Peak whale sighting season is upon us, even if it is starting a little differently this year. The world has been affected in so many ways by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and the Marine Mammal Conservation Research Program at Ocean Wise is no exception. The Vancouver Aquarium, the headquarters for our Vancouver-based staff, temporarily closed its doors on March 17, and while we are overjoyed to report that the Aquarium was able to re-open to the public on June 26 (with COVID-19 health and safety measures in place), we will continue carrying on our research from home for the time being. Here are some updates from the lab over the past few months:

Marine Mammal Conservation Research Program Director Lance Barrett-Lennard and Research Biologist Brittany Visona have had to postpone their drone-based killer whale photogrammetry field work so far, but are optimistic that they will be able to get up to Johnstone Strait and the central coast in August and September. Master’s student Kaitlin Yehle also hopes to get out on the water in the next few months to collect fecal samples from southern resident and northern residents for her project examining hormones in killer whale feces. 

Up north in Prince Rupert, research biologist Karina Dracott of the North Coast Cetacean Research Initiative (NCCRI) is readying their research vessel Tsitika. Karina hopes to be on the water soon, conducting surveys throughout the summer in the NCCRI’s effort to catalogue humpbacks of the North Coast.

The summer of 2020 will be the first season in many without travelling to the field for Valeria Vergara and research assistant Marie-Ana Mikus, who have had to cancel their beluga research trips to Tadoussac (QC) and Churchill (MB). Instead, Valeria and Marie-Ana will be busy analyzing data from previous summers and coordinating deployment of underwater hydrophones in the St. Lawrence Estuary from afar, in partnership with the Group for Research and Education on Marine Mammals (GREMM). Having ears underwater during this unusual COVID-19 year means that we can compare the soundscapes that may be impacted by any changes in vessel traffic to previous and future seasons, providing important information on one of the three main threats to the endangered St. Lawrence beluga population.

Valeria recently reflected on some of the bittersweet consequences of the pandemic for an even wider variety of marine life in an Aquablog entitled ‘Quiet Oceans’. The travel bans in many nations, and the shutdowns across maritime industries and significant reduction in commercial shipping and recreational vessel traffic have had an unintended effect: an unprecedented reduction in underwater noise levels for our marine life. Given the negative impacts of noise on the ability of marine mammals to communicate, navigate, and find food effectively, this hiatus in ocean noise surely offers a welcome respite, particularly for cetacean species at risk, such as St. Lawrence belugas, blue whales, North Atlantic right whales, and southern resident killer whales.

For a multi-faceted look at the impacts of the pandemic on marine mammals, check out the forthcoming special COVID-19 report from the Ocean Watch team. Profiling unexpected effects that have come to light over the past several months, the report will focus on decreased marine traffic, reduced capacity of marine mammal rescue teams, and implications of public health guidelines on citizen science data, featuring an in-depth discussion of how the BCCSN’s observers and sighting reports have been affected. The report will delve into how each of these examples are unfolding, and highlights the connection between people, human activities, and the ocean.

Any cetacean encounter is a special experience, but the beginning of this year brought a number of notable sightings of uncommon species, or whales in unexpected locations. Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) made rare appearances in Burrard Inlet, Pacific white-sided dolphins (Lagenorhynchus obliquidens) entered Sechelt Inlet, and a sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) was seen west of Haida Gwaii.

In honour of Orca Awareness Month this June, our featured sighting is T125A (pictured) and T128, two Bigg’s killer whale brothers who spend most of their time in Alaska and are rarely seen in B.C. They made a rare visit to our shores this spring, and were spotted in Ladysmith Harbour by observer Michael Hanson on April 15^th. Interestingly, other sightings of these individuals in recent years also occurred in springtime. While killer whale families typically stay close together, the T125 matriline is somewhat unusual in that T125A and T128 frequently travel together without their mother, T125, or older brother, T127. 

It was a strange and uncertain start to the year, but the sighting reports keep flowing in! While the COVID-19 pandemic has even been reflected in changes to the reports we received as more observers were staying closer to home and spending less time on the water, we have been hugely encouraged by how our observers have continued to report during this challenging time. Despite the difficult circumstances, we received 1,148 reports from observers between January and the start of June this year – an average of 8 sightings per day!

A rundown of sighting reports received so far included: 443 sightings of killer whales, 386 sightings of humpback whales, 116 of grey whales, 109 of harbour porpoise, 26 Dall’s porpoise sightings, 23 Pacific white-sided dolphin sightings, 12 sightings of minke whales, 3 of fin whales, 2 Risso’s dolphin sightings, 1 sperm whale sighting, and reports of 26 unidentified whales or dolphins.

We are so grateful to all of the organisations, marine professionals and coastal citizens who make the work we do to protect cetaceans possible by reporting their sightings (and read on for how we want to recognize the outstanding reporters among us!).

There are some new faces in the lab since our last update! Last fall, a new branch of researchers joined the Marine Mammal Conservation Research Team at Ocean Wise, adding expertise on contaminants in our oceans and their effects on marine mammals.

Marie Noël manages the Ocean Pollution Research Program. She oversees the PollutionTracker program and conducts research on the health effects of contaminants in various species of marine mammals including killer whales, harbour seals and Arctic beluga whales. She is currently working on a paper looking at the temporal trends of two important contaminants (PCBs and PBDEs) in killer whales over the past three decades.

Kelsey Delisle coordinates PollutionTracker, a coast-wide contaminant monitoring program in B.C. She has a background in aquatic sciences and ecotoxicology, and her MSc work focused on biomarkers of contaminant exposure in harbour seals and killer whales. Read more about PollutionTracker in Kelsey’s recent Aquablog.

Catherine Wong is a research technician with PollutionTracker. Her background is in environmental science, with experience in toxicology testing, field sampling, and environmental monitoring. She supports laboratory and fieldwork, and works in collaboration with the Plastics Lab at Ocean Wise to analyze microplastics in sediments and mussels.

Joseph Kim is a research scientist investigating the impacts of ocean chemical contaminants on killer whale critical habitats and traditional foods for indigenous people using the PollutionTracker database. Joseph has a background in phycology (the study of algae), ecotoxicology and ecological risk assessment.

We also had one new addition to the BCCSN team earlier this year - Amy Rowley joined as a research assistant with the Sightings Network. Amy conducted her PhD research on sexual selection in sharks prior to joining us, and will be splitting her time this summer between helping out with the BCCSN and working on killer whale photogrammetry research to investigate body condition in killer whales.    

With public health regulations preventing face-to-face meetings for a while, we’ve adapted our approach to getting the word out about ocean conservation by shifting our outreach efforts online! “Tales from the Deep” is a series of weekly talks given by Ocean Wise researchers and live-streamed online. If you miss a talk (like the one on southern resident killer whales Lance gave a few weeks ago!), you can find the full series on our YouTube channel.

Tune in in the coming weeks to learn more about:

Keeping up with the Arctic: The Race Against Rapid Change 
with Eric Solomon – Thursday, July 9 @ 1PM PDT

A Lasting Legacy: Toxic Contaminants in Marine Mammals
with Dr. Marie Noël – Thursday, July 16 @ 1PM PDT

Itching for some fresh air after spending the past few months indoors? Maybe you want to hit the open road to explore the province as B.C. enters Phase 3 of reopening? Make land-based whale watching a part of your itinerary for a zero-impact nature outing that could have you spotting cetaceans from a select spot on our shoreline with the Whale Trail BC!

There are currently over a dozen Whale Trail sites throughout the province, each with a wide variety of sea life waiting to be sighted. Find a site near you, and be sure to stop by the interpretive panel at your site of choice for tons of useful info about the local flora and fauna as you cross land-based whale watching off your socially-distant bucket list this summer!  

Are you an avid cetacean observer who makes a point of reporting your sightings to the BCCSN? We want to show our appreciation! In the coming weeks, we will be releasing the Whale Reporter Recognition Program to acknowledge the incredible commitment of many of our volunteer observers to reporting their sightings, and rewarding the Top Reporters from 2019. Their support of cetacean conservation is what fuels the BCCSN, and for this we are incredibly grateful!

For over 20 years, the BCCSN has collected sighting reports of whales across the Pacific Northwest. The vast majority of the sightings we receive are submitted by passionate citizen scientists, including ecotourism operators, government employees, recreational boaters, coastal citizens, and other marine professionals, and our Top Reporters have been divided into categories to reflect this diversity. No matter their background, all share one thing in common: a passion for protecting whales in our waters.

Top Reporters will receive an award and recognition on our website and social media. Check our website for a full list of Top Reporters (coming soon!). If you aspire to be a Top Reporter, remember to download the free WhaleReport app, available for Apple and Android devices. You can also submit your cetacean sightings on our website or email us at sightings@ocean.org.

Every fisherman knows the feeling – suddenly your line goes taut, and you feel the tug of a hooked fish as you begin to reel in your prize. But have you ever had your trophy catch get away? Or realized it had been stolen by a marine mammal, of all things?! Many recreational and sport fishermen know that frustration all too well.

Whales, killer whales in particular, are highly intelligent, social mammals, capable of learning complex behaviours. This means once a feeding behaviour like depredation is learned, it is very difficult to stop, and can spread quickly from a few individuals to an entire population. In other areas, commercial fisheries have had little success at stopping depredation even with expensive gear modification or deterrent devices. Fishermen, managers, and researchers agree that our best course of action is preventing the problem from becoming established here in British Columbia.    

Ocean Wise hosted a whale depredation workshop in Vancouver in 2018, and we have just released an informative resource that reviews some of the best practices for both recreational and commercial fishermen experiencing depredation. Help us ensure this problem does not grow locally by sharing this information widely. You can also report depredation incidents to the Fisheries and Oceans confidential reporting email: marinemammals@dfo-mpo.gc.ca. PDFs of our depredation guide are available for download, or email us to request a copy of this guide by emailing sightings@ocean.org.

In October 2018, the BC Cetacean Sightings Network worked with marine industry partners to launch a new conservation tool for large commercial vessels - the WhaleReport Alert System (WRAS). Information on whale presence is obtained from real-time observations reported to the BCCSN via the WhaleReport app, and alerts inform participating shipmasters and pilots of cetacean occurrence in their vicinity. This awareness better enables vessels to undertake adaptive mitigation measures, such as slowing down or altering course in the presence of cetaceans, to reduce the risk of collision and disturbance.

Less than two years into this project, we’re happy to report that the use and reach of the WRAS continues to grow! Currently there are nearly 300 registered WRAS accounts from over 45 organizations in British Columbia and Washington State. Each account can represent an individual mariner, a vessel’s crew, or an entire organization. Participating organizations include BC Ferries, Washington State Ferries, Canadian Coast Guard, BC Coast Pilots and the Puget Sound Pilots, among others. Since its inception, the WRAS has sent over 4,100 alerts to ships transiting British Columbia and northern Washington waters.

The WRAS is one of the tangible ways your reports to the BCCSN make an impact on the conservation and protection of whales, dolphins and porpoises on our coast. To ensure your reports are sent as alerts to mariners to help reduce the chance of ship strike and disturbance by large vessels, make sure to report your sightings in real-time via the WhaleReport App. Watch how your sightings can help protect whales here.

Conservation research efforts at Ocean Wise seek to improve our understanding of many issues faced by marine life. To do this, we use a wide range of research tools, including DNA analysis.

DNA can tell us all kinds of important information about threatened populations that would otherwise not be available. For example, it is often difficult to figure out the paternity of a killer whale because males don’t stick around with their mates to help raise a calf. Generally, males return to their maternal pod, leaving the calf’s family tree a bit of a mystery. We can use DNA to fill in those blanks to learn more about the mating patterns and population structures of each pod. This is because the DNA from a single individual (of any species) is unique, much like a fingerprint. “DNA fingerprinting” of crime scene samples is already a tool used by forensic scientists as a form of evidence in criminal cases. Individual killer whales also have a unique DNA fingerprint that we can take advantage of – although not for criminal cases! 

We have a number of conservation research projects ongoing in the Marine Mammal Conservation Research Program at Ocean Wise, all of which aim to make real positive change for our oceans. DNA is a part of that picture, and can help us gain a deeper understanding of what is happening in our oceans. Whether it’s figuring out which killer whale a poop sample is from that is showing high levels of stress hormone, or tracking who the father of a new killer whale calf is, the conservation genetics lab is on the case.

Ocean Wise’s genetics work is funded in part by Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s Oceans Protection Plan, Doug Horswill, and the Wild Killer Whale Adoption Program.

Follow us on Social Media:

Click here to unsubscribe

P.O. Box 3232, Vancouver, British Columbia Canada V6B 3X8 | © Vancouver Aquarium | Ocean Wise 2020