It’s a Saturday night. Yet, here I am at my desk with a list of thesis stuff as long as my arm staring at me. Trouble is reading about 2-step Generalized Additive Models just isn’t appealing on a Saturday night. This morning I had grand plans to write a blog post about why I think the BC Liberal government rejected the Enbridge Pipeline proposal... but a case of political posturing sort of lost my interest as the day progressed; there will be many more opportunities to write about this as industrial development along BC’s coast is not going away – whether it be Enbridge’s pipeline or the Liberal’s grand Liquefied Natural Gas plans. Instead, on a chiding from my friend Jonathan Stern I have decided to write about minke whales – and more precisely the case of the two-stepping minke.
 minke chin. F.C. Robertson. NMFS permit # 4481856 | It has been awhile since I sat down to write about minke whales, but I think about them often. The whale watch season in the Salish Sea has just begun and with it come reports of minke encounters. Photos of these encounters have been appearing in my facebook stream; triggering memories of my own encounters with these little whales over the years. My first encounters with minke whales were back in 2005 when I joined a minke whale research project. Those first weeks made such an impression that I returned to the project for three more summers, learning to photo-id the whales and collect behavioural data on their foraging habits. |
So what is so special about minke whales? Most folk overlook them for being common, being those whales that are the target of Japanese, Norwegian and Icelandic whaling activities. True they are still hunted, and in some parts of the world are they are extremely abundant but here in the Pacific Northwest minke whales are rare. Yes they are rare. In fact NMFS is now reporting fewer than 600 whales in California, Oregon and Washington State waters. So let me say this again... minke whales on this coast are rare. If you see one please report it and then have a little dance party because you just had an encounter with a super cool rare whale! No I’m serious... just don’t fall overboard in your excitement because the water here is really really cold! So this is partly why I think these little whales are so special.
 F.C. Robertson NMFS permit #4481856 |  minke whale. F.C. Robertson NMFS permit #4481856 |
The Salish Sea happens to be what we call a hot spot for minkes. Whales can be consistently found on the banks off the south end of San Jaun Island, e.g., Salmon Bank and Hein Bank during the spring and summer months. In the 1980s they could also be found inside the islands, in fact their presence was so predictable that the waters between Waldron and Stuart Island was referred to as “minke lake”, and it is to this day though you rarely see a minke in ‘minke lake’ these days.
Our ability to photo-id minke whales has provided a foundation from which we can conduct foraging studies through focal follows. You sort of have to know that you are following the same whale for a successful focal follow.... But the data we collect from these focal follows tells us a thing or two about these critters that isn’t so obvious to the casual observer. In fact minke whales tend to frustrate the casual observer due to their unpredictable surfacing behaviour. You never quite know where the whale will come up next or, if indeed the whale will come up! But if you have the patience (this is a pre-requisite of the minke project) you can follow these animals for sometimes hours at a time.
Our ability to photo-id minke whales has provided a foundation from which we can conduct foraging studies through focal follows. You sort of have to know that you are following the same whale for a successful focal follow.... But the data we collect from these focal follows tells us a thing or two about these critters that isn’t so obvious to the casual observer. In fact minke whales tend to frustrate the casual observer due to their unpredictable surfacing behaviour. You never quite know where the whale will come up next or, if indeed the whale will come up! But if you have the patience (this is a pre-requisite of the minke project) you can follow these animals for sometimes hours at a time.
| The data collected during a focal follow provides information on feeding rates and foraging strategies, the photo-id data gives us an idea of how many individuals are using an area and whether they use the same area in consecutive years. Having data on individuals from multiple years also allows us to look at whether foraging behaviours have changed between years. |  lunge feeding with side roll. NMFS permit #4481856 |
Changes in foraging behaviour may be the result of changes in their prey’s behaviour or perhaps a shift in the main prey base. In the Salish Sea minke whales feed on bait fish, e.g., juvenile herring. In recent years we have observed changes in the way that both birds and minke whales are feeding so could this be due to a change in the main forage fish composition of the area? The insights that we gain into minke whale feeding ecology are a stepping stone to understanding the local marine ecosystem.
I am sure by now you are wondering why I titled this post “The case of two-stepping minke”; sitting down to write about minke whales brings back memories of my experiences with the minke project. Most revolve around floating in our small research boat on Hein Bank waiting for our whale to pop up again. Listening for its breath and scanning 360 degrees searching for that tell-tale disturbance in the water’s surface as the smooth dark back breaks the surface. In a way their surfacing patterns remind me more of a dance but in reality these whales are always two steps ahead of us leading us off in random dances across the banks, a little whale in constant search of the little fish.
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