The Tumbleweed

As some of you know, I am involved in all sorts of marine biology projects. I'd like to share my latest adventure with you. Gray Whales have been migrating south back from Alaska along Canada's west coast towards their winter grounds off California. Volunteer whale watchers are recruited by Canada's Department of Oceans and Fisheries for at-sea-observation in an attempt to do a census. In some cases, biopsy samples will be taken from the whales to determine their health, rate of growth and lots more data. A large hypodermic needle like device with a hollow core is thrown at a surfacing whale much like a spear. The spear has a collar to prevent it penetrating too deeply. It is also tethered to the boat for easy recovery. Sounds simple, eh? This is where things get interesting.

Do to the fact that most university students are now back at school, getting volunteers for the week or so trip out is not so easy. We often get Grandmothers recently converted to the cause of environmentalism. Winter storms are beginning to stir things up quite a bit. Five to eight meter swells are not uncommon. A 7 meter zodiac is launched from the research vessel when whales are spotted for better and faster manouvering but due to its smaller size, it can get tossed around a bit. On one such zodiac, I was the data collector, we had a Canadian Coast Guard pilot, cetacean biologist and 3 volunteer taggers.

When a whale dives, the last flick of the tail creates a current wash in the surface water which you can read like a footprint. If you can see the signs, you can interpret how deep and in what direction the whale is diving so therefore you can predict where it will surface. Rhonda, our cetacean biologist, was quite an expert at this. Not only did she predict surface points within a dozen or so meters but she recognized one whale as 'M37' based on a quick one second view of its tail markings. Our taggers didn't show nearly the same level of ability.

Tagger #1 was violently sea sick. We tethered one of her feet to the rigid deck plating so she wouldn't fall overboard while leaning over the side to barf. Tagger #2 was the worst aim I have ever seen. With one gray whale's enormous flank only 3 meters off our starboard side, her shot missed by 5 meters in an apparently random direction. Only Tagger #3 was able to collect a biopsy sample. Unfortunately, it came from Tagger #2. Wow, was she angry. I never imagined a 55+ year old grandmother having a vocabulary like that. She made me blush. I think she scared the whales away. My team sat on the bench for the rest of the game.

Fortunately, other teams had some successes and the overall trip was considered productive. Even though digital cameras have come a long way with image stabilization, I don't believe they had big ocean swells in mind. I have a few nice pictures of Tagger #1's feet, a vacant sky shot (the clouds were pretty), lots a waves and sea water, and one very close up of half the pilots head. I've included a couple stock photos to spur your imagination.