The Presence of Whales: Contemporary Writings on the Whale. Ed. Frank Stewart. Vancouver: Whitecap Books, 1995. (SFU QL 737 C4 P74 1995)
Bergman, Charles. "So Ignoble a Leviathan"
Friday, December 28, 2007
Friday, November 23, 2007
Ideas / book notes
-darker history - predation by orcas (tongue , suffering ) / parasites / diseases-
-aliens (outer space / ocean)
writing as different from usual travelogue - - not vitrolic but more interested in raw contradictions, honesty, complications
Douglas Coupland - writing for Gen X - educated but more rock n'roll
-contrast of our fluffy beliefs / love of whales (why??)
instead of "oh how great we are we love whales la lalla "
-do surveys anyway - (FUNDING? GRANTS?) of whale watching ventures - analysis - is it really the green machine we like to thinK /how about my own desire to be a tourist, traveller? adventurer, other identity
travel books:
under the tuscan sun (poetic, natu. history, description)
comedy (Bill Bryson)
personal narrative
& brands: Merde guy, jOsie dew
what about non-fiction cultural commentary?
how do i do it laterally - with few or no publishing credits?
demographic: educated men & women Gen X Outside Mag
need some kind of hook? eg 80 dates
narrative arc / migration / whales body / coastline
whale watching -what we hope to see - fears . dislikes
my journey: low impact, single, 40 lbs overweight, mother, history, body, addictions, imperfect, lfawed , my selfish desire to have fun / pleasure / adventure
darkness / fears . nature
-whaling = history
paul watson article New Yorker''
-aliens (outer space / ocean)
writing as different from usual travelogue - - not vitrolic but more interested in raw contradictions, honesty, complications
Douglas Coupland - writing for Gen X - educated but more rock n'roll
-contrast of our fluffy beliefs / love of whales (why??)
instead of "oh how great we are we love whales la lalla "
-do surveys anyway - (FUNDING? GRANTS?) of whale watching ventures - analysis - is it really the green machine we like to thinK /how about my own desire to be a tourist, traveller? adventurer, other identity
travel books:
under the tuscan sun (poetic, natu. history, description)
comedy (Bill Bryson)
personal narrative
& brands: Merde guy, jOsie dew
what about non-fiction cultural commentary?
how do i do it laterally - with few or no publishing credits?
demographic: educated men & women Gen X Outside Mag
need some kind of hook? eg 80 dates
narrative arc / migration / whales body / coastline
whale watching -what we hope to see - fears . dislikes
my journey: low impact, single, 40 lbs overweight, mother, history, body, addictions, imperfect, lfawed , my selfish desire to have fun / pleasure / adventure
darkness / fears . nature
-whaling = history
paul watson article New Yorker''
Peterson / Hogan book ("Sightings")
Sightings: The Gray Whales' Mysterious Journey. Peterson, Brenda & Linda Hogan. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 2002.
Bios: Brenda Peterson is the author of River of Light, Becoming the Enemy and Duck and Cover, a NYT notable book of the year. She is the co-editor, with Linda Hogan, of the best-sellling anthology, Intimate Nature: The Bond between Women and Animals. Lives in Seattle.
Linda Hogan (Chikasaw) is a recipient of a NEA grant in fiction, a Guggenheim fellowship, and a Lannan Fellowship. She has been short-listed for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics circle award, and won the American Book Award for Seeing Through the Sun. A prolific essayist on environmental issues, she lives in the mountains of Colorado.
-Linda Hogan
xiv "...these most-watched of all whales"
Orca Network's Whale Sightings Network
-interdependence of humans and whales / portrait of human / whale bond
xvi-May 1999 - Makah whale hunt -indig. nation returned to cultural whaling off US mainland for first time in 70 yrs - since that hunt, 14 tribes along West coast have stated intention to return to hunting gray whale
-non-indig peoples (Faroe islanders, Japanese /Russian/Norwegian traditonal village whalers) claimed cultural right to return to whaling
-1999-2000 spring migrations -record high die-off of gray whales - 278 known deaths in 1999 and 350 in 2000
-starving - necropsies revealing lower-than-normal levels of fats (possible shortage of crustaceans?)
-startling decline in birth rates from high 1430 in 1997 to alarming low of 200 in 2000 and 280 in 2001
-2002 - births in Baja lagoons 3x that of previous years
-marked drop in gray whale deaths in spring migrations of 2001-2002
xvii "Yet the great whales are larger than this. They are beyond our rights, our treaties, and our histories. They exist beyond our own needs, in a world of land and sea that we share, but that we have never truly fathomed and never owned."
Bios: Brenda Peterson is the author of River of Light, Becoming the Enemy and Duck and Cover, a NYT notable book of the year. She is the co-editor, with Linda Hogan, of the best-sellling anthology, Intimate Nature: The Bond between Women and Animals. Lives in Seattle.
Linda Hogan (Chikasaw) is a recipient of a NEA grant in fiction, a Guggenheim fellowship, and a Lannan Fellowship. She has been short-listed for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics circle award, and won the American Book Award for Seeing Through the Sun. A prolific essayist on environmental issues, she lives in the mountains of Colorado.
xi (poem) -
FatThis is the land
where whales were mountains
pulled in by small boats,
where fat was rendered
out of darkness
by the light of itself,
where what fell through the slaughtering decks
was taken in by land
until it became a hill made of fat
and blood, a town built on it.
The whale is the thick house of yesterday
in red waters.
It is the curve of another fortune,
a greasy smell and cloud
of dark smoke
that hides our faces.
At night
in the town
where hungers
are asleep,
we sleep
on a bed of secret fat.
A whale passes.
From dark strands of water,
it calls
its children by name.
Light, Smoke, Water, Land.
where whales were mountains
pulled in by small boats,
where fat was rendered
out of darkness
by the light of itself,
where what fell through the slaughtering decks
was taken in by land
until it became a hill made of fat
and blood, a town built on it.
The whale is the thick house of yesterday
in red waters.
It is the curve of another fortune,
a greasy smell and cloud
of dark smoke
that hides our faces.
At night
in the town
where hungers
are asleep,
we sleep
on a bed of secret fat.
A whale passes.
From dark strands of water,
it calls
its children by name.
Light, Smoke, Water, Land.
-Linda Hogan
xiv "...these most-watched of all whales"
Orca Network's Whale Sightings Network
-interdependence of humans and whales / portrait of human / whale bond
xvi-May 1999 - Makah whale hunt -indig. nation returned to cultural whaling off US mainland for first time in 70 yrs - since that hunt, 14 tribes along West coast have stated intention to return to hunting gray whale
-non-indig peoples (Faroe islanders, Japanese /Russian/Norwegian traditonal village whalers) claimed cultural right to return to whaling
-1999-2000 spring migrations -record high die-off of gray whales - 278 known deaths in 1999 and 350 in 2000
-starving - necropsies revealing lower-than-normal levels of fats (possible shortage of crustaceans?)
-startling decline in birth rates from high 1430 in 1997 to alarming low of 200 in 2000 and 280 in 2001
-2002 - births in Baja lagoons 3x that of previous years
-marked drop in gray whale deaths in spring migrations of 2001-2002
xvii "Yet the great whales are larger than this. They are beyond our rights, our treaties, and our histories. They exist beyond our own needs, in a world of land and sea that we share, but that we have never truly fathomed and never owned."
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Quotes
Lopez, Barry. Arctic Dreams. REF?
199 - living "resolutely in the heart of every moment...disasterous and sublime"
FROM: The Presence of Whales: Contemporary Writings on the Whale. Ed. Frank Stewart. Vancouver: Whitecap Books, 1995.
Diane Ackerman, "The Moon by Whale Light". pp. 23-43.
-story written in straight narrative, events unfolding chronologically, lots of descriptive detail re: area, accom., people, etc.
-chap. starts immed. with where, who, etc.
-conversations are quoted completely (recorded then transcribed ?)
like narrative fiction
31 - "Despite the full moon, the sea and sky blurred in a creamy fog both eerie and radiant. Small green bioluminescent creatures flashed from the shallows. Whales glittered as they surfaced, and the moon seemed only their reflection. Close to shore, a right whale blew loudly. Another whale sneezed. The hydrophone picked up a stretched meow. No orcas were calling, but many right whales sighed and bleated through the pallid fog under the brilliant moon. Shivering, we decided to call it a night and returned to our tents and huts for a chilly sleep."
199 - living "resolutely in the heart of every moment...disasterous and sublime"
FROM: The Presence of Whales: Contemporary Writings on the Whale. Ed. Frank Stewart. Vancouver: Whitecap Books, 1995.
Diane Ackerman, "The Moon by Whale Light". pp. 23-43.
-story written in straight narrative, events unfolding chronologically, lots of descriptive detail re: area, accom., people, etc.
-chap. starts immed. with where, who, etc.
-conversations are quoted completely (recorded then transcribed ?)
like narrative fiction
31 - "Despite the full moon, the sea and sky blurred in a creamy fog both eerie and radiant. Small green bioluminescent creatures flashed from the shallows. Whales glittered as they surfaced, and the moon seemed only their reflection. Close to shore, a right whale blew loudly. Another whale sneezed. The hydrophone picked up a stretched meow. No orcas were calling, but many right whales sighed and bleated through the pallid fog under the brilliant moon. Shivering, we decided to call it a night and returned to our tents and huts for a chilly sleep."
Busch book
Busch, Robert H. Gray Whales, Wandering Giants. Victoria, B.C.: Orca Book Publishers, 1998.
1 - whales prob. evolved from mesonychids (dog-sized long snouted mammals / reptiles?) / then evol. into Protocetus / then archeocetes (50 mill. yrs ago late Eocene period)
2 - today's whales: flippers w/ 4-5 "fingers" / vestigial hind limbs / external genitalia absorbed / some whale embryos (Pakicetus) today: 4 limbs, ext. genitalia, nostrils at end of snout
3 - baleen vs. toothed (baleen more recent - gray whale oldest of baleen?)
1st fossil of gray: 100,000 yrs ago late Pleistocene Epoch (changed very little in 100,000 yrs)
-structure of whale blood serum: closely resembles artiodactyls (hooved animals / cows, sheep, pigs)
-hippopotamus = closest living relative
4 - 1693 John Ray: classified whales as mammals
1864 J. E. Gray (British Museum)- Eschrichtius robustus (named for Daniel Eschrichtius - Danish zoology prof)
order Cetacea (Gr. ketos - sea monster)
80 species identified
2 suborders: Odontoceti (toothed: orca & sperm) /Mysticeti (baleen) - Gr. word mustache
Nicknames: California whale, desert whale, devilfish, hardhead, grayback, mossback, musseldigger, rip-sack, clam-digger. Japan: koku kujira; Russia: seryi kit
-all mysticeti (baleen) have dual blowholes (= heart-shaped spray)
5 - SIZE: adult 10-13 m (35 - 45') long / wt 22 - 38 metric t
femals larger than males
record: 15.5 m (51') long ; wt 42 t
long and narrow
1/2 size of blue whale
7 - unique skin pigmentation pattern - allows identification - round white markings - barnacles have fallen off; newborns are dark grey; skin smooth
8 - eyes are brown and size of orange (2m behind tip of snout)
bristles on snout (50+) and lower jaw (100+); evolved frm haired creatures
throat grooves under chin - skull large (1/5 of body length)
9 - 2 lg flippers 1m behind and below eyes - pectoral fins used for steering
4 long finger-like digits *look like giant human hand (skeleton / carcass)- frightening
6-12? knuckles on back 2/3 (no dorsal fin)
tail: 2 lg flukes w/ notch 3m across (wt 400 lbs)
tail is horizontal (fish is vertical)
not connected to spinal column - made up of strong connective tissue
up & down = forward propulsion
56 vertebrae - like all mammals - 7 cervical vertebrae
10 - Oct: northern ice pushes S & days get shorter - 61000 kms S
125 km / day (travel day & night)
late Nov: Unimak Pass (SW tip AK Aleutian islands) 12 mi wide
late Dec: Van Isl offshore then closer to OR shore
between Monterey / San Diego swiim within 1mi of shore
Monterey Bay & channel islands - some whales side trips
Baja: main stream of whales 350 mi S of San Diego
15 - 4 bays breeding: Guerrero Negro (W.)
Scammon's
San Ignacio
Magdalena
some whales go to w side mainland mexico
Yavaros, Bahia Navachiste, Bahia Altata, Bahia Reforma (Santa Maria)
16 - Capt. Charles Scammon (note: whales used to swim right up to northern tip of Sea of Cortez (Consaq Is / Shoal Pt) -today rarely farther than Yavaros Bay
-females impregnated prev. yr stay extended period to give birth (mating female stays only for few wks)
17 - gestation: 13 mos - single fetus
Jan. 27 - peak in gray whale births
lagoon entrances / farthest edges or at sea
most females give birth every other year
impregnated in lagoons & return to give birth
unlike most whales / gray whales born headfirst
-if born underwater, baby instinctively swims to surface for 1st breath of air
18 - CALVES: born fully developed 4-5 m long (12 - 16') wt 700 - 900 kg (1500 - 2000 lbs)
umbilical cord snaps off; fetal folds in skin from being curled up
-female nipple: within 2 clefts of skin on each side of genital slit / squirts milk into calf's mouth
-suckle less than 1 hr after birth
drinks betw. 13 - 22 l (3.5 - 6 gal) milk / day (35-53% fat / cow's milk 3-4% fat)
milk 6x protein content of human milk
calves gain 90 kg / 200 lbs / day - double wt by time of leaving lagoons
nurse for 6-9 mos
ride on mother's back first few days
calves play: on mothers, in waves
20 - calves older; groups of up to 20 mother / calves prs will socialize
mothers use flippers to warn or reprimand calves
defend baby strenously (described by SCAMMON)
21 - 1956 heart specialist Paul Dudley White - wanted to implant electrocardiograph - boat smashed
22 - whales continually leaving / entering lagoon
Swartz & Jones: 81% stay in lagoon 1 wk or less (San Ignacio)
some cows rtn to same lagoons yr after yr to give birth / others different
San Ignacio often used as mtg area before heading north, esp from Guerrero Negro & Scammon lagoon
San Ignac: females prefer to give birth in upper part (water 4m / 14' deep)
peak of mating season - San Ignacio - 600 whales - mating at entrance
after birthing: females stay in upper lagoon for month or 2 before journey north
23 - north: migrate in groups: 1-5 individ. (sometimes/rarely groups up to 18)
mature whales leave lagoons first - followed by jueveniles ; mothers w/ calves last (MARCH) - stragglers early may
-journey north isn't as fast (not as urgent re: birthing); 4-6 mos;
1 tagged whale: 7000 km (4620 mi) 94 days (aver. 74 km / 49 mi / day)
same approx speed day & night; but some time for rest
-don't sleep like humans but rest (1 biol. est: 1/2 hr naps 6 or 7 / day)
-don't breathe unconciously ; float near surface to rise and breathe ("logging")
migrating mothers w/ calves follow coastline closely
all migrate over continental shelf (water less than 9m (30') deep)
CA coast: mothers w/ calves in shallower water within 200 m (650') of shore
25 - migration: same route memory?? Ray Gilmore (San Diego biologist) remembers tastes of sediment in water off lagoons & estuaries to keep on course?
navigation: magnetic fields? (finback whales follow magnetic contours rather than cross a geomagnetic gradient / magnetic material in whales brains allow them to detect magnetic fields?)
anal glands: excrete scent detected by other whales? scent trail?
feed during migration: Cox Bay, Cow Bay, Ahous Bay, Hesquiat Harbour in MARCH (Van Isl)
Bering Sea AK: June/ Unimak Pass
wks later arr. Bering SEA (ST. LAWRENCE ISLAND)
some go further to Chukchi Sea w. Wrangell Island
some east - Beaufort Sea / MacKenzie Delta
Bering & Chukchi - shallow 50 - 68 m (165 - 225 ' deep)
75% of grays feed in Bering / St. Lawrence island (1982 Russian biolgi. recommended set aside as protected area)
26 - some summer residents along coast then rejoin group Nov
e.g. Gulf of Farallon (CA / OR)
+ 30 grays OR (betw. Alsea R. & Cape Foulweather)
+ Puget Sound area
largest: Van Isl summer residents (35-50)
names: (JIM DARLING) Two Dot Star (Tofino 20 yrs ) / Splotch / Ditto / Prop / Elvis
28 - hearing most important sense (Victor B Scheffer quote 'every whale everywhere lives in a sea of total sound'
-whales: auditory nerve is relatively larger than in other mammals - lobes in brain resp. for hearing are highly developed / hearing site bigger than sight site (human brain centers of sight and hearing are approx. same size)
-water: sound travels 4.5x faster than in air & travels farther (long dist. communication quite possible / 20 hz sound near surface can travel over 400 mi in good conditions
-gray whales make audible sounds (1889 H.L. Aldrich reported that gray whales 'sing' in Arctic feeding grounds)
-clicks , groans, squeaks, rasps, roars (squeezing air through larynx / blowhole, or bursts of air from lungs
29 -UBC researcher Marilyn Dahlheim - taped vocalizations in Baja - situations where grays were vocal / most common sound was pulsing low freq sound between 20 - 3000 hz (fell withing the frequency range of outboard engine noise, which seems to attract the whales) - in Chukchi and Bering sea even lower freq sounds predominate - 14 - 955 hz
30 - unlike dolphins & killer whales / gray whales do not appear to use high freq sounds for echo-location (Ken Norris experiment w/ poles across channel in lagoon - dolphins avoided, whales got tangled)
31 - eyes located far back on head - do not posess good binocular vision like humans - field of vision is primarily 2 monocular fields on both sides of body
-eyes relatively small (human eyes 1/70 of our body mass / whale eyes 1/600 of total mass)
-gray whales eyeball: nearly spherical lens / small number of cone cells (sharpness) - may have blurry vision /
-observers say g. wh. see well - "spy-hopping" up on tail / treading water
-no idea re: colour vision
34 - sense of smell poorly developed / small patch of smell receptors in nasal passages
-thin epidermis - sensitive to touch
"shiver" response to human touch
flippers used to fondle mate or calf - rub against boats
-taste (san diego sea world 1970s whale Gigi would spit out mackerel in 30 lbs of squid)
36 - streamlining of body reduces drag in water - whale's epidermis excretes tiny droplets of oil that decrease drag even further
-outer layer of skin sheds rapidly / this helps reduce drag
-specialized bone structure & thick layer of blubber = bouyancy
-hard outer bone covers spongy web-like inner structure laced with blood vessels / gaps between tissues & vessels filled with marrow high in oil content (some whale bones can actually float on water)
-long narrow body of g. w. allows it to swim in water less than 10' deep (= lagoons etc) - less than other whales
-normal cruising speed 3-9 km (2-6 mi) / hour (can go faster if fleeing predators)
37 - surface and breathe 2 or 3 x at 10 - 20 sec intervals before submerging for 3-5 minutes (whales like humans take big breath first / seals exhale before diving)
-g.w. usually only take shallow dives, reappearing 1000' from spot they dove
-deep dives = may stay under for 25 min / 2600 ' away
"footprint" of calm water left behind from upwelling from flukes when diving
-most dives less than 100' (thought to dive to max 395 ')
-valves around blowhole close to keep out water during deep dive - plus sclera of whales eye (white part) is thick and can take high pressures - & rib cage quite flexible
38 - surfacing: exhalation - spout 10' high (heartshaped dual blowholes) 100 gal of air expelled in 1 blow
-tiny oil droplets - mist -
39 - breaching - swim underwater rapidly, then suddenly raise head up, turning vertical then land on side or back (2 or 3 x in a row)
-courtship? males? sound produced travels underwater?
40-breaching: knock off lice /barnacles / parasites?
41 - whales muscle tissue high in myoglobin - an iron based protein similar to hemoglobin in humans - myoglobin stores oxygen & allows whales to dive for extended periods of time w/o taking another breath
-whales store 41% of oxygen in muscles (comp. to 13% humans)
-whales have up to 2-3 x more blood per unit of body weight than humans, further enabling them to store O2
-g.w. heart: weighs over 285 lbs
-g.w. more alveoli (air cells) than humans & two layers of capillaries (humans have 1) - greatly incr. efficiency of air exchange
-most whales' lungs can remove 2x amt o2 from air as human lungs
-g.w. breathe 30-50 breaths / hr - lungs much bigger than humans (aver 730 lbs)
42 - when they dive, - series of rapid breaths which saturate pulmonary system w/ o2
- on deep dive, whales heart rate slows down & blood flow is restricted / o2 supply depleted very slowly (adaptation: brachycardia)
-heart rate decreases from normal 8-10 beats / minute to 4-5 beats / min
(about 1/10 rate requ by human diver)
-whales don't worry about "bends - nitrogen gas bubbles in blood if surfaces too fast - blubber absorbs some of the nitrogen and rest is trapped in foamy oil in nasal sacs and sinuses (nitrogen is then expelled w/ oil when whale spouts)
43 -g.w. normal internal temp 37 - 38 deg. c (96-99 deg F) (in north swim in water 3-4 d C / 37-39 d F)
-insulated blubber 5 in (complex mix of fibrous, fatty and connective tissues honeycombed with large oil-filled cells - thickest layers of blubber in pregnant females )
-keep whales warm - even in death rate of cooling is slow
44- g.w. bottom feeders - 1865 Scammon: gw. 'head and lips besmeared with the dark ooze from the depths below'
-swim down to bottom, roll on side, and plunge its head few inches into muck
-expanding / contracting throat grooves, retracting huge tongue (weighs 3000 lbs) - suction created that sucks bottom mud into whales mouth -
food moved around by tongue and pushed out through baleen - (hang from upper jaw like curtain) - food items trapped by baleen - rest pushed out through sides of mouth
-g.w. "right-handed"? wear of barnacles on right side of head and degree of wear on baleen plates on right side of mouth - most grays use right side of mouths for sucking in food
-160 pairs of baleen plates hang down on both sides of upper jaw
-each plate up to 15 in long and up to 10 in wide - plates made of keratin (like our fingernails)
-top of each plate is hard and solid (anchored in jaw) / but leading edge feathered like a toothbrush
-they ingest sand & pebbles sometimes
-sometimes make 2 passes - to stir up top inch and then gulp in cloud of organisms
46 - Grice Bay / Tofino - low tide - huge pits on bottom left by whales (up to 10' long)
-bering sea: estim. grays sift a minimum of 171 tonnes (156 tons) of bottom sediment every yr
-stir up nutrients that feed other organisms
-feed on amphipods, isopods, gastropods, bivalve molluscs, hydrozoans, and worms
-most imp: amphipods - (tiny crustaceans / look like shrimp) - 4600 amphipod species (90% of g.w. diet)
-arctic: 1/4" long Ampelisca macrocephala
-Grice Bay: ghost shrimp Caprella linearis (live right up to intertidal zone)
47 - also feed on floating / swimming organisms - lie on right sides on surface, gulping in mouthfuls of nutrient filled water
-San Ignacio lagoon - g.w. swim where currents are strongest - lie w/ mouths open, letting food get washed in
-Arctic: scoop up floating plankton - south / feeding on spawning squid / spring dine on krill (euphasiid shrimp)
-Hesquiat Harbour - herring roe (2 or 3 wks)
48 - Cow Bay - spring - thick clouds of crab larvae
Baja: tiny red crabs (Pleuroncodes planipes)
49-scrape small crustaceans off kelp & eelgrass
arctic over summer: estim. g.w. eat 67 tons of food - 900 lbs / day
on average 1 ton / day
56 - orcas (Orcinus orca) predators - residents (fish) & transients (seals, porpoises, otters, sm. whales occaisionally)
-scars on flippers or flukes from orca attacks
61 - covered w/ barnacle Cryptolepas rhachianecti (found only on g.w.) - heads and backs - clusters (1.5" diam -deeply embedded in whales outer skin / g.w. barnacles found in fossils dating back to Miocene 5 mill yrs ago)
-whale lice (tiny crustaceans incl. g.w. louse Cyamus scammoni & Cyamus kessleri & Cyamus ceti) - feed on dead skin -
gw. can carry several hundred lbs of barnacle / lice infestations
-probably carry more parasites than other whale species
62 - remove dead skin by rubbing on ocean bottom (also orcas / Robson Bight)
-also diseases: cancers, stomach ulcers, heart disease, pneumonia, jaundice, even arthritis
-and internal worms (Russian biologist Zimushko - out of 70 examined over 1/2 had internal worm infestations)
65 - per year: 14 strandings by gw along w. US coast & 2 or 3 along w coast of Van Isl
-5.4 % of g.w. calves die in calving lagoons - 31% of calves die before migrating past s. CA
75% of 1st yr mortalities occur w/in first few wks of birth
-those that survive can live long lives- g.w. aged by counting annual layers of wax deposited in ear plugs, each layer consisting of 1 light and 1 dark lamina - 56 yr. female in Russia / CA coast 75 yr old male - max life span
-strandings may be due to parisitic infestations or diseases which affect the whales' ability to navigate properly
-stranded whales are often found to have flatworms or roundworms in their brains or ear canals (1972 stranding of dolphins - every one had flatworms in brain)
-strandings could also be due to escaping from predators, follow food into shallow water, geomagnetic contours cross coastlines at right angles (using magnetic intensity to navigate and got confused)
64- strandings occur most commonly amoung toothed whales
65 - every year: about 14 strandings by gray whales on US coast & 2 or 3 on west coast Van Island
67-asia - koryak people hunted g.w. from skin boats using harpoons & lances / lived in nothern Okhotsk Sea along kamchatka peninsula - hunt in shallow bays
-archaeological site Namu with whale remains 9100 yrs old
68-poison on harpoons - (aconit - monkshood plant)
greatest number of grays taken along coast of Chukotka peninsula (extreme ne tip of asia)
chukchi & mechigmen people built settlements & memorials from bones of gw
69 -Aleut - called gw "chickakhluk" -
used harpoon tips of slate
-northern alaska inuit called gw "antokhak" -
-off s. coast of alaska Koniag people of Kodiak island occ. hunted whales as did chugash
SE coast of Alaska / tlingit did not hunt whales / used stranded whales (also Haida / Tsimshian)
Van Isl & Olym PenWA - avid whalers - Nootka
-"whale people" lived underwater in human form - left houses and became whales (SOURCE / NATION?)
70 - 8 man canoe - sang songs to whale
71 - Scammon wrote about Van Isl 1874 book
-Maquinna 1700's Van Is chief - spent 53 days at sea 1x - harpooning 8 whales but landed only 1
-both grays and humpbacks hunted (Clayoquot: middens - barnacles of humpbacks / La Push, WA: grays - midden bones)
72- makah - WA - called gw "sih-wah-wihw" means "beings with itchy faces"
-whale petroglyphs - Quisitis Pt - s of Wickaninish Interpretative Ctr @ Pac Rim Nat Pk (rubbing high on Inter Ctr wall)
-also Cape Alava WA
73 -makah ritual - whaling harpoons out of elk antlers or yew wood / w /sharpened mussel shell @ tip
-chief and wives would bathe in sacred ponds / swim slowly hoping whale would do the same
-mimicked spraying whales
-11 m (36') canoes cedar
-only chief or son allowed to harpoon - try to hit on shoulder behind fllipper (hit heart or lung)
-100' lines w/ inflated sealskin floats at ends (slow down whales as they bled to death)
-whales slowed down - hunters dive into ocean and sew mouth closed w/ cedar bark rope to keep it buoyant
74- towed to shore / butchered / used oil & bones
songs - whale as honoured guest
-plus oil as trading commodity - $8000 of whale oil 1856 (Makah) (accord. to H.H. Bancroft)
75-next bands s. of Makah - Quileute & Quinault & Klallam occais. hunted grays
S. of WA - Chumash - coastal s CA / Channel islands - used stranded whales
-cave painting in hills above Bahia Magdalena of whales w/ harpoons - Precolumbian aboriginals as far south as Baja hunted whales
78 - NE gw - asia - couple of hundred - (orig. 2 groups - )
whaling in Japan - 1600s - - 'koku kujira' - "devilfish'
Korean (W. Pacific) gray whale - orig. 2 groups - s on coast of Asia (along coast to s shore of s korea) / others travelled s from Kamchatka peninsula along Kuril islands & east coast of Japan to Kyushu (s. island of Japan)
-whaling in Japan - centuries ago - (10th c. poem about whaling with small boat)
1600's Japanese whalers / harpoons
1675 - whaling w/ nets then lances
1758 treatise of the Whale - drawing of gray whale
17th - 19th c - only 20 grays / yr harvested
1869 - 1878 peak harvest years
1898 modern whaling ships - demand for whale meat ( delicacy)
Gray whale gone from shores of Japan by 1914
1910 - 33 - Korean whaling ships 1500 gray whales
81 - whalewatching in Japan now 9mill$ . yr business
-similar migration - summers in Sea of Okhotsk & s to breeding grounds in Korea in winter
-interbreeding?
82 - atlantic gw - Eschrichtius gibbosus gibbosus - (first evolved there and then migrated to Pacific?)
-in Europe extinct in 14th century - NA lasted until 1750 -
-estimated range: Gulf of Mexico to greenland and Iceland
-whaling industry off NA east coast - arrival of Basque whalers late 1400s (as early as 1372?)
Basque began commerical whaling off coast of Europe 9th c and were predominant whalers in Europe by 11c
word harpoon - Basque word "arpoi" - "stone point"
1450 - Basques whaling from Azores n to Iceland
1534 - Jacques Cartier - Gulf of St. Lawrence
-Basque town Buterus in Labrador (listed in French maps as Hable de la Ballaine [harbour of the whales])
n tip of NFld: Karpont - corruption of Basque word / harpoon
83- Cap Arpont ( Cape Harpoon)
-Basques whaling stns along Strait of Belle Isle (Lab / nfld)
peak: 1560s- 1570s: 1000 men worked to produce 1/2 mil gallons of whale oil
-Boats: chalupas 8m long (26') 6 rowers
-lookout stns to spot whales - atalayas - tops of hills
-harpooned floating wooden drag ("droque") attached to tire cast out then lanced heart/lung and dragged to shore
-blubber cooked in furnaces ("try-works") - one was 9m (30') long - 6 copper cauldrons
84- Basques called gw "sandloegja" - "otta sotta" -
-oil stored in wooden barrels and shipped back to Europe - average galleon carried cargo of about 227,000 l (50,000 gal) of oil (worth $4 mill in today's $)
-right whales, bowheads & grays (gw not best whale oil or quantity - 1/3 as right whale)
-less than 50 years - Basque whalers killed 15000 whales (all types) in New world
1598 QE I sent whaling fleet to Greenland
1611 Muscovy company of England (greenland) then new england
85 - natives of east coast hunted gw called "powdaree" - described as hunting g. w. - but not sure if hunting or scavanging stranded
-whales common in New England waters - pilgrims 1620 Mayflower - whales along side)
Capn George Weymouth 1605 explore maine coast
-1632 near shore whaling Delaware
1632 commercial whaling Long Island sound -Dutch whalers
1687 - 7 small whaling factories - Southhamptom & Easthampton beaches of Long Island
1707 - these factories produced 6000 barrels of gray whale oil
86- 1658 British settlers (led by Thomas Macy) purchased Nantucket Island near Cape Cod for 30 pounds sterling & 2 beaver hats
14 years later: residents killed whale in harbour
Peak of Nantucket whaling 1726 - done by 1760
87-lancing heart or lung of whale - "tapping the claret's bottle"
-blowhole spouted blood: "running up a red flag"
88 -New englanders called atlantic gray whale "scrag whale" (named by naturalist Paul Dudley, 1725)
Scrag rocks / isles / bays / ledges
Long Isl: Sag Harbour orig. Scrag harbour
-whale oil - lamps of Europe and New England - used as lubricant, cooking oil and soaps
baleen (known incorrectly as "whalebone") - used in corset stays, umbrella ribs, walking canes, bristles for shaving brushes, springs for toys
-1850 fossil gray whale found coast of Sweden (W. Lilljeborg / Graso)
-1750 Atlantic gw extinct
-meat fed to livestock and pets
-whalebone ground up as bone meal
89: 1789: ship Emilia - first whaler to round s tip of SAmerica (nantucket whalers) - spread up w. coast of S. america and oout to Hawaii
-1793 - english whaling ship surveyed for whales as far n as cabo san lucas at s tip of Baja
1809 - new engl whalers were hunting sperm whales off coast of baja
1834 - whalers off Van Isl
1854 - Captain J.P. Davenport - taking gw off lower coast of CA
Baja hunting boom began 1858 - Captain Charles Melvillle Scammon
90 - Capn Charles Melville Scammon - b. Maine - left New Eng for new whaling waters off CA
-1856 - made his first gray-whaling trip to Magdalena Bay - followed stories of larger bay in fall 1857 (brig Boston left San Fran)
-discovered entrance to Laguna Ojo de Liebre (Jack Rabbit Spring Lagoon)
-1st winter: rendered down 700 barrels of oil from about 20 gray whales (small whale boat lowered over side and harpooned than dragged to shore for butchering)
-started to use boats' shoulder-held explosive bomb lances instead of harpoons to subdue whales
91 - 2nd trip Scammon plus 6 other boats
-whalers from Hawaii / England / France / russia as well
Scammon descr scene of slaughter as 'exceedingly picturesque and unusually exciting'
-est that Magdalena Bay betwe 1845 & 1848 500 gw killed
1854 - 1865 at least 1500 gw killed
SCammon's lagoon - 1858 - 1860 - over 1000 gw killed
92 -Scammon's last season as whaler 1863
- 1874 - The Marine Mammals of the Northwestern Coast of North America, Together With an Account of the American Whale-Fishery
-shore-based whaling began in Monterey in 1854 and soon spread up & down CA coast
-these stns specialized in catching whales within 15km (10 m) of shore using 8m (28') boats and 6 man crews - whales killed offshore towed to shore stns for butchering /
93 - 1870 - 11 shore-based whaling stations existed on the CA coast w/ try-works
-gw and humpback mmigration - whaling over 7 months / yr
-1854-1874 2500 whales taken by shore-based whalers in CA
-gw 35 barrels of oil / humpback 40-45 barrels oil
1865 price of whale oil soared to over $45 / barrel (plus humpback baleen good price - not gw baleen too short for value)
-whale sinews sold for about 25c / lb - exported to China for use in soups
10 yrs later whaling stns abandoned (gw so scarce / and humpback too??)_
94 - last stn to close was Monterey- lasted until 1900 - shore stn at Point Lobos on Carmel Bay restored & now part of Point Lobos State Reserve
-by mid-1870s only about 2000-5000 gw left, less than 1/2 orig population
-between 1845 -1874 over 8000 gw killed
-1865 invention of explosive harpoon gun by New Bedford captain - huge improvement over hand-held whale weaponry and bow-mounted muzzle loaders
-1868 - norwegian whaler Sven Foyn improved upon invention - Foyn added glass vial of sulfuric acid which broke when harpoon entered whale, detonating an explosive charge inside the whale's body
-new cannon heavy - weighed almost a ton - soon became standard - allowed shooting of whale from over 30 m (100 ') away
-1880 - steam powered whaling ships were first introduced to the west coast
-baleen still in high demand - price jumping from $1.02 / lb in 1868 to $2/lb in 1880 / by 1990 $5 / lb -
development of spring steel soon pushed the price of baleen down / by 1908 strong baleen mkt over
-around turn of century demand for whale oil also dipped - kerosene began to replace whale oil in lamps / petroleum (disc. 1859) began to replace wh. oil in lubricants / waxes / polishes / (but petroleum didn't totally replAce wh. oil until rapid expansion of auto industry in 1920s / 30s).
96 - modern whaling in BC began 1904 - launch of steam powered imported from Norway
-1905 first whaling stn on Van Island opened (Sechart / Barkley Sound)
-1907 - stn at Kyuquot / winter stn at Page's Lagoon
1911- 2 stns at QCI (Rose Harbour / Naden Harbour)
1948 - last of BC whaling stns at Coal Harbour / Quatsino Sound (n end of Van Isla)
experienced Japanese crews were sometimes used at BC whaling stns to carve up the whales and much of meat was sent to Japan
-whaling in BC reached peak in 1911 (1199 whales were caught)
1912 - large factory whaling ships developed - could process whales aboard ship
1913 - first factory ship used to hunt gw anchored off coastal lagoons of Baja
-new type of harpoon w/ exploding tip - upon entering whale - tip of harpoon would explode, springing out iron flukes that prevented harpoon from easily pulling out of the whale
-William Hagelund Whalers No More (description - early trainee in early 1900s)
-97- hydrogenation allowed oil to be solidified for use in margarine, shortening, soap, lubricants, lipsticks, face creams / meat ground up and used as meat meal for mink and pet food / bones ground up for bone meal / solid residue left after oil was boiled off was dried and sold as fertilizer / milk from females condensed and sold / meat pickled and sent to Japan
1911-1913 - over 4000 whales caught off coast of BC
-demand for margarine increased - (depression era) - 1925 133 gw whales killed for oil - highest 1 year harvest since Baja years
-1924-25 - & 28-29 - Norwegian & US factory ships again hunted gw along Baja coast
Norwegian ships alone took 182 gw off Baja between 1925 - 1929
1946 - formation of International Whaling Commission (IWC)
1 - whales prob. evolved from mesonychids (dog-sized long snouted mammals / reptiles?) / then evol. into Protocetus / then archeocetes (50 mill. yrs ago late Eocene period)
2 - today's whales: flippers w/ 4-5 "fingers" / vestigial hind limbs / external genitalia absorbed / some whale embryos (Pakicetus) today: 4 limbs, ext. genitalia, nostrils at end of snout
3 - baleen vs. toothed (baleen more recent - gray whale oldest of baleen?)
1st fossil of gray: 100,000 yrs ago late Pleistocene Epoch (changed very little in 100,000 yrs)
-structure of whale blood serum: closely resembles artiodactyls (hooved animals / cows, sheep, pigs)
-hippopotamus = closest living relative
4 - 1693 John Ray: classified whales as mammals
1864 J. E. Gray (British Museum)- Eschrichtius robustus (named for Daniel Eschrichtius - Danish zoology prof)
order Cetacea (Gr. ketos - sea monster)
80 species identified
2 suborders: Odontoceti (toothed: orca & sperm) /Mysticeti (baleen) - Gr. word mustache
Nicknames: California whale, desert whale, devilfish, hardhead, grayback, mossback, musseldigger, rip-sack, clam-digger. Japan: koku kujira; Russia: seryi kit
-all mysticeti (baleen) have dual blowholes (= heart-shaped spray)
5 - SIZE: adult 10-13 m (35 - 45') long / wt 22 - 38 metric t
femals larger than males
record: 15.5 m (51') long ; wt 42 t
long and narrow
1/2 size of blue whale
7 - unique skin pigmentation pattern - allows identification - round white markings - barnacles have fallen off; newborns are dark grey; skin smooth
8 - eyes are brown and size of orange (2m behind tip of snout)
bristles on snout (50+) and lower jaw (100+); evolved frm haired creatures
throat grooves under chin - skull large (1/5 of body length)
9 - 2 lg flippers 1m behind and below eyes - pectoral fins used for steering
4 long finger-like digits *look like giant human hand (skeleton / carcass)- frightening
6-12? knuckles on back 2/3 (no dorsal fin)
tail: 2 lg flukes w/ notch 3m across (wt 400 lbs)
tail is horizontal (fish is vertical)
not connected to spinal column - made up of strong connective tissue
up & down = forward propulsion
56 vertebrae - like all mammals - 7 cervical vertebrae
10 - Oct: northern ice pushes S & days get shorter - 61000 kms S
125 km / day (travel day & night)
late Nov: Unimak Pass (SW tip AK Aleutian islands) 12 mi wide
late Dec: Van Isl offshore then closer to OR shore
between Monterey / San Diego swiim within 1mi of shore
Monterey Bay & channel islands - some whales side trips
Baja: main stream of whales 350 mi S of San Diego
15 - 4 bays breeding: Guerrero Negro (W.)
Scammon's
San Ignacio
Magdalena
some whales go to w side mainland mexico
Yavaros, Bahia Navachiste, Bahia Altata, Bahia Reforma (Santa Maria)
16 - Capt. Charles Scammon (note: whales used to swim right up to northern tip of Sea of Cortez (Consaq Is / Shoal Pt) -today rarely farther than Yavaros Bay
-females impregnated prev. yr stay extended period to give birth (mating female stays only for few wks)
17 - gestation: 13 mos - single fetus
Jan. 27 - peak in gray whale births
lagoon entrances / farthest edges or at sea
most females give birth every other year
impregnated in lagoons & return to give birth
unlike most whales / gray whales born headfirst
-if born underwater, baby instinctively swims to surface for 1st breath of air
18 - CALVES: born fully developed 4-5 m long (12 - 16') wt 700 - 900 kg (1500 - 2000 lbs)
umbilical cord snaps off; fetal folds in skin from being curled up
-female nipple: within 2 clefts of skin on each side of genital slit / squirts milk into calf's mouth
-suckle less than 1 hr after birth
drinks betw. 13 - 22 l (3.5 - 6 gal) milk / day (35-53% fat / cow's milk 3-4% fat)
milk 6x protein content of human milk
calves gain 90 kg / 200 lbs / day - double wt by time of leaving lagoons
nurse for 6-9 mos
ride on mother's back first few days
calves play: on mothers, in waves
20 - calves older; groups of up to 20 mother / calves prs will socialize
mothers use flippers to warn or reprimand calves
defend baby strenously (described by SCAMMON)
21 - 1956 heart specialist Paul Dudley White - wanted to implant electrocardiograph - boat smashed
22 - whales continually leaving / entering lagoon
Swartz & Jones: 81% stay in lagoon 1 wk or less (San Ignacio)
some cows rtn to same lagoons yr after yr to give birth / others different
San Ignacio often used as mtg area before heading north, esp from Guerrero Negro & Scammon lagoon
San Ignac: females prefer to give birth in upper part (water 4m / 14' deep)
peak of mating season - San Ignacio - 600 whales - mating at entrance
after birthing: females stay in upper lagoon for month or 2 before journey north
23 - north: migrate in groups: 1-5 individ. (sometimes/rarely groups up to 18)
mature whales leave lagoons first - followed by jueveniles ; mothers w/ calves last (MARCH) - stragglers early may
-journey north isn't as fast (not as urgent re: birthing); 4-6 mos;
1 tagged whale: 7000 km (4620 mi) 94 days (aver. 74 km / 49 mi / day)
same approx speed day & night; but some time for rest
-don't sleep like humans but rest (1 biol. est: 1/2 hr naps 6 or 7 / day)
-don't breathe unconciously ; float near surface to rise and breathe ("logging")
migrating mothers w/ calves follow coastline closely
all migrate over continental shelf (water less than 9m (30') deep)
CA coast: mothers w/ calves in shallower water within 200 m (650') of shore
25 - migration: same route memory?? Ray Gilmore (San Diego biologist) remembers tastes of sediment in water off lagoons & estuaries to keep on course?
navigation: magnetic fields? (finback whales follow magnetic contours rather than cross a geomagnetic gradient / magnetic material in whales brains allow them to detect magnetic fields?)
anal glands: excrete scent detected by other whales? scent trail?
feed during migration: Cox Bay, Cow Bay, Ahous Bay, Hesquiat Harbour in MARCH (Van Isl)
Bering Sea AK: June/ Unimak Pass
wks later arr. Bering SEA (ST. LAWRENCE ISLAND)
some go further to Chukchi Sea w. Wrangell Island
some east - Beaufort Sea / MacKenzie Delta
Bering & Chukchi - shallow 50 - 68 m (165 - 225 ' deep)
75% of grays feed in Bering / St. Lawrence island (1982 Russian biolgi. recommended set aside as protected area)
26 - some summer residents along coast then rejoin group Nov
e.g. Gulf of Farallon (CA / OR)
+ 30 grays OR (betw. Alsea R. & Cape Foulweather)
+ Puget Sound area
largest: Van Isl summer residents (35-50)
names: (JIM DARLING) Two Dot Star (Tofino 20 yrs ) / Splotch / Ditto / Prop / Elvis
28 - hearing most important sense (Victor B Scheffer quote 'every whale everywhere lives in a sea of total sound'
-whales: auditory nerve is relatively larger than in other mammals - lobes in brain resp. for hearing are highly developed / hearing site bigger than sight site (human brain centers of sight and hearing are approx. same size)
-water: sound travels 4.5x faster than in air & travels farther (long dist. communication quite possible / 20 hz sound near surface can travel over 400 mi in good conditions
-gray whales make audible sounds (1889 H.L. Aldrich reported that gray whales 'sing' in Arctic feeding grounds)
-clicks , groans, squeaks, rasps, roars (squeezing air through larynx / blowhole, or bursts of air from lungs
29 -UBC researcher Marilyn Dahlheim - taped vocalizations in Baja - situations where grays were vocal / most common sound was pulsing low freq sound between 20 - 3000 hz (fell withing the frequency range of outboard engine noise, which seems to attract the whales) - in Chukchi and Bering sea even lower freq sounds predominate - 14 - 955 hz
30 - unlike dolphins & killer whales / gray whales do not appear to use high freq sounds for echo-location (Ken Norris experiment w/ poles across channel in lagoon - dolphins avoided, whales got tangled)
31 - eyes located far back on head - do not posess good binocular vision like humans - field of vision is primarily 2 monocular fields on both sides of body
-eyes relatively small (human eyes 1/70 of our body mass / whale eyes 1/600 of total mass)
-gray whales eyeball: nearly spherical lens / small number of cone cells (sharpness) - may have blurry vision /
-observers say g. wh. see well - "spy-hopping" up on tail / treading water
-no idea re: colour vision
34 - sense of smell poorly developed / small patch of smell receptors in nasal passages
-thin epidermis - sensitive to touch
"shiver" response to human touch
flippers used to fondle mate or calf - rub against boats
-taste (san diego sea world 1970s whale Gigi would spit out mackerel in 30 lbs of squid)
36 - streamlining of body reduces drag in water - whale's epidermis excretes tiny droplets of oil that decrease drag even further
-outer layer of skin sheds rapidly / this helps reduce drag
-specialized bone structure & thick layer of blubber = bouyancy
-hard outer bone covers spongy web-like inner structure laced with blood vessels / gaps between tissues & vessels filled with marrow high in oil content (some whale bones can actually float on water)
-long narrow body of g. w. allows it to swim in water less than 10' deep (= lagoons etc) - less than other whales
-normal cruising speed 3-9 km (2-6 mi) / hour (can go faster if fleeing predators)
37 - surface and breathe 2 or 3 x at 10 - 20 sec intervals before submerging for 3-5 minutes (whales like humans take big breath first / seals exhale before diving)
-g.w. usually only take shallow dives, reappearing 1000' from spot they dove
-deep dives = may stay under for 25 min / 2600 ' away
"footprint" of calm water left behind from upwelling from flukes when diving
-most dives less than 100' (thought to dive to max 395 ')
-valves around blowhole close to keep out water during deep dive - plus sclera of whales eye (white part) is thick and can take high pressures - & rib cage quite flexible
38 - surfacing: exhalation - spout 10' high (heartshaped dual blowholes) 100 gal of air expelled in 1 blow
-tiny oil droplets - mist -
39 - breaching - swim underwater rapidly, then suddenly raise head up, turning vertical then land on side or back (2 or 3 x in a row)
-courtship? males? sound produced travels underwater?
40-breaching: knock off lice /barnacles / parasites?
41 - whales muscle tissue high in myoglobin - an iron based protein similar to hemoglobin in humans - myoglobin stores oxygen & allows whales to dive for extended periods of time w/o taking another breath
-whales store 41% of oxygen in muscles (comp. to 13% humans)
-whales have up to 2-3 x more blood per unit of body weight than humans, further enabling them to store O2
-g.w. heart: weighs over 285 lbs
-g.w. more alveoli (air cells) than humans & two layers of capillaries (humans have 1) - greatly incr. efficiency of air exchange
-most whales' lungs can remove 2x amt o2 from air as human lungs
-g.w. breathe 30-50 breaths / hr - lungs much bigger than humans (aver 730 lbs)
42 - when they dive, - series of rapid breaths which saturate pulmonary system w/ o2
- on deep dive, whales heart rate slows down & blood flow is restricted / o2 supply depleted very slowly (adaptation: brachycardia)
-heart rate decreases from normal 8-10 beats / minute to 4-5 beats / min
(about 1/10 rate requ by human diver)
-whales don't worry about "bends - nitrogen gas bubbles in blood if surfaces too fast - blubber absorbs some of the nitrogen and rest is trapped in foamy oil in nasal sacs and sinuses (nitrogen is then expelled w/ oil when whale spouts)
43 -g.w. normal internal temp 37 - 38 deg. c (96-99 deg F) (in north swim in water 3-4 d C / 37-39 d F)
-insulated blubber 5 in (complex mix of fibrous, fatty and connective tissues honeycombed with large oil-filled cells - thickest layers of blubber in pregnant females )
-keep whales warm - even in death rate of cooling is slow
44- g.w. bottom feeders - 1865 Scammon: gw. 'head and lips besmeared with the dark ooze from the depths below'
-swim down to bottom, roll on side, and plunge its head few inches into muck
-expanding / contracting throat grooves, retracting huge tongue (weighs 3000 lbs) - suction created that sucks bottom mud into whales mouth -
food moved around by tongue and pushed out through baleen - (hang from upper jaw like curtain) - food items trapped by baleen - rest pushed out through sides of mouth
-g.w. "right-handed"? wear of barnacles on right side of head and degree of wear on baleen plates on right side of mouth - most grays use right side of mouths for sucking in food
-160 pairs of baleen plates hang down on both sides of upper jaw
-each plate up to 15 in long and up to 10 in wide - plates made of keratin (like our fingernails)
-top of each plate is hard and solid (anchored in jaw) / but leading edge feathered like a toothbrush
-they ingest sand & pebbles sometimes
-sometimes make 2 passes - to stir up top inch and then gulp in cloud of organisms
46 - Grice Bay / Tofino - low tide - huge pits on bottom left by whales (up to 10' long)
-bering sea: estim. grays sift a minimum of 171 tonnes (156 tons) of bottom sediment every yr
-stir up nutrients that feed other organisms
-feed on amphipods, isopods, gastropods, bivalve molluscs, hydrozoans, and worms
-most imp: amphipods - (tiny crustaceans / look like shrimp) - 4600 amphipod species (90% of g.w. diet)
-arctic: 1/4" long Ampelisca macrocephala
-Grice Bay: ghost shrimp Caprella linearis (live right up to intertidal zone)
47 - also feed on floating / swimming organisms - lie on right sides on surface, gulping in mouthfuls of nutrient filled water
-San Ignacio lagoon - g.w. swim where currents are strongest - lie w/ mouths open, letting food get washed in
-Arctic: scoop up floating plankton - south / feeding on spawning squid / spring dine on krill (euphasiid shrimp)
-Hesquiat Harbour - herring roe (2 or 3 wks)
48 - Cow Bay - spring - thick clouds of crab larvae
Baja: tiny red crabs (Pleuroncodes planipes)
49-scrape small crustaceans off kelp & eelgrass
arctic over summer: estim. g.w. eat 67 tons of food - 900 lbs / day
on average 1 ton / day
56 - orcas (Orcinus orca) predators - residents (fish) & transients (seals, porpoises, otters, sm. whales occaisionally)
-scars on flippers or flukes from orca attacks
61 - covered w/ barnacle Cryptolepas rhachianecti (found only on g.w.) - heads and backs - clusters (1.5" diam -deeply embedded in whales outer skin / g.w. barnacles found in fossils dating back to Miocene 5 mill yrs ago)
-whale lice (tiny crustaceans incl. g.w. louse Cyamus scammoni & Cyamus kessleri & Cyamus ceti) - feed on dead skin -
gw. can carry several hundred lbs of barnacle / lice infestations
-probably carry more parasites than other whale species
62 - remove dead skin by rubbing on ocean bottom (also orcas / Robson Bight)
-also diseases: cancers, stomach ulcers, heart disease, pneumonia, jaundice, even arthritis
-and internal worms (Russian biologist Zimushko - out of 70 examined over 1/2 had internal worm infestations)
65 - per year: 14 strandings by gw along w. US coast & 2 or 3 along w coast of Van Isl
-5.4 % of g.w. calves die in calving lagoons - 31% of calves die before migrating past s. CA
75% of 1st yr mortalities occur w/in first few wks of birth
-those that survive can live long lives- g.w. aged by counting annual layers of wax deposited in ear plugs, each layer consisting of 1 light and 1 dark lamina - 56 yr. female in Russia / CA coast 75 yr old male - max life span
-strandings may be due to parisitic infestations or diseases which affect the whales' ability to navigate properly
-stranded whales are often found to have flatworms or roundworms in their brains or ear canals (1972 stranding of dolphins - every one had flatworms in brain)
-strandings could also be due to escaping from predators, follow food into shallow water, geomagnetic contours cross coastlines at right angles (using magnetic intensity to navigate and got confused)
64- strandings occur most commonly amoung toothed whales
65 - every year: about 14 strandings by gray whales on US coast & 2 or 3 on west coast Van Island
67-asia - koryak people hunted g.w. from skin boats using harpoons & lances / lived in nothern Okhotsk Sea along kamchatka peninsula - hunt in shallow bays
-archaeological site Namu with whale remains 9100 yrs old
68-poison on harpoons - (aconit - monkshood plant)
greatest number of grays taken along coast of Chukotka peninsula (extreme ne tip of asia)
chukchi & mechigmen people built settlements & memorials from bones of gw
69 -Aleut - called gw "chickakhluk" -
used harpoon tips of slate
-northern alaska inuit called gw "antokhak" -
-off s. coast of alaska Koniag people of Kodiak island occ. hunted whales as did chugash
SE coast of Alaska / tlingit did not hunt whales / used stranded whales (also Haida / Tsimshian)
Van Isl & Olym PenWA - avid whalers - Nootka
-"whale people" lived underwater in human form - left houses and became whales (SOURCE / NATION?)
70 - 8 man canoe - sang songs to whale
71 - Scammon wrote about Van Isl 1874 book
-Maquinna 1700's Van Is chief - spent 53 days at sea 1x - harpooning 8 whales but landed only 1
-both grays and humpbacks hunted (Clayoquot: middens - barnacles of humpbacks / La Push, WA: grays - midden bones)
72- makah - WA - called gw "sih-wah-wihw" means "beings with itchy faces"
-whale petroglyphs - Quisitis Pt - s of Wickaninish Interpretative Ctr @ Pac Rim Nat Pk (rubbing high on Inter Ctr wall)
-also Cape Alava WA
73 -makah ritual - whaling harpoons out of elk antlers or yew wood / w /sharpened mussel shell @ tip
-chief and wives would bathe in sacred ponds / swim slowly hoping whale would do the same
-mimicked spraying whales
-11 m (36') canoes cedar
-only chief or son allowed to harpoon - try to hit on shoulder behind fllipper (hit heart or lung)
-100' lines w/ inflated sealskin floats at ends (slow down whales as they bled to death)
-whales slowed down - hunters dive into ocean and sew mouth closed w/ cedar bark rope to keep it buoyant
74- towed to shore / butchered / used oil & bones
songs - whale as honoured guest
-plus oil as trading commodity - $8000 of whale oil 1856 (Makah) (accord. to H.H. Bancroft)
75-next bands s. of Makah - Quileute & Quinault & Klallam occais. hunted grays
S. of WA - Chumash - coastal s CA / Channel islands - used stranded whales
-cave painting in hills above Bahia Magdalena of whales w/ harpoons - Precolumbian aboriginals as far south as Baja hunted whales
78 - NE gw - asia - couple of hundred - (orig. 2 groups - )
whaling in Japan - 1600s - - 'koku kujira' - "devilfish'
Korean (W. Pacific) gray whale - orig. 2 groups - s on coast of Asia (along coast to s shore of s korea) / others travelled s from Kamchatka peninsula along Kuril islands & east coast of Japan to Kyushu (s. island of Japan)
-whaling in Japan - centuries ago - (10th c. poem about whaling with small boat)
1600's Japanese whalers / harpoons
1675 - whaling w/ nets then lances
1758 treatise of the Whale - drawing of gray whale
17th - 19th c - only 20 grays / yr harvested
1869 - 1878 peak harvest years
1898 modern whaling ships - demand for whale meat ( delicacy)
Gray whale gone from shores of Japan by 1914
1910 - 33 - Korean whaling ships 1500 gray whales
81 - whalewatching in Japan now 9mill$ . yr business
-similar migration - summers in Sea of Okhotsk & s to breeding grounds in Korea in winter
-interbreeding?
82 - atlantic gw - Eschrichtius gibbosus gibbosus - (first evolved there and then migrated to Pacific?)
-in Europe extinct in 14th century - NA lasted until 1750 -
-estimated range: Gulf of Mexico to greenland and Iceland
-whaling industry off NA east coast - arrival of Basque whalers late 1400s (as early as 1372?)
Basque began commerical whaling off coast of Europe 9th c and were predominant whalers in Europe by 11c
word harpoon - Basque word "arpoi" - "stone point"
1450 - Basques whaling from Azores n to Iceland
1534 - Jacques Cartier - Gulf of St. Lawrence
-Basque town Buterus in Labrador (listed in French maps as Hable de la Ballaine [harbour of the whales])
n tip of NFld: Karpont - corruption of Basque word / harpoon
83- Cap Arpont ( Cape Harpoon)
-Basques whaling stns along Strait of Belle Isle (Lab / nfld)
peak: 1560s- 1570s: 1000 men worked to produce 1/2 mil gallons of whale oil
-Boats: chalupas 8m long (26') 6 rowers
-lookout stns to spot whales - atalayas - tops of hills
-harpooned floating wooden drag ("droque") attached to tire cast out then lanced heart/lung and dragged to shore
-blubber cooked in furnaces ("try-works") - one was 9m (30') long - 6 copper cauldrons
84- Basques called gw "sandloegja" - "otta sotta" -
-oil stored in wooden barrels and shipped back to Europe - average galleon carried cargo of about 227,000 l (50,000 gal) of oil (worth $4 mill in today's $)
-right whales, bowheads & grays (gw not best whale oil or quantity - 1/3 as right whale)
-less than 50 years - Basque whalers killed 15000 whales (all types) in New world
1598 QE I sent whaling fleet to Greenland
1611 Muscovy company of England (greenland) then new england
85 - natives of east coast hunted gw called "powdaree" - described as hunting g. w. - but not sure if hunting or scavanging stranded
-whales common in New England waters - pilgrims 1620 Mayflower - whales along side)
Capn George Weymouth 1605 explore maine coast
-1632 near shore whaling Delaware
1632 commercial whaling Long Island sound -Dutch whalers
1687 - 7 small whaling factories - Southhamptom & Easthampton beaches of Long Island
1707 - these factories produced 6000 barrels of gray whale oil
86- 1658 British settlers (led by Thomas Macy) purchased Nantucket Island near Cape Cod for 30 pounds sterling & 2 beaver hats
14 years later: residents killed whale in harbour
Peak of Nantucket whaling 1726 - done by 1760
87-lancing heart or lung of whale - "tapping the claret's bottle"
-blowhole spouted blood: "running up a red flag"
88 -New englanders called atlantic gray whale "scrag whale" (named by naturalist Paul Dudley, 1725)
Scrag rocks / isles / bays / ledges
Long Isl: Sag Harbour orig. Scrag harbour
-whale oil - lamps of Europe and New England - used as lubricant, cooking oil and soaps
baleen (known incorrectly as "whalebone") - used in corset stays, umbrella ribs, walking canes, bristles for shaving brushes, springs for toys
-1850 fossil gray whale found coast of Sweden (W. Lilljeborg / Graso)
-1750 Atlantic gw extinct
-meat fed to livestock and pets
-whalebone ground up as bone meal
89: 1789: ship Emilia - first whaler to round s tip of SAmerica (nantucket whalers) - spread up w. coast of S. america and oout to Hawaii
-1793 - english whaling ship surveyed for whales as far n as cabo san lucas at s tip of Baja
1809 - new engl whalers were hunting sperm whales off coast of baja
1834 - whalers off Van Isl
1854 - Captain J.P. Davenport - taking gw off lower coast of CA
Baja hunting boom began 1858 - Captain Charles Melvillle Scammon
90 - Capn Charles Melville Scammon - b. Maine - left New Eng for new whaling waters off CA
-1856 - made his first gray-whaling trip to Magdalena Bay - followed stories of larger bay in fall 1857 (brig Boston left San Fran)
-discovered entrance to Laguna Ojo de Liebre (Jack Rabbit Spring Lagoon)
-1st winter: rendered down 700 barrels of oil from about 20 gray whales (small whale boat lowered over side and harpooned than dragged to shore for butchering)
-started to use boats' shoulder-held explosive bomb lances instead of harpoons to subdue whales
91 - 2nd trip Scammon plus 6 other boats
-whalers from Hawaii / England / France / russia as well
Scammon descr scene of slaughter as 'exceedingly picturesque and unusually exciting'
-est that Magdalena Bay betwe 1845 & 1848 500 gw killed
1854 - 1865 at least 1500 gw killed
SCammon's lagoon - 1858 - 1860 - over 1000 gw killed
92 -Scammon's last season as whaler 1863
- 1874 - The Marine Mammals of the Northwestern Coast of North America, Together With an Account of the American Whale-Fishery
-shore-based whaling began in Monterey in 1854 and soon spread up & down CA coast
-these stns specialized in catching whales within 15km (10 m) of shore using 8m (28') boats and 6 man crews - whales killed offshore towed to shore stns for butchering /
93 - 1870 - 11 shore-based whaling stations existed on the CA coast w/ try-works
-gw and humpback mmigration - whaling over 7 months / yr
-1854-1874 2500 whales taken by shore-based whalers in CA
-gw 35 barrels of oil / humpback 40-45 barrels oil
1865 price of whale oil soared to over $45 / barrel (plus humpback baleen good price - not gw baleen too short for value)
-whale sinews sold for about 25c / lb - exported to China for use in soups
10 yrs later whaling stns abandoned (gw so scarce / and humpback too??)_
94 - last stn to close was Monterey- lasted until 1900 - shore stn at Point Lobos on Carmel Bay restored & now part of Point Lobos State Reserve
-by mid-1870s only about 2000-5000 gw left, less than 1/2 orig population
-between 1845 -1874 over 8000 gw killed
-1865 invention of explosive harpoon gun by New Bedford captain - huge improvement over hand-held whale weaponry and bow-mounted muzzle loaders
-1868 - norwegian whaler Sven Foyn improved upon invention - Foyn added glass vial of sulfuric acid which broke when harpoon entered whale, detonating an explosive charge inside the whale's body
-new cannon heavy - weighed almost a ton - soon became standard - allowed shooting of whale from over 30 m (100 ') away
-1880 - steam powered whaling ships were first introduced to the west coast
-baleen still in high demand - price jumping from $1.02 / lb in 1868 to $2/lb in 1880 / by 1990 $5 / lb -
development of spring steel soon pushed the price of baleen down / by 1908 strong baleen mkt over
-around turn of century demand for whale oil also dipped - kerosene began to replace whale oil in lamps / petroleum (disc. 1859) began to replace wh. oil in lubricants / waxes / polishes / (but petroleum didn't totally replAce wh. oil until rapid expansion of auto industry in 1920s / 30s).
96 - modern whaling in BC began 1904 - launch of steam powered imported from Norway
-1905 first whaling stn on Van Island opened (Sechart / Barkley Sound)
-1907 - stn at Kyuquot / winter stn at Page's Lagoon
1911- 2 stns at QCI (Rose Harbour / Naden Harbour)
1948 - last of BC whaling stns at Coal Harbour / Quatsino Sound (n end of Van Isla)
experienced Japanese crews were sometimes used at BC whaling stns to carve up the whales and much of meat was sent to Japan
-whaling in BC reached peak in 1911 (1199 whales were caught)
1912 - large factory whaling ships developed - could process whales aboard ship
1913 - first factory ship used to hunt gw anchored off coastal lagoons of Baja
-new type of harpoon w/ exploding tip - upon entering whale - tip of harpoon would explode, springing out iron flukes that prevented harpoon from easily pulling out of the whale
-William Hagelund Whalers No More (description - early trainee in early 1900s)
-97- hydrogenation allowed oil to be solidified for use in margarine, shortening, soap, lubricants, lipsticks, face creams / meat ground up and used as meat meal for mink and pet food / bones ground up for bone meal / solid residue left after oil was boiled off was dried and sold as fertilizer / milk from females condensed and sold / meat pickled and sent to Japan
1911-1913 - over 4000 whales caught off coast of BC
-demand for margarine increased - (depression era) - 1925 133 gw whales killed for oil - highest 1 year harvest since Baja years
-1924-25 - & 28-29 - Norwegian & US factory ships again hunted gw along Baja coast
Norwegian ships alone took 182 gw off Baja between 1925 - 1929
1946 - formation of International Whaling Commission (IWC)
ITINERARY
MAR 08: -Pacific Rim Whale Fest (2008)
Cox Bay, Cow Bay, Ahous Bay, Hesquiat Harbour in MARCH (Van Isl)
APR 08:
MAY 08:
JUNE 08: - Unimak Pass (AK)
JULY 08 : -summer residents: Clayoquot Sound? AK?
BERING SEA?
AUGUST 08:
SEPT 08: -start bike trip south
OCT 08: -northern ice pushes south / days get shorter; begin travelling 125 km / day (day & night)
NOV 08: - late Nov: Unimak Pass (sw tip Aleutian Isl AK) 12 mi wd pass
DEC 08: -late Dec: offshore Van Isl (then closer to shore OR) / between Monterey & San Diego swim 1 mi from shore (some whales stop at Monterey Bay)
-start arriving Baja
JAN 09: -whales in Baja lagoons (Jan. 27 peak in births)
FEB 09: -some start north
MAR 09: rtn home?
Cox Bay, Cow Bay, Ahous Bay, Hesquiat Harbour in MARCH (Van Isl)
APR 08:
MAY 08:
JUNE 08: - Unimak Pass (AK)
JULY 08 : -summer residents: Clayoquot Sound? AK?
BERING SEA?
AUGUST 08:
SEPT 08: -start bike trip south
OCT 08: -northern ice pushes south / days get shorter; begin travelling 125 km / day (day & night)
NOV 08: - late Nov: Unimak Pass (sw tip Aleutian Isl AK) 12 mi wd pass
DEC 08: -late Dec: offshore Van Isl (then closer to shore OR) / between Monterey & San Diego swim 1 mi from shore (some whales stop at Monterey Bay)
-start arriving Baja
JAN 09: -whales in Baja lagoons (Jan. 27 peak in births)
FEB 09: -some start north
MAR 09: rtn home?
WHO TO CONTACT
-FN communities (Makah, BC coast)
-Van Aquarium
-aquariums (Long Beach, San Diego, San F)
-Pacific Biological Stn (Nanaimo) *John Ford (former) echolocation /mike bigg?
-Bamfield
-Jim Darling (West Coast Whale Research Foundation / Tofino - Exec Dir)
-UVIC
-American Cetacean Society + local chapters (www.acsonline.org)
-NOAA / ?NOMM *//swfsc.noaa.gov
-Royal BC Museum re: skeleton
-Alaska researchers
-Whale Research lab: www.geog.uvic.ca/whalelab *Clayoquot Sound researchers
-Pacific Rim Whale fest
-cdn arctic research stns
-alaska: bering sea research stns?
-Coastal Wildlife Research Foundation www.coastalwildlife.com
-
-Van Aquarium
-aquariums (Long Beach, San Diego, San F)
-Pacific Biological Stn (Nanaimo) *John Ford (former) echolocation /mike bigg?
-Bamfield
-Jim Darling (West Coast Whale Research Foundation / Tofino - Exec Dir)
-UVIC
-American Cetacean Society + local chapters (www.acsonline.org)
-NOAA / ?NOMM *//swfsc.noaa.gov
-Royal BC Museum re: skeleton
-Alaska researchers
-Whale Research lab: www.geog.uvic.ca/whalelab *Clayoquot Sound researchers
-Pacific Rim Whale fest
-cdn arctic research stns
-alaska: bering sea research stns?
-Coastal Wildlife Research Foundation www.coastalwildlife.com
-
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)