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Duncan Murrell - A Whale of a Time

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Duncan Murrell - A Whale of a Time

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  • Humpback whales are the most acrobatic and extrovert whales on the surface, making them the ideal whale for whale watching, with the added bonus of their spectacular cooperative bubble net feeding behavior. They engage in a lot of breaching ( jumping) and lobtailing, which is when they raise their flukes out of the water and slap the surface repeatedly as this individual is doing. It creates a thunderclap noise that can be heard miles away. There are many possible reasons for this behavior including trying to dislodge barnacles and other parasites, communicating with other whales, herding prey and as a threat display to boats that approach too closely. It could also be just for recreation.<br />
Photographs of the underside markings and colouration of the flukes can be used like a fingerprint to identify individual whales; they can be predominantly black or white with any variation in between, and cuts, scars and barnacle formations can also be used for identification. There are more predominantly white flukes in the southern hemisphere populations than in the north.
    Alaska-humpback-whale-lobtail5.jpg
  • Humpback whales are the most acrobatic and playful whales on the surface, making them the perfect whale for whale watching, along with their spectacular cooperative feeding behavior. They engage in a lot of breaching ( jumping) and lobtailing, which is when they raise their flukes out of the water and slap the surface repeatedly as this individual is doing. There are many possible reasons for this behavior including trying to dislodge barnacles and other parasites, communicating with other whales, herding prey and as a threat display to boats that approach too closely. It could also be just for recreation.<br />
This was one of the whales recorded and photographed in the studies of Dr Fred Sharpe, and he had named her “Butterfly” but he hadn’t seen her for a long time. Photographs of the underside markings and colouration of the flukes can be used like a fingerprint to identify individual whales; They can be predominantly black or white with any variation in between, and cuts, scars and barnacle formations can also be used for identification. There are more predominantly white flukes in the southern hemisphere populations than in the north.
    Alaska-humpback-whale-lobtail4.jpg
  • This was one of the very rare occasions when a humpback whale ever showed any aggression towards me. I always tried to avoid obstructing the passage of whales but with so many encounters it was inevitable that sometimes I didn’t have enough time to get out of their way, especially if they surfaced in front of me without any warning. Even then I was often amazed at how they would just roll beneath me like a gigantic ball caressing the soft hull of my kayak with barely a ripple. But on this occasion I encountered a slightly more irritable whale and as it was sounding (diving), instead of just lifting its flukes up before sliding gracefully out of view, it rolled its flukes sideways, creating a large wave that surged towards me, over the bow of my kayak and onto my lap. The icy water of Southeast Alaska was always cold enough to give me a sharp intake of breath, and some degree of punishment for not giving way to a much larger vessel fast enough!
    Alaska-camping-kayaking23.jpg
  • The flukes of a humpback whales' flukes during sounding is one of the most graceful, aerodynamic shapes in the animal kingdom. I never tired of observing and photographing that hypnotically beautiful form and motion that delighted the eye from every conceivable angle. It was an advantageous benefit to be photographing them from the low sea-level angle from a kayak. The low angle helps to silhouette them against the distant background, creating a greater sense of drama and perspective rather than just against the water. That is very noticeable if you compare photos taken from a kayak and a boat.
    Alaska-humpback-whale-sounding12.jpg
  • This was one of the very rare occasions when a humpback whale ever showed any aggression towards me. I always tried to avoid obstructing the passage of whales but with so many encounters it was inevitable that sometimes I didn’t have enough time to get out of their way, especially if they surfaced in front of me without any warning. Even then I was often amazed at how they would just roll beneath me like a gigantic ball caressing the soft hull of my kayak with barely a ripple. But on this occasion I encountered a slightly more irritable whale and as it was sounding (diving), instead of just lifting its flukes up before sliding gracefully out of view, it rolled its flukes sideways, creating a large wave that surged towards me, over the bow of my kayak and onto my lap. The icy water of Southeast Alaska was always cold enough to give me a sharp intake of breath, and some degree of punishment for not giving way to a much larger vessel fast enough!
    Alaska-camping-kayaking24.jpg
  • A humpback whale sounds dramatically and forcefully in front of the Nautiraid kayak of Duncan Murrell, Peril Strait, near Chatham Strait, Southeast Alaska, USA.<br />
<br />
This was one of the very rare occasions when a humpack whale ever showed any aggression towards me. I always tried to avoid obstructing the passage of whales but with so many encounters it was inevitable that sometimes I didn’t have enough time to get out of their way, especially if they surfaced in front of me without any warning. Even then I was often amazed at how they would just roll beneath me like a gigantic ball caressing the soft hull of my kayak with barely a ripple. But on this occasion I encountered a slightly more irritable whale and as it was sounding (diving), instead of just lifting its flukes up before sliding gracefully out of view, it rolled its flukes sideways, creating a large wave that surged towards me, over the bow of my kayak and onto my lap. The icy water of Southeast Alaska was always cold enough to give me a sharp intake of breath, and some degree of punishment for not giving way to a much larger vessel fast enough!
    Whaleman-15.tif
  • This was one of the most unusual pods of bubble net feeding whales because of the appearance of some of their flukes every time they lunged to the surface. The co-operative feeding groups that use bubble nets to catch herring are very cohesive teams of individuals that feed together every summer, and their herding and feeding manoeuvres are tightly choreographed for maximum efficiency. This is the only pod that I witnessed using their flukes in this manner as part of their strategy.
    Alaska-humpbackwhale-bubblenet24.jpg
  • Humpback whales are the most acrobatic and playful whales on the surface, making them the perfect whale for whale watching, with the additional bonus of their spectacular cooperative bubble net feeding behavior. They engage in a lot of breaching (jumping) and lobtailing, which is when they raise their flukes out of the water and slap the surface repeatedly as this individual is doing. It creates a thunderclap noise that can be heard miles away. Actually on this occasion it was a cow and a calf lobtailing together, and the calf is often the instigator for play: they kept this up for about half an hour. There are many possible reasons for this behavior including trying to dislodge barnacles and other parasites, communicating with other whales, herding prey and as a threat display to boats that approach too closely. It could also be just for recreation.
    Alaska-humpback-whale-lobtail1.jpg
  • A pair of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeanglia) sounding, Icy Strait, Southeast Alaska, USA.<br />
<br />
I never tired of photographing the whales when they were sounding (diving), because the flukes are such a beautiful shape and the motion is so graceful as they raise them prior to sliding into the water, whilst shedding a sparkling waterfall. There was also the additional aesthetic element of their ethereal breath, which always looked much better than the smell, which is foul and very fishy; research has revealed many harmful pathogens contained in their breath. There are also droplets of mucous that often coated myself and my lens, giving the soft-focus effect evident in this photo, but I usually tried to avoid getting engulfed by their foul-smelling breath.
    Humpback whales-8.tif
  • The weather conditions were frequently overcast and gloomy for days on end, but if the sunlight ever pierced through the all pervading gloom, the whales seemed to attract it; their graceful motion, water shed from their flukes and diaphanous breath became brilliantly highlighted by a spotlight in their murky world.
    Alaska-humpback-whale-sounding16.jpg
  • Humpback whales probably raise their flukes up high like this when sounding if they are going to do a steep vertical dive down to deeper water, but less so when they are just going to be swimming at shallower depths.<br />
This photo was used by Athena International in the late 1980s for posters and cards.
    Alaska-humpback-whale-sounding4.jpg
  • Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) sounding near the entrance to Pleasant Bay, Admiralty Island, Seymour Canal, Southeast Alaska, USA.<br />
The weather conditions were frequently overcast and gloomy for days on end, but if the sunlight ever pierced through the all pervading gloom, the whales seemed to attract it; their graceful motion, water shed from their flukes and diaphanous breath became brilliantly highlighted by a spotlight in their murky world.
    Alaska-humpback-whale-sounding17.jpg
  • Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) sounding near the entrance to Pleasant Bay, Admiralty Island, Seymour Canal, Southeast Alaska, USA.<br />
The weather conditions were frequently overcast and gloomy for days on end, but if the sunlight ever pierced through the all pervading gloom, the whales seemed to attract it; their graceful motion, water shed from their flukes and diaphanous breath became brilliantly highlighted by a spotlight in their murky world.
    Alaska-humpback-whale-sounding15.jpg
  • Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) lobtailing, Frederick Sound, Southeast Alaska, USA.<br />
Humpback whales are the most acrobatic and playful whales on the surface, making them the perfect whale for whale watching, with additional bonus of their spectacular cooperative bubble net feeding behavior. They engage in a lot of breaching (jumping) and lobtailing, which is when they raise their flukes out of the water and slap the surface repeatedly as this individual is doing. It creates a thunderclap noise that can be heard miles away. Actually on this occasion it was a cow and a calf lobtailing together, and the calf is often the instigator for play: they kept this up for about half an hour. There are many possible reasons for this behavior including trying to dislodge barnacles and other parasites, communicating with other whales, herding prey and as a threat display to boats that approach too closely. It could also be just for recreation.
    Alaska-humpback-whale-lobtail2.jpg
  • I never tired of photographing the whales when they were sounding, because the flukes are such a beautiful shape and the motion is so graceful as they raise them just before slipping into the water, whilst shedding a sparkling waterfall. There was also the additional aesthetic element of their ethereal breath, but it had such a foul unbecoming fishy smell; research has revealed many harmful pathogens contained in their breath. There are also droplets of mucous that often coated myself and my lens, giving the soft-focus effect evident in this photo, but I usually tried to avoid getting engulfed by their foul-smelling breath.
    Alaska-humpback-whale-sounding19.jpg
  • Humpback whales are the most acrobatic and playful whales on the surface, making them the perfect whale for whale watching, with the additional bonus of their spectacular cooperative bubble net feeding behavior. They engage in a lot of breaching (jumping) and lobtailing, which is when they raise their flukes out of the water and slap the surface repeatedly as this individual is doing. It creates a thunderclap noise that can be heard miles away. Actually on this occasion it was a cow and a calf lobtailing together, and the calf is often the instigator for play: they kept this up for about half an hour. There are many possible reasons for this behavior including trying to dislodge barnacles and other parasites, communicating with other whales, herding prey and as a threat display to boats that approach too closely. It could also be just for recreation.
    Alaska-humpback-whale-lobtail3.jpg
  • Duncan Murrell kayaking with humpback whales in his Nautiraid folding kayak, Point Hayes, Chatham Strait, Southeast Alaska, USA. Photo courtesy of Francois Gohier.<br />
<br />
This was another photo taken by Francois Gohier when he was also photographing the bubble net feeding whales around the Morris Reef. After I won the Mammal Category of the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition in 2002 I was commissioned to write an article for the BBC Wildlife Magazine and this photo was used on the cover of the magazine, which was indeed an honour for me as I have been reading the magazine since I was a young boy.
    Whaleman-9.tif
  • This is a rare photo taken from a boat rather than from my kayak. I took it from the deck of a small catamaran owned by the postmaster at Tenakee Springs. It was always such a mesmerising sight watching the blows of the whales being illuminated by the sun when the sun was low in the sky. It was usually emphasised by the dark backdrop of the mountains.
    Alaska-humpback-whale-blowing4.jpg
  • Alaska-humpback-whale-sounding18.jpg
  • Orcas have many of the same behavioural characteristics on the surface as humpback whales, and possibly for the same reasons. I didn't observe orcas lobtailing or breaching as much as humpbacks. It's quite likely that this orca was lobtailing to herd salmon, just as humpback whales do to shock and herd shoals of herring into bays or along a shoreline.
    Southeast-Alaska- orca11.jpg
  • Alaska-humpback-whale-sounding3.jpg
  • This was my first really memorable day kayaking with humpback whales in my Klepper kayak in the early 1980s. It was a beautiful sunny day and the sea was flat calm. There was a pod of humpback whales feeding in the area all afternoon.
    Alaska-humpback-whale-sounding1.jpg
  • This photo was also used by the Dutch company Verkerke for their paper products in the 1990s.
    Alaska-humpback-whale-sounding6.jpg
  • I always felt completely safe in my kayak with the whales. If anyone ever asked me if I was afraid to get as close to the whales as I did, the answer was always a resounding yes because I always trusted them not to be aggressive towards me because I always tried to ensure that I posed no threat towards them. I often stayed with a pod for an entire day from morning to night and they would often surface alongside me and accompany me as if I was one of them. I became a familiar and unthreatening shape and presence to them, with no potentially deadly slashing propeller to concern them; I was virtually no different from other marine creatures like sea lions that often accompany them.
    Alaska-camping-kayaking22.jpg
  • The view of a pod of humpback whales sounding from the cockpit of Duncan Murrell’s Nautiraid folding kayak, Peril Strait, near Chatham Strait, Southeast Alaska, USA.<br />
<br />
I always felt completely safe in my kayak with the whales. If anyone ever asked me if I was afraid to get as close to the whales as I did, the answer was always a resounding yes because I always trusted them not to be aggressive towards me because I always tried to ensure that I posed no threat towards them. I often stayed with a pod for an entire day from morning to night and they would often surface alongside me and accompany me as if I was one of them. I became a familiar and unthreatening shape and presence to them, with no potentially deadly slashing propeller to concern them; I was virtually no different from other marine creatures like sea lions that often accompany them.
    Whaleman-14.tif
  • The unusual and dramatic lighting was created by a forest fire hundreds of miles away in the Yukon Territory. The smoky haze drifted across Southeast Alaska during a rare period of clear weather, intensified the lighting and created a luminous band of light along the horizon.
    Alaska-humpback-whale-sounding8.jpg
  • It was always good to have Fred Sharpe and his fellow whale researchers around in their Alaska Whale Foundation boat, “the Evolution”. We both had a lot of mutual respect for each other, and very importantly to me he shared the same respect for the whales, and always operated in a very non-intrusive manner. I was so used to being out there camping alone, but it was always nice to enjoy their company, and catch up on some jovial socializing and fine dining onboard his boat.<br />
Dr. Fred Sharpe started studying the behaviour of humpback whales in Southeast Alaska from a small skiff around about the same time that I started photographing them from a kayak. While I became quite obsessed with photographing the incredible cooperative bubble net feeding strategy of the whales, Fred conducted ground-breaking research into that behaviour and established such things as the task specialisation of individual members within a feeding group, whereby the same whale blows the bubbles and the same one makes the piercing feeding call. he is now stationed at the Five Finger Lighthouse, armed with a wireless hydrophone that AWF hopes will allow them to record and broadcast live, the diverse vocalizations made by humpback whales in Southeast Alaska.
    Alaska-humpback-whale-sounding22.jpg
  • Humpback whale (Megaptera novaeanglia) sounding, Peril Strait, Chatham Strait, Southeast Alaska, USA.
    Humpback whales-17.tif
  • The frequently dramatic skies, clouds and lighting of Southeast Alaska enhances the dramatic setting of the stage upon which the humpback whales perform every summer.
    Alaska-humpback-whale-sounding14.jpg
  • The unusual and dramatic lighting was created by a forest fire hundreds of miles away in the Yukon Territory. The smoky haze drifted across Southeast Alaska during a rare period of clear weather, intensified the lighting and created a luminous band of light along the horizon.
    Alaska-humpback-whale-sounding9.jpg
  • Humpback whale (Megaptera novaeanglia) sounding, Stephen’s Passage, Southeast Alaska, USA.<br />
<br />
The unusual and dramatic lighting was created by a forest fire hundreds of miles away in the Yukon Territory. The smoky haze drifted across Southeast Alaska during a rare period of clear weather, intensified the lighting and created a glowing band of light along the horizon.
    Humpback whales-3.tif
  • Alaska-humpback-whale-sounding7.jpg
  • This was my first really memorable day kayaking with humpback whales in my Klepper kayak in the early 1980s. It was a beautiful sunny day and the sea was flat calm. There was a pod of humpback whales feeding in the area all afternoon. I managed to capture a lot of good photos on this day with my Olympus OM1 because the conditions were so perfect and the whales remained in the same area for a long time. This was my first photo that I ever saw published in a book on whales. I stumbled across it in a book shop in Juneau, Alaska, which was a great thrill and gave me a lot of encouragement to continue photographing the whales. But the most rewarding encouragement for me was when most of the main conservation organisations, like the WWF, Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth started using my whale photos for their Save the Whale campaigns.
    Alaska-humpback-whale-sounding2.jpg
  • This was another photo taken by Francois Gohier when he was also photographing the bubble net feeding whales around the Morris Reef at Point Hayes. After I won the Mammal Category of the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition in 2002 I was commissioned to write an article for the BBC Wildlife Magazine and this photo was used on the cover of the magazine, which was indeed an honour for me as I have been reading the magazine since I was a young boy.
    Alaska-camping-kayaking20.jpg
  • This was taken just off the entrance to Pleasant Harbour where I either used to anchor my boat or camp on the little islet at the entrance that is on the right of this photo. This was my regular base in my early years with the whales in Southeast Alaska. It was always a thrill to emerge from the beautiful cosy little safe anchorage in the morning and be greeted by volleys of whale blows illuminated by the rising sun against the shaded Glass Peninsula.
    Alaska-humpback-whale-sounding13.jpg
  • This amazing day was probably one of the most seminal days in my whole life; one of those days, as many were that I can still vividly remember, like the first really close encounter on this day when a whale surfaced right in front of me, but then it stopped abruptly and its massive rotund back rolled like an enormous ball right up against and beneath my kayak without creating barely a ripple. It gave me a sense of exhilaration that I had never ever experienced before. I may have just been paddling on flat calm water but it felt like I was gliding in the air because I was as high as a kite.
    Alaska-camping-kayaking2.jpg
  • Alaska-humpback-whale-sounding20.jpg
  • The unusual and dramatic lighting was created by a forest fire hundreds of miles away in the Yukon Territory. The smoky haze drifted across Southeast Alaska during a rare period of clear weather, intensified the lighting and created a glowing band of light along the horizon.
    Alaska-humpback-whale-sounding21.jpg
  • Orcas have many of the same behavioural characteristics on the surface as humpback whales, and possibly for the same reasons. I didn't observe orcas lobtailing or breaching as much as humpbacks. It's quite likely that this orca was lobtailing to herd salmon, just as humpback whales do to shock and herd shoals of herring into bays or along a shoreline.
    Southeast-Alaska- orca12.jpg
  • This was one of my very few whale photos that was taken from a boat when I was living in Petersburg: this was taken a short distance from the town. The products manager that used a lot of my work for Athena International moved to another big international paper products company, Verkerke based in the Netherlands. He continued to select my whale photos for the new company, and this is one of the first images that was used for a large poster.
    Alaska-humpback-whale-sounding5.jpg
  • Southeast-Alaska-Avalon14.jpg
  • Humpback whale (Megaptera novaeanglia) sounding near some whale researchers in their inflatable boat, Chatham Strait, Southeast Alaska, USA.<br />
<br />
It was always good to have Fred Sharpe and his fellow whale researchers around in their Alaska Whale Foundation boat, “the Evolution”. We both had a lot of mutual respect for each other, and very importantly to me he shared the same respect for the whales, and always operated in a very non-intrusive manner. I was so used to being out there camping alone, but it was always nice to enjoy their company, and catch up on some jovial socializing and fine dining onboard his boat.
    Humpback whales-24.tif
  • Humpback whale (Megaptera novaeanglia) sounding, Stephen’s Passage, Southeast Alaska, USA.
    Humpback whales-14-2.tif
  • Reproductively mature male sea lions aggregate on traditional rookeries in May, usually on beaches on isolated islands. A week or so later, adult females arrive, accompanied occasionally by sexually immature offspring, and form fluid aggregations throughout the rookery. Steller sea lions are polygamous but they do not coerce individual females into harems but control spatial territories among which females freely move about. Pregnant females give birth soon after arriving on a rookery, and copulation generally occurs one to two weeks after giving birth, but the fertilized egg does not become implanted in the uterus until the autumn. After about a week of nursing, females start taking increasingly longer foraging trips, leaving the pups behind until in late summer when they both leave the rookery. Males fast until August, often without returning to the water, after which time the rookeries break up and most animals leave for the open seas and disperse throughout their range.<br />
Steller sea lions are predated upon by orcas and I actually witnessed the death of one bull that had become quite attached to me. It had been showing so much interest in me and it even raised its head out of the water right in front of me to have a good look with its bulging eyes. A short while later I heard a commotion in the distance and saw that a pod of transient orcas had arrived on the scene and were systematically charging the sea lion and thrashing it with their flukes. It was a difficult event to witness, especially whenever the big bull re-appeared on the surface gasping for breath. It took the orcas about 15 minutes to finally kill it and not long after that they were attacking some humpback whales that had strayed onto the scene. It was an exhilarating experience to be paddling my kayak so close to a pod of orcas engaged in a hunt, but they showed no interest in me. It was one of those occasions when I wished that I’d had someone else with me to witness such an amazing spectacle.
    Alaska-Steller-sealion1.jpg
  • Lunge-feeding humpback whale (Megaptera novaeanglia), Chatham Strait, Southeast Alaska, USA.<br />
<br />
I became very familiar with the individual whales that made up the cooperative bubblenet feeding groups. I could identify them by their flukes, markings on their throats, barnacles and even sometimes by the sounds they made.<br />
I had known Dr Fred Sharpe of the Alaska Whale Foundation for many years during his research into the cooperative bubble net feeding strategies employed by the humpback whales of Southeast Alaska. He was particularly interested in the genetic relatedness of individual whales within and between cooperative pods, in addition to the local genetic sub-structuring of the population. He discovered that social foraging humpback whale pods possess a social complexity that is rarely observed in baleen whales. For example, individuals within these groups may develop long-term associations that may last for many years. There also appears to be a division of labour, with particular whales constantly leading the group, deploying the bubble nets, and producing the feeding calls. Furthermore, on each lunge, each whale in the group maintains the same position, indicating that this is an intrinsically choreographed feeding maneuver. My own personal observations with the same feeding groups over the course of the summer also bore this out. I observed how there were always core members of a group but other individual whales appeared to join them on a much more ad hoc basis before moving off again.<br />
He ascertained that it is only the more elusive, shoaling prey, such as Pacific herring, that require the same level of cooperative cohesiveness; easier prey such as krill do not require the same sophisticated feeding strategies as do shoaling fish.
    Humpback whales-4-2.tif
  • It continued to breach for quite some time after that shock. To this day I wonder if that whale had intentionally turned back towards me, and deliberately breached so close to me just to give me a warning, or an early-morning surprise.<br />
Later that afternoon I was taking a siesta with my feet dangling over the sides of my kayak, surrounded by whales and with my freshly dried camera on my lap, when I was rudely awakened by another icy-cold shower. This time it was a mischievous calf that had crept up behind me and flicked the water onto me with its flukes. But this time I had an audience because there was a cruise ship within viewing distance, and I heard someone who observed that I was drying my camera: little did they know that it was the second time that same day!
    Alaska-humpback-whale-breach6.jpg
  • I became very familiar with the individual whales that made up the cooperative bubblenet feeding groups. I could identify them by their flukes, markings on their throats, barnacles and even sometimes by the sounds they made.<br />
I had known Dr Fred Sharpe of the Alaska Whale Foundation for many years during his research into the cooperative bubble net feeding strategies employed by the humpback whales of Southeast Alaska. He was particularly interested in the genetic relatedness of individual whales within and between cooperative pods, in addition to the local genetic sub-structuring of the population. He discovered that social foraging humpback whale pods possess a social complexity that is rarely observed in baleen whales. For example, individuals within these groups may develop long-term associations that may last for many years. There also appears to be a division of labour, with particular whales constantly leading the group, deploying the bubble nets, and producing the feeding calls. Furthermore, on each lunge, each whale in the group maintains the same position, indicating that this is an intrinsically choreographed feeding maneuver. My own personal observations with the same feeding groups over the course of the summer also bore this out. I observed how there were always core members of a group but other individual whales appeared to join them on a much more ad hoc basis before moving off again.<br />
He ascertained that it is only the more elusive, shoaling prey, such as Pacific herring, that require the same level of cooperative cohesiveness; easier prey such as krill do not require the same sophisticated feeding strategies as do shoaling fish.
    Alaska-humpbackwhale-bubblenet15.jpg
  • Humpback whales generally have heavy encrustations of barnacles on their throats, pectoral fins and flukes. Whale barnacles are barnacles belonging to the family Coronulidae. Whale barnacles attach themselves to the bodies of baleen whales during the barnacles's free-swimming larval stage. Though often described as parasites, the relationship is an example of obligate commensalism, as the barnacles neither harm, nor benefit, their host. But they are parasitised by whale lice that are actually amphipods: tiny crustaceans that feed off dead skin and pieces of flesh from their host. In normal situations, population of these parasites seem to stay in check, thereby not hurting their large hosts. Cetacean cyamid species are specific to different species of cetaceans and the one that lives on humpbacks is Cyamus boopis.
    Alaska-humpbackwhale-bubblenet32.jpg
  • Reproductively mature male sea lions aggregate on traditional rookeries in May, usually on beaches on isolated islands. A week or so later, adult females arrive, accompanied occasionally by sexually immature offspring, and form fluid aggregations throughout the rookery. Steller sea lions are polygamous but they do not coerce individual females into harems but control spatial territories among which females freely move about. Pregnant females give birth soon after arriving on a rookery, and copulation generally occurs one to two weeks after giving birth, but the fertilized egg does not become implanted in the uterus until the autumn. After about a week of nursing, females start taking increasingly longer foraging trips, leaving the pups behind until in late summer when they both leave the rookery. Males fast until August, often without returning to the water, after which time the rookeries break up and most animals leave for the open seas and disperse throughout their range.<br />
Steller sea lions are predated upon by orcas and I actually witnessed the death of one bull that had become quite attached to me. It had been showing so much interest in me and it even raised its head out of the water right in front of me to have a good look with its bulging eyes. A short while later I heard a commotion in the distance and saw that a pod of transient orcas had arrived on the scene and were systematically charging the sea lion and thrashing it with their flukes. It was a difficult event to witness, especially whenever the big bull re-appeared on the surface gasping for breath. It took the orcas about 15 minutes to finally kill it and not long after that they were attacking some humpback whales that had strayed onto the scene. It was an exhilarating experience to be paddling my kayak so close to a pod of orcas engaged in a hunt, but they showed no interest in me. It was one of those occasions when I wished that I’d had someone else with me to witness such an amazing spectacle.
    wildlife-3.tif
  • Humpbacks have an enormous lung capacity, which makes it possible for them to dive for long periods, often in excess of 20 minutes, These extended dives allow the animals to descend to deep water for foraging (up to 500 ft - 150 m). When the whale surfaces to breathe, it only has a few moments to exchange the air in its lungs, so it must exhale with tremendous force. The force of this exhalation vaporises the seawater that surrounds the blowhole and creates a "blow". This vertical plume of water vapour is usually the first indicator that a whale is in the area, and can usually be seen and heard over long distances. On several occasions I paddled stealthily up to a whale resting or sleeping on the surface just to be able to observe the blowhole in operation at close quarters, and was amazed at the power and speed that the blowhole opens and shuts during the exhalation and inhalation, and the explosive force of the breath rushing out and fresh air rushing back in.<br />
I observed them often sleeping in the afternoon, their rotund backs completely motionless with their flukes and long pectoral fins hanging down. Whales and dolphins don't sleep for extended periods the way that we do but just take short naps. To avoid drowning during sleep, it is crucial that marine mammals retain control of their blowhole. The blowhole is a flap of skin that is thought to open and close under the voluntary control of the animal. Although still a matter of discussion, most researchers feel that in order to breathe, a dolphin or whale must be conscious and alert to recognize that its blowhole is at the surface.
    Alaska-humpback-whale-sounding10.jpg
  • This was the "Famous Five" group of bubble netters that I became so familiar with around the Morris Reef at Point Hayes. I became familiar with all of their physical differences like the colouration and markings under their throats. The one on the left was the most distinctive with its pink throat and the circular scars where barnacles had dropped off; it was always one of the lead whales that lunged vertically. Humpback whales are usually identified by the distinctive colouration, markings and scars on the ventral side of the flukes. I could also identify them by the distinctive sound of each blow: some are more explosive: some more guttural: some sound like a ricochet: some are more like sneezes.
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  • Reproductively mature male sea lions aggregate on traditional rookeries in May, usually on beaches on isolated islands. A week or so later, adult females arrive, accompanied occasionally by sexually immature offspring, and form fluid aggregations throughout the rookery. Steller sea lions are polygamous but they do not coerce individual females into harems but control spatial territories among which females freely move about. Pregnant females give birth soon after arriving on a rookery, and copulation generally occurs one to two weeks after giving birth, but the fertilized egg does not become implanted in the uterus until the autumn. After about a week of nursing, females start taking increasingly longer foraging trips, leaving the pups behind until in late summer when they both leave the rookery. Males fast until August, often without returning to the water, after which time the rookeries break up and most animals leave for the open seas and disperse throughout their range.<br />
Steller sea lions are predated upon by orcas and I actually witnessed the death of one bull that had become quite attached to me. It had been showing so much interest in me and it even raised its head out of the water right in front of me to have a good look with its bulging eyes. A short while later I heard a commotion in the distance and saw that a pod of transient orcas had arrived on the scene and were systematically charging the sea lion and thrashing it with their flukes. It was a difficult event to witness, especially whenever the big bull re-appeared on the surface gasping for breath. It took the orcas about 15 minutes to finally kill it and not long after that they were attacking some humpback whales that had strayed onto the scene. It was an exhilarating experience to be paddling my kayak so close to a pod of orcas engaged in a hunt, but they showed no interest in me. It was one of those occasions when I wished that I’d had someone else with me to witness such an amazing spectacle.
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