Contact between whales and man have not always been beneficial.
Historically, of course, whaling has killed untold thousands and
thousands of whales, although commercial whaling is currently
internationally banned. (However, despite the international ban on
commercial whaling, it does still go on, currently involving whalers
from Japan, which has never stopped killing whales, and Iceland and
Norway, both of which periodically stop and restart whaling on a
year-to-year basis).
Besides the obvious direct negative effect on whales from whaling,
whales also suffer at the hands of man indirectly and/or
unintentionally, due to such causes as pollution, fishing gear
entanglements, collisions between whales and boats and ships, etc. Most
specifically here, whales and man do come into close physical proximity
within the Massachusetts Bay area (including, of course, within the
Stellwagen bank National Marine Sanctuary).
While many people do enjoy watching whales and other marine life on
whale watch vessels (and on private boats as well), all boats and ships
in the vicinity of whales legally must maneuver with the highest regard
for the safety of the whales. Unfortunately, not everyone on the water
around the whales in Massachusetts Bay is careful.
Commonly, fishing boats could sometimes endanger whales. Commercial
fishing vessels often drag nets and move around (fortunately usually
fairly slowly) entirely oblivious to whales near them. Some
sport-fishing boats, especially some of the tuna boats on and around
Stellwagen Bank, more insidiously may even operate intentionally close
to whales in the badly mistaken idea that tuna are always associated
with whales. [This is not at all a criticism of all or even most
fishing boats by any means - I am referring to a minority of
short-sighted boat captains.]
Many people who own their own pleasure boats seek out whales to watch,
and, while most seemingly do try to be careful around whales, it seems
to this observer that some private boats operate around whales without
being fully aware of how much danger they put whales (and themselves) in
due to often excessive speed and an altogether frequent lack of patience
around whales. [This is not a criticism of all or most private "whale
watching" boats, by the way - I am referring only to the few that are
reckless and to the not-so-few that are careless - fortunately, whales
seem to be smarter about boats than some boat operators are about
whales.]
Commercial whale watch vessels also must be very careful, during every
second of every minute of every trip they are near whales. Since
commercial whale watch boats do spend a lot of time close to whales,
their captains are generally very careful as well as knowledgeable about
how to safely operate in the vicinity of whales. Nonetheless, constant
vigilance is required by every whale watch vessel on every trip when
near whales.
Unfortunately, despite the best of intentions (and unfortunately
sometimes due to less than the best of intentions), whales have been
injured, sometimes badly (and sometimes even mortally), by contact with
ships and boats of all sizes and types. A number of Massachusetts
whales carry wounds and scars from contact with vessels, especially from
propellers that were in motion when they should not have been.
Unfortunately, on today's whale watch our passengers and crew witnessed
all too clearly the sad result of an incident that must have occurred
sometime back in July. Let me explain...
For today's trip we headed out of Plymouth, bound for the SW corner of
Stellwagen Bank, where we did quickly find a solitary humpback that
seemed to be deep feeding, but which also started tail breaching and
lobtailing a bit, seemingly in response to some whales already doing the
same a couple miles to the NE. So, after enjoying the activities of our
first whale, we headed off to the NE to visit with the humpbacks
(probably 12 to 15) scattered about "up" there. (I think it is it
interesting how we sometimes use "up" for north and "down" for south,
even on a level sea.)
We spent much of our time watching four whales, who sometimes came
together as a foursome and sometimes split apart into two pairs. One
pair was of a mother and her calf while the other pair consisted of a
whale known as Bayou and another young humpback.
Often we identify individual humpback whales by the natural markings
under their tail flukes (and sometimes, less often, by the dorsal fins).
However, quite sadly, sometimes we can easily identify an individual
whale simply due to some obviously human-caused wounds and/or scars, and
such was the case on this trip with the young humpback known as Bayou.
Bayou is the 2006 calf of Trident. I personally have not (knowingly)
seen Bayou often this season (perhaps because it is a whale that spends
most of its time on the N end of Stellwagen Bank). I did see Bayou on
May 30th of this year (please see the photo above for a routine ID
flukeshot from that trip), with no obvious wounds of any sort visible.
However, a Gloucester boat reported on July 21st that Bayou had been
badly wounded, with obvious and serious propeller damage to the right
tail fluke. Unfortunately for Bayou, identification will now forever be
extremely easy due to these wounds (please see the other two photos
below from today's trip).
I do not know the extent of Bayou's healing that has occurred since
July. Whale watch naturalists do get to see a few (but a few is far too
many) humpback whales with wounds that have healed apparently reasonably
well (generally with white and/or black scarring). However, Bayou still
shows some seemingly raw-looking areas, but hopefully these will
eventually heal over. As for longterm effects on Bayou, one can only
guess. We do know of a number of other humpbacks that have suffered
serious tail fluke wounds and yet have survived for often many years
afterward. Nonetheless, it would seem that, even if full healing does
occur, Bayou's swimming efficiency has to be lessened at least somewhat,
and there is likely to be a torsion (or twisting) effect on the
vertebral column and tail muscles due to the asymmetry of Bayou's tail
flukes.
We did notice that Bayou seemed to be behaving normally (as much as we
could tell) - at least, Bayou did participate in some of the tail
breaching and lobtailing activity that several of the whales in the area
were exhibiting.
When returning to port, I nearly always remind the passengers on "my"
whale watch trips that we are easily The Most Dangerous Species on Our
Shared Planet, and that I hope that they agree that the whales (and
other creatures) are worth protecting, and, if so, then whale watching
has to have an overall positive effect on the whales (and the rest of
our environment). However, usually this thought is not punctuated with
such an exclamation point as on this particular trip. So, while our
whale watch trip was indeed quite successful and enjoyable overall, it
was also a sobering experience for the passengers and crew aboard the
Tails of the Sea. We can only wish Bayou good luck, future health, and
lasting peace.
Categories: Whale Watching
