Thanks to an extended good-weather window, we were able to get out on the water three days in a row- Sept. 23-25! Although working three 14 hour days in a row was exhausting, the data collected made it well worth it. We sighted more than 40 whales each day we were out.

We are now processing the data collected and identifying the whales we photographed in the bay these past few days. As of right now, we have identified over a dozen whales that were seen for the first time this season. Some of the whales have not been seen since 2006.

The white water and bustle of a surface active group.

Many of the whales we saw were engaging in Surface Active Groups (SAG). On both Sept. 23 & 24, we came across SAGs comprised of more than a dozen right whales! With the exception of Meridian (Eg #1403) most of the whales in one SAG were not in the other.

There are currently a lot of right whales in the Bay of Fundy (more than 130 identified so far). The past three days allowed us to document that, but we know there are more whales in the bay that we have yet to photograph - some we have seen in the distance but have no photographs to prove it. This is frustrating given that the remnants of hurricane Kyle are at our doorstep and coming in without an invitation. We are all hoping that Kyle's rain and strong winds will be short lived and we will be able to get a few more days on the water before our season ends in early October.


Video of a 12 animal SAG on Sept. 24th. The whale with the wrapping entanglement scar around its head is Meridian.
Jonathan

We finally had two great days in a row on the water. The R/V Nereid went out the 20th and 21st and our other vessel, the R/V Callisto, also went out on the 20th. The result of this effort was a fairly comprehensive picture of right whales in the Bay of Fundy. They are spread out over a very large area with at least two different aggregations--one to the northeast and another to the southwest. Yesterday, we started the day with a small SAG off Swallowtail Light House within a stones throw of Grand Manan Island.



With such good coverage, we learned that there has been an influx of quite a few new animals into the Bay and many of them are big, adult males. These animals seem frequently to be on the edges of the distribution, often performing acoustic displays known as gunshots--loud, percussive underwater sounds. Towards the end of the day yesterday, we had several old males exhibiting typical gunshot behavior (lifting their heads out of the water and then pushing them down forcefully) way to the south in the middle of the outbound shipping lane. One of them was "Starry Night," an old favorite that we have been watching since 1980.



We don't know why animals segregate in the Bay, but that doesn't keep us from having fun speculating. For example, why would adult males stay on the fringes? Are they setting up acoustic territories advertising to females with the gunshot sound (Here's a little more about right whale acoustics)? Since many of the big males were on the southern edge of the distribution, someone joked that they are serving as the "gate keepers" to the Bay of Fundy. That joke got me thinking--could that be possible?

Nothing described about this species' social structure would indicate that they coordinate in such a way, and yet there is much we don't know about these animals. Could they patrol the edges of the right whale distribution forming a protective perimeter like male musk ox in a circle with the females and young in the middle? What would they be protecting them from? Killer whales are their only possible predators and they are relatively rare in these waters.

I include this wild speculation to show the fun part of science--exploring ideas. If we found any evidence of this behavior in other similar species, then we could formulate a formal hypothesis and then test it with the appropriate data. The small yet exciting steps of science.

- Philip

Photos:
1- SAG in front of Swallowtail Light, Grand Manan (Yan Guilbault)
2- Bottom photo: Starry Night (Moe Brown)

- Jonathan

Almost a full week had gone by before we were able to get back out on the water. After hearing reports of right whales near the northern end of Campobello Island, we began our morning by searching for right whales as we passed East Quoddy light. Although we didn't find any right whales at this northern latitude, we came across the first humpback whales of the season! (The New England Aquarium Whale Watch back in Boston also sees a lot of humpback whales!)



Like right whales, humpback whales raise their flukes when they dive, but they have distinctive patterns on the ventral side of their flukes while the flukes of a right whale are completely black. Humpback whale researchers use the pattern on the ventral side of the fluke, along with the shape of the dorsal fin to identify individuals. (Try this game to see if you can identify right whales using their individual callosity markings!)



Continuing our survey into the Bay, we found that the right whales had moved a few miles to the east. Throughout the day we found that most of the whales were solitary even though they were spatially very close to each other. We photographed over 35 individuals including 12 engaged in a SAG! The whales in the middle of the SAG rolled slowly around the female, stroking her with their flippers. (For more on this behavior, check out these other posts about SAGs.) Other whales who weren't positioned next to the female patrolled the edges of the SAG, as if waiting for the perfect opportunity to slip in next to her.

The SAG held a surprise for us although. One of the whales had a dorsal fin! Somehow a humpback whale had ended up in the middle of the SAG! The humpback only remained with the SAG briefly though. As the SAG broke up for a few minutes and then reformed three hundred meters away, the humpback whale headed in the opposite direction. As the afternoon progressed, the tide turned to become poised against the low winds. We turned west and spent the rest of the day photographing whales that we passed on our way back to Lubec.

Top photo: Flukes of a humpback whale. Photographer: Philip Hamilton, NEAq
Bottom photo: Two right whales engaged in a SAG. Photographer: Moira Brown, NEAq

- Cyndi

Over the past two years we have had the pleasure of working with National Geographic writer Douglas Chadwick and photographer Brian Skerry as they prepared an article on right whales for National Geographic magazine. Doug and Brian have put hours into learning about the plight of the North Atlantic right whale and their article was just released in the October issue of National Geographic. We would like to applaud Doug and Brian for using their talents to teach the world about these magnificent creatures and their struggle for survival.

Check out their featured article and photographs on the National Geographic website!

- Cyndi