Posted on Wed, Jul. 20, 2005

Humpback sightings off Morro are 'major success'

A marine scientist, part of a team studying whale populations, says he saw more than 50 of the ocean giants on a recent trip
By Kathe Tanner
The Tribune
Marine scientist John Calambokidis was awed as he observed more than 50 humpback whales frolicking off Morro Bay recently.
"We got ID photos on more than 30 of them," he said of the July 2 sighting. "It was one of our major successes."
Calambokidis is a lead researcher for the Structures of Populations, Levels of Abundance and Status of Humpbacks (SPLASH) project, the largest survey ever undertaken of humpback whale populations in the northern Pacific Ocean.
The federal National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration coordinates the West Coast survey with Cascadia Research, a nonprofit research organization founded by Calambokidis in 1979 in Olympia, Wash.
The research is helping marine scientists learn the whales' behavior and population.
"The group we see off Morro Bay mostly stays in Southern California feeding through the fall," Calambokidis said. "Some may progress up to Monterey Bay and the Farallones. Most of them winter off mainland Mexico or go down to Costa Rica and Panama."
What was different about the large pod off Morro Bay, he said, was how close to shore the animals were -- close enough to be visible from land.
"That's a new element," he said.
As part of SPLASH, survey teams follow the whales as they follow swirling schools of anchovies, other small fish and plankton.
Hundreds of researchers from the United States, Japan, Russia, Mexico, Canada, the Philippines, Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua and Guatemala work simultaneously in all known humpback whale-feeding areas in the north Pacific as part of SPLASH.
The scientists count humpback whales by, in effect, taking individual whales' "fingerprints" when they photograph the animals' unique tails or flukes.
By comparing photographs taken in northern feeding grounds with those from the southern breeding areas, the team can get a better population count.
Humpback whales were nearly driven to extinction before an international ban on whaling was adopted in 1964. They were listed as an endangered species in 1973.
"There is a substantial population of humpback whales off the West Coast of the U.S.," said Richard Spinrad, NOAA's National Ocean Service assistant administrator. "These studies will give us important information on how they are recovering ... and what threats they currently face."
Off the California coast, researchers in small boats primarily work in the Channel Islands, Monterey Bay, Gulf of the Farallones and Cordell Bank national marine sanctuaries.
Within a 10-day period, Calambokidis went from Long Beach to Crescent City, towing his 18-foot-long inflatable boat from one launching site to the next. "We were in seven harbors in 11 days," he said from Newport, Ore.
Other people spotted humpback concentrations in local waters over Independence Day weekend. Connie Jordan of Cambria was watching from her oceanfront home.
"It was extraordinary, very exciting," she said of the sighting. "I couldn't believe it. I couldn't figure out what I was watching. ... They didn't seem to be behaving the way our 'normal' (gray) whales do."
The more common gray whales don't breach (leap straight up out of the water) as often as the rarer humpback whales.