Humpback Flukes!!

Today Linda took me to the SEASWAP office where all the whale data is analyzed. I learned SO much about whales today and how they interact with the longline fishermen. Much of what this office organizes is the collecting of sperm whale sounds or "clicks" using special recording buoys off of longline fishing boats. By listening to the frequency of the clicks they can determine whether the whale interacted with the fishing gear or not. As soon as someone can get out on a boat to collect more of this acoustic data, I will be learning how to analyze it. Today however, it was all about humpback whales. The whale research office in Sitka along with others in southern Alaska have taken thousands of pictures of humpback whale tails or "flukes" (as pictured above) and cataloged over 1900 whales in the past three decades. Researchers use these catalogs to identify whales and determine the movements of individual whales, who they are traveling and feeding with, when a female has a calf and how many whales use these waters to feed. So today I looked at photos of whale flukes taken by researchers in the past 6 years and matched the whales pictured to whales in the catalog. This is no easy job since there are hundreds of whales in these catalogs and only a few distinguishing features on each fluke. It took me as long as 40 minutes sometimes to make a match, but I got better at it by the end of the day and the ladies in the office were impressed. The women in the office were all very welcoming and willing to teach me about the whales, I never knew they could be so complicated!! I'd love to ID more whales tomorrow but Linda needs me to help her gut fish....not really looking forward to that but it's all part of the experience I guess.