More about Minke whales of the Salish Sea This week a story was published in the San Juan Islander reporting an encounter with a minke whale accompanied by a newborn calf. We are happy to report that we, at the Northeast Pacific Minke Whale Project (NEPMWP) have identified the larger whale as an individual we call ‘Joan’ (after Joni Mitchell –she sang a song about circles, this whale made an impression on us by swimming in circles so it seemed only right to name it Joan).....** Reports of minke whales in the Salish Sea are always exciting, you are observing a whale that is rare in the NE Pacific. And reports of young whales are even more exciting as we hope that the population is growing. But it is very unlikely that Joan’s calf is newborn (as suggested in the recent news report) and is close to being weaned as evidenced by the time of year, size of the whale and the presence of months old cookie cutter shark scars. So if you happen to experience a minke mugging by a young whale this summer it might well be Joan’s young-of-the-year. In 2013 the NEPMWP enlisted the help of the public through a Citizen Science Project to keep track of minke whales in the Salish Sea. Contributors shared their photos, general locations and dates of when the whales were seen and we posted these to our website. We will be running this project again this season. To learn more about the common minke whale in the Salish Sea and to contribute to our 2014 Citizen Science Project visit our website at northeastpacificminke.org. The NEPAMWP conducts research under NMFS permits; all photos collected by citizen contributors are taken under compliance with the MMPA. Frances C. Robertson Wildlife biologist Northeast Pacific Minke whale Project Based in Vancouver, BC. **Please visit the link(e) below to read the full article, which is full of amazing Minke facts ~ thanks so much to Frances and to Jon Stern, for all their work on the Minke whales.
Posted on: Sat, 10 May 2014 02:56:07 +0000
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