Whale spotted in New York's East river thought to be a humpback

The New York Police Department’s special operations division posted a photo of the sighting on its Twitter account, with the message that “even the wildlife want to ring in” the new year in New York.

 

US coast guard petty officer Frank Iannazzo-Simmons told the Associated Press those in his office had not seen the whale, but said that based on the photos it appeared to be a humpback.

The whale was seen swimming along the shores of Manhattan’s Upper East Side, close to Gracie Mansion, the official residence of Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Paul Sieswerda, a retired marine biologist who leads the New York-based volunteer marine wildlife tracking group Gotham Whale, told the Guardian: “It’s uncommon for whales to be around this late in the season, and even more unusual for them to be in the harbor.

“Humpbacks would normally be heading for the warm waters of the Dominican Republic.”

This has been an exceptional year for whale sightings in the harbor and in the waters off Long Island, Sieswerda said. The first sighting in the river came in April, and a humpback whale was spotted in the East river last month. 

Another humpack took up residence in the Hudson river and was seen above the George Washington Bridge, which connects New York and New Jersey at the north-west tip of Manhattan. That whale became known as “0055” or “Gotham”.

“We followed that whale for a number of days,” said Sieswerda, 74, who was previously a curator at the New England and New York aquariums. “It was last seen in early December in the ocean. We’re quite sure that it was lunge-feeding on the menhaden.”

There is no reason to think the New Years Eve whale is disorientated, Sieswerda said, as the population of menhaden, a bait fish, has been in increasing in recent years, bringing more whales into the area.

Continued 

'Once in a lifetime' rare white whale calf spotted off Australia

An extremely rare white humpback whale calf has been spotted near Australia's Great Barrier Reef in an event witnesses described Thursday as a "once in a lifetime experience".

Believed to be just a few weeks old, the baby humpback was seen at Cid Harbour in the famous reef's Whitsunday Islands area by local man Wayne Fewings, who was with his family in a boat when he spotted a whale pod.

"We were just drifting when I noticed the smaller whale in the pod was white. I couldn't believe my eyes, and I just grabbed my camera," Fewings said.

"Then the white calf approached my boat, seeming to want to check us out. I was just so amazed at seeing this animal, it made me think how truly astounding the Great Barrier Reef is," he added of the sighting on Saturday.

"I feel very lucky to have witnessed this, it's a once in a lifetime experience."

Reef official Mark Read said white whales were highly unusual, with only 10-15 believed to exist among the 10,000-15,000 humpbacks living along Australia's east coast, and purely white ones – like the calf spotted on Saturday – rarer still.

To see photo, read on...

Stranded whale in Western Australian harbour will be blown up

(from NewsCore (via news.com.au) 02.09.10)

Stranded whale in Western Australian harbour will be blown up

EXPLOSIVES will be used to euthanase a sick humpback whale that is stranded on Western Australia's south coast, the ABC reports.

Authorities believe the 9.5m whale is too large to shoot.

It has been resting on a sandbar in shallow water after becoming stranded in Albany's Princess Royal harbor - around 390km southeast of Perth - two weeks ago.

The WA Department of Environment and Conservation said an exclusion zone will be placed around the whale while it is blown up and sandbags will be placed over its head.

A helicopter will scan for sharks in case of a feeding frenzy.

Epic humpback whale battle filmed

Friday, 23 October 2009

By Matt Walker
Editor, Earth News

It is the greatest animal battle on the planet, and it has finally been caught on camera.

A BBC natural history crew has filmed the "humpback whale heat run", where 15m long, 40 tonne male whales fight it out to mate with even larger females.

During the first complete sequence of this behaviour ever captured, the male humpbacks swim at high speed behind the female, violently jostling for access.

The collisions between the males can be violent enough to kill.

"Even though this is one of the most common of the large whales, very little is known about its actual sexual behaviour," says Life producer Dr Ted Oakes.

"One of the most interesting things is that humpbacks have never been seen to mate."

But what has been filmed is the epic battle between males to get mating access to the female whales.

Up to 40 males swim behind a single female at speeds of up to ten knots, each jostling to obtain a dominant position.

"It's the closest we're ever going to get to dinosaurs fighting. It's the largest battle in the animal kingdom and it feels like something out of Jurassic Park," says Dr Oakes.

Migrate to mate

Most humpback whales spend their summers feeding in polar regions.

During the winter, they migrate thousands of miles to warmer tropical waters.

While there is little food in the tropics, females move there to give birth, as the warmer water helps smaller baby whales better regulate their body temperature.

Males follow the females to the tropics, hoping to find mates.

To film the whales' heat run, the Life team travelled to the southern Pacific waters around the archipelago of the Kingdom of Tonga.

"In order to capture the sequence we had to film from a helicopter, a boat and from underwater," says Dr Oakes.

"Each of those was really difficult, and we had to get them all together. It was a big challenge."

Running the gauntlet

When a female humpback comes into heat, she alerts males by making sounds, such as slapping the water surface. She may also release scent into the water to signal her status.

"The males all gather around the female, she hangs there, and then swims away. That's when it kicks off," says Dr Oakes.

"It is kind of like a gauntlet. She swims away at speed and the males then fight for pole position directly behind her tail."

As they chase the female, the males escalate their conflict.

First they lift their bodies out of the water, slapping the bottom of their huge feeding pouches onto the surface. They also slap their long pectoral fins onto the water.

The males then vocalise loudly and blow bubbles underwater, a threat display among many marine mammals.

Listen to a male humpback whale singing at BBC Wildlife Finder

"When they blow these huge streams of bubbles, in this context it means there's going to be an almighty fight'," says Dr Oakes.

The males then start colliding, hitting one another and even jumping out of the water and onto rivals.

Considering that each male humpback can weigh 40 tonnes, such collisions must hurt, says Dr Oakes.

"It's a violent behaviour. So violent that there are records of males killing one another."

Underwater epic

Cameraman Mr Roger Munns filmed most of the underwater footage of the heat run for the BBC.

Mr Munns had to freedive whilst holding his breath to get shots of the whales swimming past him at speed, as the use of scuba tanks would disturb the humpbacks.

"We had to find the whales when they are on the heat run, which is hard," says Dr Oakes.

"Then we had to position the diving team in front of the charging pack of whales for them to have any chance."

"At one point I think Roger had the female and seven or eight males go past him. He said it was the most incredible experience of his life. Like standing in the middle of a motorway."

The "humpack heat run" is broadcast within the Mammals episode of the BBC series Life at 2100BST on BBC One on Monday 26th October.

See videos at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8318000/8318182.stm

(Submitted by Ted Oakes)

Humpback Whale Found In River Thames

7:17am UK, Tuesday September 15, 2009

A 28ft humpback whale has been found dead in the Thames - the first time ever that one of the creatures has been found in the river.

The young male was first spotted in the water on Thursday.

It was not seen again until it was found dead on Saturday morning near Dartford Bridge.

Initial examination suggests the creature may have died of starvation.

Scientists from The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) said its beaching was an "incredibly unusual event".

The last humpback to be found stranded in the UK was at Port Talbot in Wales in 2007.

The ZSL team carried out a post-mortem examination after the whale was recovered by the Port of London Authority.

The programme's manager, Rob Deaville, said: "Preliminary results indicate that it may have died as a result of starvation.

"There have only been 12 strandings of humpback whales in the last 20 years and this is an incredibly unusual event."

He added: "Although it's obviously a sad outcome in this instance, the post-mortem examination has given us a rare opportunity to examine a truly extraordinary animal at close quarters.

"Information gathered through examinations like these will hopefully help further our understanding of such animals and also help contribute to improving their conservation status."

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/Whale-In-River-Thames-Humpback-Is-Found-Dead-In-Water-Near-Dartford-Bridge/Article/200909215381374

See also: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/sep/14/dead-humpback-whale-in-thames

20,000 humpbacks start migration up Australia’s west coast

Western Australia wildlife officers prepare for a busy whale season
The annual migration of whales from Antarctica to warmer waters off Western Australia's northern coast has begun, and wildlife officers from the Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) are predicting a busier than usual whale season.

DEC senior wildlife officer Doug Coughran said humpback whales are now making appearances off the Perth coast, while southern right whales are moving along the south coast.

"Based on current science, more than 20,000 humpback whales will migrate to the State's north and some of these will be preparing to give birth," Mr Coughran said. "These whales should be a regular sight off the WA coast until the end of the year. We'll see humpbacks passing through Perth waters during June and July as they head north and then again from September as they return to their feeding grounds in Antarctica."

The 13,000 kilometres round-trip is made in small groups and humpback migrations were among the longest known in the animal kingdom. The west coast population migrates to the so-called ‘maternity ward' in the north of Western Australia is one of the largest and most successful recovering populations in the world.

"The reality is that as their numbers continue to rise, nature will need to take its course to separate the stronger animals from the weaker ones, in order to maintain a healthy population," he said.

Humpback whaling stopped in 1963

The whaling of humpbacks in Western Australia ceased in 1963 when the population was depleted to less than 500 individuals.

"To go from having less than 500 humpbacks on the west coast, to having more than 20,000 today is a spectacular wildlife recovery story," Coughran said.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/australia-humpbacks727.html

First humpback of the year has a near escape.

Just days after the first fin whale sighting of the season, RNLI crews successfully free a humpback whale entangled in lobster pot lines of Hook Head, Co. Wexford.

The first humpback whale Megaptera novaeangliae sighting of this years whale season, could have gone so disastrously wrong, as a 30ft humpback whale was found entangled in fishing gear east of Slade harbour on the east side of the Hook Head Peninsula yesterday afternoon 21st June 2009.

IWDG started receiving initial reports at around 15:45 on 21/06/09 from local IWDG member Deirdre Slevin, of a large animal caught in fishing gear. It was unclear as to which species of whale it was, or whether it was a whale at all, as a number of basking sharks have been drowned in fishing gear in recent weeks. The first verifiable sighting report on http://www.iwdg.ie/ from diver Sean Murray noted the “nodules” on its head, as these sensory lumps known as tubercles are diagnostic, they confirmed it was a humpback whale. By Monday morning 22/06/09 images were being forwarded to IWDG from Chris Maguire and anglers on board the charter boat, MV Orinoco which also confirmed its species.

Divers preparing for a dive observed the whale at around 14:00, and approached for a closer look. It became clear as it surfaced every five minutes or so for air, that what the divers thought was a large white fin was in fact a lobster pot line marker flag, in which the whale had become entangled. The coastguard were alerted and the Fethard inshore lifeboat was launched. After 3-4 attempts the lifeboat crew was able to get close enough to the exhausted whale to cut the rope from the tail-stock area and remove the string of pots it was carrying. On cutting the fishing gear free it gave two blows, submerged, and headed out to sea.

The images illustrate the wonderful work of the Fethard-on-Sea RNLI crew and the dive teams in assessing the situation and contacting the relevant authorities.
This is another conservation good news story from Irish waters, as humpback whale populations today remain at a fraction of their pre-whaling numbers, and many humpback whale populations remain critically endangered. Photo identification fieldwork carried out by the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) in recent years has resulted in an online catalogue of 10 humpback whales which are individually recognisable from unique patterns on the ventral surface of their tail flukes, which they lift majestically out of the water before taking a deep dive. This online catalogue represents an important contribution to the entire North Atlantic Humpback whale catalogue, as this charismatic species is very rare in almost all EU Atlantic waters. The majority of humpback images from Irish waters so far have come from the Waterford and Cork coast.
The Irish Humpback Whale catalogue can be viewed on the following link : http://www.iwdg.ie/iscope/sightings/photoID.asp?species=2103

This is not the first such incident reported to the IWDG in recent years. In August 2004 an adult humpback whale drowned in similar circumstances off Greencastle, Lough Foyle, Co. Donegal. While in Feb 2005 an exhausted humpback whale was photographed off Llandudno, Wales trailing fishing gear which could be traced back to a Donegal fishing boat. This bizarre incident showed that humpbacks can in the short term survive such incidents, but their long term survival is severely compromised by the sheer weight of the gear.

Humpbacks have a preference for hugging the coastline, and as such are favoured among whale watchers the world over. But within our shallow, productive waters there are a host of man-made obstacles which humpbacks have to negotiate on a daily basis. Some pay the ultimate price for this high risk strategy.

The IWDG would like to thank everyone involved in the actual rescue and for those who have taken the time to send their accounts and images to IWDG. In particular: Fethard-on-Sea inshore lifeboat/RNLI, Hook SAC, Sean Murray, Chris Maguire, crew and owners of the MV Orinoco, Walter Foley and Brendan Foley and local IWDG members. There are we’re sure many others we could name.

If you are on the water and think you have seen a humpback whale, they are identifiable by their powerful, bushy blow, nobbly bumps on their head and will occasionally lift their tail flukes out of the water before diving. The IWDG would really appreciate any images of these whales, which should ideally be taken from behind the whale while fluking, thus revealing the unique patterning on the underside of their tail-flukes.

Pádraig Whooley
IWDG Sightings Co-ordinator

Pictures Chris Maguire

http://www.iwdg.ie/article.asp?id=2270