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Guardians of the Whales: The Quest to Study Whales in the Wild
As RECENTLY AS 1972 WHALES WERE killed and dissected for scientific research.
Modern scientists have discredited that method and devised more humane and conservation-oriented techniques such as "photo-identification", photographing the unique markings on the animals and then tracking the movements of individual whales. The people involved in full-time study of whales in the wild are portrayed in Brnce Obee and Graeme Ellis' Guardians of the Whales: The Quest to Study Whales in the Wild (Whitecap $34.95). Ellis, who supplied most of the photographs, has been studying killer whales "longer than anybody" since the late 1960s. The book tells the story of these fascinating animals through the eyes of people who have spent half their lives on the high seas studying them," says Obee. It's not known whether all this watching and listening by humans is affecting the animals. Obee says it may be too soon to tell. "They may live up to 80 years, and we've only studied them in the wild for 20.You can't determine what's normal in that short time. The major prob1em could be noise pollution, since killer whales use echo-location to navigate. "Put a hydrophone down in Johnson Strait and you always hear the kathump of diesels, even if the boat is seven kilometres away."
Sometimes a grey or humpback whale will observe the observers. It has happened in the whale breeding grounds off Baja California, and on rare occasions off the B.C. coast.
The first recorded incident of the "friendly whale phenomenon" was in the early' '80s off Meares Island, when a whale came up and bumped a research boat Luckily the researcher had seen the same behaviour down south and knew there was no danger. He tried to keep the incident quiet for the whale's sake. ";In spite of that the Vancouver Sun found out and ran a front page story," says Obee, 'and soon people were up there jumping on the whale's back, putting dogs on it, even driving their boats over it." Most whale watchers, however pose little threat and Obee would prefer to see more commercial whale watching. "If you've got 5O people in one boat, that's a whole lot better than 50 people in 25 boats." He says Obee thinks that with the growth in whale watching and the general increase in public knowledge about the mammals, the time has come to release all whales from captivity. "Some people from the Aquarium will argue that if we don't let people see these animals in the flesh, we'll return to the days when people shot them, You can't' convince me. My children, who have never seen a blue whale, understand the need to protect them." About half of Obee's book deals with killer whales. "Before killer whale research began, people used to think there were thousands of Killer whales on the coast," Obee says. "and then they found there were only 330 along the coasts of B.C. and Washington." After that discovery no more killer whales were captured for display in aquariums, except to replace those that died in captivity. In recent year's killer whale research has focused on the sounds they make, and whether they "speak". Obee says that experts like John Ford of the Vancouver Aquarium have identified 40 "phrases" recorded by hydrophone. "If a killer wha1e pod comes into a narrow restricted passage," says Obee, it's quite common to hear them use a phrase frequently heard in that situation." They also make a great deal of vocalization when rubbing themselves on beaches, or when several pods meet. No one has discovered what the sounds mean. Ford refers to the sounds each whale makes when several pods meet as a "family badge" a way of keeping in touch with other members of the same pod while mingling with up to 100 other whales. Whale researchers used to think that humpback whales travelled straight from their breeding areas off Hawaii or Mexico to northern feeding grounds, and then back. Now modem methods of tracking whales have shown that they wander from Japan to Mexico, and from the Bering Sea to the South Pacific. The entire Pacific Ocean is the 12-meter giant's back yard. 1-55110-034-7
[BCBW, Autumn, 1992] "Environment"
Modern scientists have discredited that method and devised more humane and conservation-oriented techniques such as "photo-identification", photographing the unique markings on the animals and then tracking the movements of individual whales. The people involved in full-time study of whales in the wild are portrayed in Brnce Obee and Graeme Ellis' Guardians of the Whales: The Quest to Study Whales in the Wild (Whitecap $34.95). Ellis, who supplied most of the photographs, has been studying killer whales "longer than anybody" since the late 1960s. The book tells the story of these fascinating animals through the eyes of people who have spent half their lives on the high seas studying them," says Obee. It's not known whether all this watching and listening by humans is affecting the animals. Obee says it may be too soon to tell. "They may live up to 80 years, and we've only studied them in the wild for 20.You can't determine what's normal in that short time. The major prob1em could be noise pollution, since killer whales use echo-location to navigate. "Put a hydrophone down in Johnson Strait and you always hear the kathump of diesels, even if the boat is seven kilometres away."
Sometimes a grey or humpback whale will observe the observers. It has happened in the whale breeding grounds off Baja California, and on rare occasions off the B.C. coast.
The first recorded incident of the "friendly whale phenomenon" was in the early' '80s off Meares Island, when a whale came up and bumped a research boat Luckily the researcher had seen the same behaviour down south and knew there was no danger. He tried to keep the incident quiet for the whale's sake. ";In spite of that the Vancouver Sun found out and ran a front page story," says Obee, 'and soon people were up there jumping on the whale's back, putting dogs on it, even driving their boats over it." Most whale watchers, however pose little threat and Obee would prefer to see more commercial whale watching. "If you've got 5O people in one boat, that's a whole lot better than 50 people in 25 boats." He says Obee thinks that with the growth in whale watching and the general increase in public knowledge about the mammals, the time has come to release all whales from captivity. "Some people from the Aquarium will argue that if we don't let people see these animals in the flesh, we'll return to the days when people shot them, You can't' convince me. My children, who have never seen a blue whale, understand the need to protect them." About half of Obee's book deals with killer whales. "Before killer whale research began, people used to think there were thousands of Killer whales on the coast," Obee says. "and then they found there were only 330 along the coasts of B.C. and Washington." After that discovery no more killer whales were captured for display in aquariums, except to replace those that died in captivity. In recent year's killer whale research has focused on the sounds they make, and whether they "speak". Obee says that experts like John Ford of the Vancouver Aquarium have identified 40 "phrases" recorded by hydrophone. "If a killer wha1e pod comes into a narrow restricted passage," says Obee, it's quite common to hear them use a phrase frequently heard in that situation." They also make a great deal of vocalization when rubbing themselves on beaches, or when several pods meet. No one has discovered what the sounds mean. Ford refers to the sounds each whale makes when several pods meet as a "family badge" a way of keeping in touch with other members of the same pod while mingling with up to 100 other whales. Whale researchers used to think that humpback whales travelled straight from their breeding areas off Hawaii or Mexico to northern feeding grounds, and then back. Now modem methods of tracking whales have shown that they wander from Japan to Mexico, and from the Bering Sea to the South Pacific. The entire Pacific Ocean is the 12-meter giant's back yard. 1-55110-034-7
[BCBW, Autumn, 1992] "Environment"
Submitted on November 16, 2004 in By David.
