled.

One of the most common misconceptions about Humpbacks is that they know where boats are and will get out of the way. Unlike toothed whales, such as Orca, Humpback Whales do not have the same bio-sonar capabilities. These giants are very unpredictable. They can be oblivious of boats especially when feeding or socializing. They can be resting just below the surface; unexpectedly surface after long dives; or suddenly become acrobatic.

A further dangerous misconception is that Humpbacks are migrating through BC waters, travelling in a predictable direction. Reality is that many of these whales return from the breeding grounds to feed in the same, specific areas of our coast year-after-year. They are seasonal neighbours who have preferred feeding areas and strategies. Thereby, they are often travelling in unpredictable patterns in the same area NOT travelling in a straight line.

What can you do to reduce your risk of collision? 

• Give whales space. It is the law to stay 100 metres away from Humpbacks and this becomes 200 metres when the whales are resting or with a calf. Since it is difficult to determine if a whale is resting or when is a mother with a  calf, we recommend always staying at least 200 metres away from Humpback Whales. For Orca in the area south from Campbell River to Ucluelet, the minimum approach distance is 400 metres.

• Always be on the lookout for blows and other indicators of whale presence such as large aggregation of birds. Humpbacks and some bird species share the same food sources, such as krill and small schooling fish. More birds therefore signal an increased chance of whale presence. 

• If despite your vigilance, a whale surfaces within 100m, shut off the boat engine until the whale is beyond 100m.

• Watch for vessels flying the “Whale Warning Flag”. This signals that whales are in the area.

• Familiarize yourself with areas known to have a greater likelihood of whale presence and be extra vigilant in these areas. See link below.  
  
• Know the laws and further best practices. Including your legal responsibility to report any collisions and entanglements to the DFO Incident Reporting Line. See www.SeeABlowGoSlow.org

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Bird Bricks

Morbidly fascinating but . . . this is pure marine biology gold when reflecting on 2020.

It’s our final gift to you for this year, made possible thanks to our dear Alaskan research colleagues.

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These are “bird bricks”. They used to be tiny birds. 



Bigger birds like gulls and diving birds who feed on herring, are too big to fit down a Humpback Whale’s throat. Their fate, if they end up in the mouth of a Humpback feeding on the same prey, would be to drown or, to have a lucky escape if the whale opened its mouth at the surface. 

 We’ve blogged about that previously at this link. 

The narrow throats of baleen whales are an adaptation whereby only small prey with large surface area get into the whales’ stomachs . . . usually.

These 3 smaller birds were likely feeding on krill and, Humpbacks were too. 

 They DID fit down the throat of a Humpback.

They accidentally became engulfed, went down a Humpback’s throat, and came out the other side. With there being no way for baleen whales to mechanically break down such large “items”, their digestive enzymes would not be sufficient for chemical digestion.

And yes, “bird brick” is the official scientific term. We know this is life-enhancing information for you.

DNA analysis confirmed that these birds were an Ancient Murrelet and two Marbled Murrelets.



Please see the great research paper:
*Source: Haynes, Trevor & Campbell, Matthew & Neilson, Janet & López, J.. (2014). Molecular identification of seabird remains found in humpback whale feces. Marine Ornithology. 41. 161-166.

There you go dear community. We will continue to be here for you, and the whales. Working hard, and like you, striving to find our way out of crappy situations. 



With huge chunks of gratitude to our colleagues who gave us permission to use these photos more than a year ago.

Share this with someone who feels like they’ve experienced the equivalent of what happened to these birds? 



Consider us in your year-end giving? 

We have wonderful marine-themed masks as an incentive. Please see this link. 



Happy Better Year to you. 

Photo credits:
Left: National Park Service photo/Chris Gabriel
Right: National Park Service photo/Janet Neilson Janet Neilson

 

Max the Humpback – Documented 32 Years

Here’s the kind of thing that makes Humpback researchers’ hearts go pitter pat and AGAIN makes the point of how many humans it takes to study giants.

We think you’ll love the story of “Max” too.

Max is a Humpback Whale first documented by Alexandra Morton around NE Vancouver Island in 1987, then already at least a juvenile. Alex is the one who so diligently began documenting Humpbacks around NE Vancouver Island and whose data we inherited. We learned that Alex only got one chance to photograph this whale and nicknamed him/her in honour of fellow Echo Bay resident, Yvonne Maximchuk who was caring for her son during the sighting.

Max was assigned the Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) catalogue number BCX0929. Sightings of Max were reported to DFO for 2003, 2005, 2006, and 2007. All known sightings were for the area around Prince Rupert. (Note DFO cataloguing of Humpbacks off the coast of BC ended in 2010 and has continued through the efforts of not-for-profits).

THEN, thanks to the research of Pacific Whale Foundation, Max was documented near Maui in 2019!

These puzzle pieces came together because of our collective contribution and collaboration with Happywhale to document Humpback Whales across the North Pacific.

What can be learned by studying Humpbacks as individuals in this way includes: migration range for individuals, , site fidelity / habitat use, life history (e.g. age of calving and life expectancy), associations between individuals, etc!

What can also be gained for conservation? By sharing the stories of whales like Max, we strive for a greater appreciation that the whales are individuals and for a greater understanding of their importance as ambassadors of ocean health. We believe such stories provide insight into how much we humans have to learn even about the biggest animals in the ocean and what the reveals about the need for humility and precaution. But, ultimately, we hope for greater connection and action for the ocean upon which all our lives depend. 💙

Note: We (all scientists involved) have not confirmed Max is male but s/he has never been documented with a calf.