Back from Camp!

Hey Team!

Wow... it's been a really long time. I can't believe I didn't blog for the entire month of August! Cetus has been going through some tough times. We get the majority of our funding from the federal government, and we were supposed to hear about approval back in March. Well we are in to September and we still haven't heard anything. So from mid-July onward we have been off the water. My supervisors have been trying to keep us all busy, but until very recently it's just been a lot of filler work.

It worked out that in the meantime, I got to go up North, off Vancouver Island to work with the Robson Bight Marine Ecological Reserve Warden Program. Whoo, that's a mouthful!

So The Robson Bight Ecological Reserve is a bit of water that is closed to all boat traffic, except for commercial fishing ships during fishery openings. So the job of the warden program is to watch the waters of the Reserve and make sure that no boats go in. Especially with whales around. And with straitwatch off the water, they've also been doing a bit of vessel monitoring, but they don't take any data on that.

Anyways, I got to go up for two weeks and be an intern for the wardens. The base camp really is that... a camp. We sleep in personal tents, cook off of camp stoves and spend our evenings around the fire. There is no electricity except to recharge small electronics, no running water and no roads. The only way to get to boat bay is to well... take a boat!

Can you say remote?

There were two parts to the job: the cliff and the boat. After a tiring 45-50 minute hike through a temperate rain forest you get to the top of a very high cliff directly across from the Bight. Once there, you take a boat count every 15 minutes, detailing how many of each kind of boat you see, where they are (in terms of determined zones) and how fast they are going (stopped, fast, slow). Also every 15 minutes you are doing an orca scan. These include how many, where they are and if you can, which ones they are. We pretty much left the orca scans to our boss, FM. On top of the scans, every time a boat crosses in front of the cliff you have to record it: time, type and direction.

If that didn't seem like enough work, local ecokayaking tours will also hike up the cliff (from a different direction) for an interpretive talk, where we tell them all about the Bight, the whales and Cetus. These are a lot of fun because the people on the tours are generally really enviro-friendly and curious. And they usually buy a hat or CD (thank you for the support!).

On the boat, the main thing is to keep boats out of the reserve. We hang around camp until we get "the call", then we get to the boat and on the water. I always felt like a firefighter on boat days. Always half ready, not getting into anything that I couldn't put down at the drop of a hat. Once on the water we zoom off to the (usually ignorant) perpetrator and kindly inform them that they are in a no-boat zone. Occasionally we'd have the chance for further interpretation and tell them more about the reserve and the whales.

We'd also go out if there were whales, though the priority was if there were both boats and whales in the areas around the Bight. From an exceptionally safe distance we would keep an eye on whales, only really moving to keep them in sight or if a boat was approaching.

In the weeks I was there whales occasionally took the day off, so some of my boat days were short and sporadic on the water. But it felt so good being back on the boat and seeing killer whales again. It's amazing how much you can miss bouncing around on the waves.

One of the funniest moments on the water was when we were swarmed by Pacific white-sided dolphins. We were chasing down a boat and then off a sudden we had between 6-10 dolphins riding our wake (the waves made by the motor) and our bow (the rushing water going by the front of the boat). Most people think this is awesome, because the dolphins come so close you could touch them. Us? We were annoyed because they were in our way and we were way too close to marine mammals! We spent a good 5 minutes telling them to go away!

That being said, it was cool being close to dolphins again, I haven't been since Florida. And how many people can say they were splashed by a wild Pacific white-sided dolphin? I can!

All in all, it was an amazing two weeks. The other people I worked with were a lot of fun and we were able to have great in dept discussions about everything environmental, political and human-related with ease, acceptance and open-mindedness. Thank you Cetus for running such an amazing program and for letting me be a part of it!

Speak Loud!

Killer Factoids

Hey Everyone!

So I realize now that while most people will know what a killer whale is, how many know what they are all about? Well, I think a new "feature" in this blog will be a quick fact sheet on the feature species of an internship. Starting with my second favourite cetacean species, the orca, aka the killer whale.

So. Twenty-five facts on the killer whale.

**


1. Killer whales aren't technically whales at all. They are the largest dolphin species in the world.

2. "Orca" means "demon of the underworld". So whether you call them orcas or killer whales, it doesn't really matter. They're pretty hardcore no matter what you call them.

3. An orca's life span is normally between forty and fifty years old. That being said, there is a whale in B.C. that they think is over 100 years old.

4. Killer whales are found around the world. The North Pacific, the North Atlantic, the Antarctic Ocean, and a couple seas as well.

5. Every population has sub divided into two or three "ecotypes" - fish eaters and mammal eaters. They can also be differentiated by colour patterns, eye patch size, foraging/ family behaviours and acoustics.

6. These ecotypes never interact with each other. They avoid each other physically and don't breed with each other.

7. Off the coast of British Columbia there are three ecotypes: The residents (fish eaters), transients (marine mammal eaters) and offshore (fish/shark eaters).

8. The resident orcas feed primarily on chinook salmon. A study that looked at the stomach contents of residents found that over 90% of their diet was chinook. 

9. Transients feed on more of a variety, but only marine mammals. Dolphins, porpoises, sea lions, seals, small(-er) whales. They will not each fish. The Vancouver aquarium's first rescued whale didn't eat for almost a month because they kept trying to feed it fish. They say once you taste red blood you never go back. They're like vampires.

10. We don't know a lot about offshore, but they have found that their teeth are so worn down that we believe they are eating sharks and the skin is grinding down the teeth.

11. Residents live in large pods, between 20-50 individuals. They have matriarchal society, which means each pod has a primary female matriarch. Her offspring stay with her their entire lives, unless a daughter has enough offspring of her own to start their own pods

12. Residents hunt primarily through echolocation, because fish are pretty stupid. They work as a team to take out as many fish at a time as possible.

13. Transients live in much smaller pods, a maximum of 10 individuals. Their society is a lot more fluid, but they also tend to stick close to family.

14. Transients are hunting much smarter animals, and animals that can hear echolocation. So they have to be super sleuth about hunting. They are pretty quiet, working either alone or with only a couple others to bring down their prey.

15. Killer whales share their food. Not just mother/offspring, but any individuals around after a kill will get a piece. And this is transients and residents. There are videos of these massive animals gracefully tearing off small pieces of salmon in order for everyone to have a taste.

16. Chinook salmon are the largest species of salmon on the west coast, which means that not only do killer whales like to eat them, so do humans. This has but a lot of pressure on the killer whales.

17. In the 60s/70s, People decided that killer whales were a pest and a hindrance to the commercial fishing, so the government implemented intense killer whale whaling. A machine gun was set up for the sole purpose of killing orcas. Fortunately, it was never fired.

18. But during the time of whaling and these decisions, the populations took a massive dive. Now, there are about 200 transients, just under 200 Northern residents and only 87 Southern resident killer whales.

19. We don't know yet if the Southern population will ever recover, because they are facing three massive issues: Lack of food, boating traffic and pollution and contaminants.

20. As skillful a hunter as killer whales are (and trust me, they have mad skills), they can't compete with humans. And when they share each kill, and each kill becomes harder and harder to make, the whales really are slowly starting to starve off. British Columbia has some of the most sustainable fisheries in the country, but it might still not be enough. Add on top all the sport and recreational fishers, who are also looking to catch a big ol' chinook, and we have a problem. (If you are buying salmon, ask first if it is wild harvest vs. farmed, and try to avoid B.C. chinook salmon).

21. Orcas are big and can go pretty fast, but boats are faster. If someone is just speeding through a pod of orcas, they might be able to move out of the way fast enough, and those propellers are sharp. Plenty of whales found and assumed dead have been from prop accidents, because usually in nature vs. machine, machine wins. (Go slow in areas known to have killer whales in them)

22. The residents rely on echolocation to find their scarce food source, and boats are extra loud in the water. The sound of motors cover their communications, making it harder, if not impossible, for a pod to hunt. And they are hungry (Don't get close to whales with your motor running. If you find yourself close to whales, shut down to keep quiet).

23. Having to come up for air is hard! Having lots of obstacles in your way makes it even harder! Any kind of water vessel makes it more stressful for killer whales to travel, hunt and breathe, and they can't afford to lose energy stressing out. (Don't get close to whales, and stay out of their path of movement).

24. Southern resident orcas are the most toxic animals in the world. They have accumulated massive amount of toxins in their bodies from pollutants and chemicals found in our waste. Chemicals used as fire retardants, pesticides, herbicides, you name it. (Know what goes into your products!)

25. Entanglements in fishing gear and deaths cause by physical pollution is nothing new to killer whales. Scientists have found tons of garbage in the stomachs of beached whales. (Reduce, reuse and recycle! Replace plastic in your life as much as possible).

Depressed? Don't be! These are amazing creatures and people have dedicated their lives to learn as much as we can about them and through education, learn what we can do to save them!

Speak Loud!

Watching Whale Watchers

Happy One Year Anniversary everyone!!

Yes, one year ago today, I thought it would be a good idea to share my experiences and knowledge of marine biology with the world. As far as blogs so, it's not going to win any awards, but I think it's come in handy from time to time.

So to celebrate the occasion, I figured I would talk about the biggest part of what I came out to Victoria to do: watch killer whales!

There are three major problems facing killer whales off the B.C. coast: lack of food, pollutants and toxins in the water and boat traffic and disruption. The DFO is doing it's best to balance salmon for people and for whales, and we can all do our part by being aware of the chemicals in our products (like PCPs, DBTs, etc.) and by limiting our waste (excess packaging is the enemy!). But one thing that is hard to deal with is boat traffic.

That's where the straitwatch program comes in.

Killer whales are amazing animals. They are huge, intelligent, majestic animals and seeing them really does make your heart sing. We don't want to take that away from people, so we aren't there to harass people on whale watching tours, because people who 'interact' with animals are more likely to want to help them (see my post on zoos and aquariums here).

But having a lot of boats around the whales is a problem, for three big reasons: motors are loud and disrupt their echolocation and communication, boat propellers do an excellent job of cutting up and potentially killing animals when they collide, and boats are obstacles for travelling and breathing. Imagine you are swimming in a pool, and you need to come up for air. If there are people, noodles, toys or boards all around, finding a place to come up for a breath is more difficult, and it puts physical stress on your body. That's what happens to whales when there are ten, twenty, forty boats around. And these guys aren't eating enough to have any more stress put on them.

So the Canadian government has put guidelines in place for safe whale watching. You can't go closer than 100m, you stay out of their path of movement, front and behind, and you have to slow down within 400m of the whales, to limit motor noise and to avoid accidentally hitting one. Failure to follow these guidelines can be considered marine mammal harassment and that is illegal.

Fairly simple, yes? We think so, but they only work if people know them.

So we go out every day in the summer and are on the water basically to educate. We take half-hourly vessel counts around a focal group of whales, as well as perform incidents scans, where we watch for anyone being non-compliant with the guidelines. In between all this data collection, we're talking to private boaters and making sure they know the rules. Ignorance is the environments biggest enemy.

Most of the people we talk to seem to be unaware of the guidelines, although we take every answer with a grain of salt. Some are really interested in the whales and we'll tell them some of the biology surrounding them (I think I'll do a Killer Whale Facts blog soon...) again, to get them interested in the animals and hopefully in their conservation. Some people aren't so friendly though, and really do see the whales as a pest rather than something to protect. We can't change everyone, but we can do our best.

Beyond killer whales, we see some other really cool animals. Harbour seals, harbour porpoises, and the coolest so far, a minke whale! The waters of British Colombia are full of amazing animals, and it's so important for us to try to make a difference.

One of my favourite stories is one of a young boy walking on a beach, filled with starfish that had been washed up on the shore. Hundreds and hundreds of starfish out dying in the hot sun. In the distance, the young boy sees an old man slowly bending down, picking up a single starfish and throwing it back into the sea. The boy watches the man do it again and again, slowly and surely. The young boy walks up to the old man and says "Sir, there are hundreds and hundreds of starfish on the beach. You are going so slowly, you will never be able to save them all." The old man smiled to the boy and said, "You are right, I can't save them all. But I have saved this one, and that will have to  be enough."

Maybe the positive impact straitwatch is making may seem like a small one, but any sized step towards environmental reconstruction is a step in the right direction, and one I am more than happy to make 4 days a week. Even in the rain. And wind. And waves.

Speak Loud!

PS. Have a piece of cake to celebrate this blogs anniversary! I promise I won't tell!

Talkin' on the Docks

This is probably one of my most uncreative titles, because I'm going to talk about Dock Talks.

Cetus and their straitwatch program is all about making sure people are respecting the whale watching guidelines the government has for killer whales and other awesome cetaceans. So while we do go out and actually try to stop people from doing bad things (more on that in a future blog post), what we are really about it prevention.

I think conservationists and maybe surgeons are some of the few people that would love to have no reason to exist. If there was no reason for conservationists to work, they'd be so happy, because it would mean that no animals were in any danger. That would be awesome!

So part of what we do is go canvassing around marinas, and stop and chat with local boat owners and see how much they know about the guidelines, and educate them on what the guidelines are if they don't know. We try to get them to take a brochure with all the rules and such on it, but it's more important that we talk to them, give them the information and sometimes we get to hear some really interesting stories. One of my favourites so far includes was a man who was given an honourary guardian status from a native american tribe for cleaning the beaches on their island. That was really neat to hear.

For this part of the job, introverts need not apply. You have to be pretty comfortable to walk up to total strangers who think you are going to sell them something and tell them about safe whale watching. It can't sound like you are accusing them, and you have to know how to smile and nod when they say ridiculous things (it happens). If you are shy and too scared to approach people, then you'll never talk to people. I, myself, is in no way an introvert, but even I was a little awkward when I had to do it on my own.

And it can get really monotonous. The marina that I have gone to for all my dock talks so far (the only one I know how to find) isn't huge, but you have to stick about for a couple hours to get as many people as possible. And the weather hasn't been top notch (can you believe I'm missing the weather back home?), so the water hasn't been drawing a big crowd. So I do a complete walk of the marina, talk to a couple people... and it's only been half an hour. I think the last dock talk I did I walked the entire marina at least 4 times in the 3 hours I was there. It wasn't so bad when I had a partner, but alone it can be a little lonely, and a smidge boring.

But I started this entire blog screaming that nothing about being a Marine Biologist is glamourous. This is just another example.

I think I'll learn where another marina is and go there next time. Switch it up and meet some new people.

Speak Loud!

With an Outreached Arm...

No, that's not the right quote, but I am allowed to paraphrase, it's my blog.

So I am out in Victoria, BC! It's beautiful out here, so much so that I wish I never lived anywhere else, but logistically it would be tough to stay here. But I think I'll have to start planning yearly pilgrimages to Vancouver Island just to get my fix of the landscape.

One of the first things I did for Cetus was help out with an outreach effort. We went to Maple Bay during their boat festival.

Instead of telling you all about it... I'm going to (once again) direct you to the Cetus website, where I have already put my blogging skills to use in writing out it for them!

So click here to see what I had to say about the Boat Festival!

Speak Loud!

PS. The last two photos were of my own taking. More pictures to follow (including ones of killer whales!)