Sea Notes Winter 2006/2007 |
December Humpbacks in Alaska?! Not long ago many so-called whale experts claimed that most of Alaska’s humpback whales leave for Hawaii by October. It is no coincidence that these same researchers left each October too. Of course, Alaskans know better. For the second time in three years, members of the PMMC helped researchers document large numbers of humpbacks in the Petersburg area during the first week of December. PMMC board member Dennis Rogers hosted a voyage on the M/V Alaska Adventurer from Petersburg to Seymour Canal, a long, narrow bay on the southeast coast of Admiralty Island. Captain Rogers was joined by a research team from the University of Alaska Southeast, Hawaii whale researcher Dan Salden, a California film crew working to document a year in the life of a humpback, and photographer and PMMC board advisor Jim Nahmens.
The foul weather that beset Petersburg for most of last fall nearly prevented the researchers from departing. But the team took advantage of a short break in the weather and set off for Seymour Canal. Large groups of whales were spotted in eastern Frederick Sound near Cape Strait and in Seymour Canal. At both locations, thick bands of krill appeared on the ship’s depth sounder. While at times braving brutal weather and sea conditions, the team worked to get fluke identification photographs. These photos identify individual whales by the unique markings on the underside of their tails. With only about five and a half hours of working daylight, getting large numbers of fluke ids was a challenge. After dark, the team downloaded the day’s photos, catalogued them, and eliminated duplicate photos of the same whales. In four days, the team photographed 140 individual humpbacks, surpassing the total of 105 photographed over five-days in December 2004. The photographs will be added to the catalog of over 1,200 humpbacks seen in Southeast Alaska over the last 27 years. Most of the whales seen here in early December were likely spending a final few weeks gorging themselves before heading for Hawaii. But as many Alaskans will tell you, some linger throughout the winter and can often be seen just offshore from Petersburg.
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