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The trials and tribulations of killer whale research – part 3

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And so at last to that final bullet point…

Being an object of sport for fast paced dolphins, while simultaneously navigating round humpback whales, testing an underwater camera and preventing an excited dog from falling overboard

Photo courtesy of Tony Thomas, Blue Ocean Whale Watch

Photo courtesy of Tony Thomas, Blue Ocean Whale Watch

Another day, another whale… Albeit not of the killer variety. Peggy, Cindy, Whiskie and I were out on a beautiful, sunny, calm day in the bay. Having spent a few hours scouting for orcas with no success, we heard on the radio that a whale watching boat had found a couple of humpbacks; some of the first to be arriving in the bay from distant ocean playgrounds. Monterey Bay is not a breeding ground for these giant hobos, but it is their equivalent of a favorite, abundant restaurant. The bay is a feeding hotspot and many species come here to fill themselves up. (Not that it has always been this way. Monterey Bay’s healthy diversity was almost destroyed by the fishing and canning industry in years gone by. Today it is a real, tangible, miraculous conservation success story… Reassuring to know that humans can instigate miracles occasionally.)

Photo courtesy of Tony Thomas, Blue Ocean Whale Watch

Photo courtesy of Tony Thomas, Blue Ocean Whale Watch

While humpbacks are not Peggy’s research subjects, she will collect photographs and data on them when the opportunity arises. As a novice boat driver, I asked Peggy to guide me as I steered closer to the whales to ensure I followed the correct protocols around them.

Photo courtesy of Tony Thomas, Blue Ocean Whale Watch

Photo courtesy of Tony Thomas, Blue Ocean Whale Watch

The humpbacks were busy doing what humpbacks often do; hanging out at the surface to breathe, diving down to feed and returning to the surface at intervals. For first time whale watchers, this mundane event can be quite a spectacle as humpbacks fluke when they dive, (i.e. stick their tales in the air to thrust their buoyant bodies underwater). But for us, a more fascinating view was to be found looking at the radar to see bait balls (tightly shoaled fish), both small and huge, appear as a fuzzy blur, and knowing that this was the feast that the whales were after.

In the midst of this relatively tranquil scene, some exciting newcomers were about to come flying out of the wings to take center stage… Pacific white-sided dolphins… Hundreds of them… Careening past at high speed…

Pacific white-sided dolphin, © Peggy Stap/www.MarineLifeStudies.org

Photo courtesy of / © Peggy Stap, http://www.marinelifestudies.org

I cannot give adequate words to describe the physical tremor of energy I feel whenever these dolphins are present. Whales are beautiful, huge and majestic… Killer whales are sleek, stunning and dramatic… But dolphins, especially these small, dart-like creatures, are so fast, so fleeting, so full bodied, that they move me in a far greater way. There is nothing to compare with seeing them in the wild; a screen of any dimension cannot convey the energy they give off. I have never met any other animal with the same overwhelming sense of firework-sparkle-dancing-aliveness as these creatures. There is something so abundant about the way in which they move through their fluid environment. As a dancer I see this movement resembling a spontaneous, glorious, joyfully improvised dance. And in the core of my body I sense a buzzing, tingling, expansive, limitless energy emanating from them. Us humans, apart from dancers and other physically engaged people, have all but lost the immediate, embodied joy that comes from moving in such a completely unrestrained, unselfconscious, freely flowing way. And what we have lost, we often cannot imagine existing in another creature and we cannot connect with the simple fact that Pure Joy can be found in the body, rather than in the head. My urge to leave the world of trapped-in-their-bodies humans and join these liberated-in-their-bodies dolphins is overwhelmingly strong when I see them moving in this way!

Photo courtesy of / © Peggy Stap, www.marinelifestudies.org

Photo courtesy of / © Peggy Stap, http://www.marinelifestudies.org

Peggy, Cindy and I were mesmerized with the fleeting glimpses of leaping dolphins passing us on all sides. And Whiskie… Well, she was at the bow of the boat greeting them enthusiastically. “Let’s follow their path”, called Peggy, “They might bow-ride with us!”

And with that came my most treasured memories of being in Monterey Bay this year. I turned the boat and maneuvered away from the humpbacks to follow the tracks of the dolphins as they headed SSW. Under Peggy’s direction, I increased speed while she stood at the bow with Whiskie at her side.

Photo courtesy of Tony Thomas, Blue Ocean Whale Watch

Photo courtesy of Tony Thomas, Blue Ocean Whale Watch

For a few gorgeously fantastic minutes we were as much at one with the dolphins as it is possible for three humans and a dog on a boat to be. Which I guess is not saying much really! But, to at least be travelling close to their speed, in the middle of a pod that stretched out around us in all directions, sensing their interest in us as they veered towards the boat to bow ride briefly before careering off again faster than you could think was possible, and catching sight, ever so briefly, of a glistening, curious, intelligent eye as it took a sidelong look at us in mid-leap… Exhilarating… Totally exhilarating!

Now, we might all know what that word means, and it may get overused in print, but stop for a moment and contemplate… How often, really truly, can you honestly say that you feel exhilarated? How many times a day, a week, a month or a year, is that word not an exaggeration of your emotional state? …Mmm, I wonder. Maybe for some of us it is more often than others, but there is one thing I am certain of; experiencing the natural world offers such mood-enhancing moments more than many other experiences in life… Although of course, being the strangely conflicted and complicated animals that we are, we often miss out on such offerings, choosing instead to make other experiences such as television, computers and material things more important. While those things provide distractions from our worries; a constant background static, that serves to numb our lack of joy, I do not believe they often provide a source of joy itself. But without doubt, a deep, true source of joy, exhilaration and contentment can be found in nature and in our body’s connection with nature. And when we disengage ourselves from the complicated, confusing, life-sucking traps we have surrounded ourselves with, we can connect with it, maybe only for a few fleeting seconds, but the replenishment and hope that such moments provide can sustain us for a lifetime.

Photo courtesy of / © Peggy Stap, www.marinelifestudies.org

Photo courtesy of / © Peggy Stap, http://www.marinelifestudies.org

Anyway, I digress. Exhilarating… And, kind of comical too. Cindy was desperately trying to record data while catching glimpses of leaping dolphins; being the data recorder can be a self-sacrificing role as you often miss the most spectacular bits of action, “Wow, did you see that dolphin do a double back-flip, front somersault, perfect dismount?” “What, again? No way, I was busy recording our GPS position!” I was steering, constantly having to adjust to the push of each wave, with one hand at the ready to slow the engine if needed. Peggy was at the bow experimenting with a new underwater camera, attempting to record a shot or two of the dolphins as they rode the bow wave in front of the boat. And Whiskie… Well, Whiskie was beside herself. I think dolphins must be her favorite cetacean; she certainly seems to get most excited whenever certain dolphin species are present. She was barking at them from the bow, running along the edge of the boat to bark over the side, running back to the bow and barking some more… Which is all very good for canine-cetacean-relations, as the dolphins seem to be as curious about her as she is about them, but not so good for general dog-health-and-safety. After an almost ‘dog overboard!’ moment, we reluctantly slowed the boat. At which point the dolphins carried on their way. They were still travelling past us on all sides, but we were no longer an object of sport for them. No speed, no game… They ignored us!

Risso's dolphin, © Peggy Stap/www.MarineLifeStudies.org

Photo courtesy of / © Peggy Stap, http://www.marinelifestudies.org

After that, the scene returned to a gentle state. We traversed a wide arc or two, attempting to lure a few more dolphins close, but then let them be as one last group of animals came gently lulling their way onto stage… Risso’s dolphins… A family group, with babies. “Breathe out, slow down, go with the flow, there’s no rush, enjoy a tranquil moment or two, chill man chill…” That is the feeling that these large, white, blunt headed, slow moving dolphins emanate to me. There can not be a much greater difference in state-of-being than can be seen between Pacific white-sided and Risso’s dolphins. If you ever thought a dolphin was a dolphin, then rethink! Although Risso’s can get frisky, (and I have witnessed some pretty fast paced and flirtatious interactions between the two species, as well as a Risso’s version of surfing), most often they exude calmness and a kind of languid ease. Meditative relaxation appears to be, at least from a blatantly humanized perspective, their forte. I would not be surprised to learn that Buddha had been a Risso’s dolphin in a previous life, thus giving rise to his future enlightenment in human form!

Risso's dolphin, © Peggy Stap/www.MarineLifeStudies.org

Photo courtesy of / © Peggy Stap, http://www.marinelifestudies.org

After that encounter, our day at sea drew to a close. We returned home happy even though we had not seen a single hint of a killer whale that day. And that marks the end of my accounts of assisting Peggy Stap of Marine Life Studies in Monterey Bay this Spring… But, I hope to visit her again next year to partake in another game of trials and tribulations.

For now, looking back on that day and the joyful-in-the-moment-tingling-aliveness I experienced, I fall once again into gently mulling reflections… It occurs to me that the greatest gift which Nature can bestow on us, its most unruly and delinquent of children, is the gift of Now. How many spiritual and life-coach gurus attempt to nudge us onto the path of being connected to Now; to this single moment in time rather than the projected future or completed past? It is, supposedly, one of the highest forms of emotional and spiritual intelligence to achieve such a connection to the moment, such a letting go of all desires, distractions and thoughts built up from our addiction to our egos, our past and future… To attain such a total immersion in Now-ness that it gives birth to the unique bliss of ‘being in the flow’… How strange then that, when quite probably every other creature on Earth bar ourselves is able to achieve and live in this state effortlessly, we cannot be graceful enough to credit their intelligence as being anywhere near our own, let alone superior. We have only just relatively recently gotten our collective heads around the notion that there are different types of intelligence in humans. Bless our cotton socks, (an English term of endearment, given with a gentle pat on the head), how much longer will it take us to collectively accept and appreciate that there are many other non-human types of intelligence, some of which far surpass our limited, cognitive abilities?

I wonder…

Photo courtesy of Tony Thomas, Blue Ocean Whale Watch

Photo courtesy of Tony Thomas, Blue Ocean Whale Watch

A nearly Christmas request…

For anyone who has enjoyed getting to know Peggy & Marine Life Studies either back in April/May 2011 or summer/autumn 2012, she is, as ever, in need of your support to continue her work. Please check the links below if you are willing and able to send a small donation her way…

A Gift that Gives
Birdies for Charity
Montery County Gives!
Donate a vehicle to MLS
Take it to the Streets

The trials and tribulations of killer whale research

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Can my memory stretch back that far…? Back to this April when I revisited Peggy Stap of Marine Life Studies (MLS), to assist her once again with her research in Monterey Bay, attempting to track down some enigmatic killer whales…? (Those smart and elusive animals that experienced spotters on the bay’s many whale watching boats often only find once in an azure-blue moon).

Well, in all honesty I will say that my memory is pretty appalling at best, but I will attempt to recapture the fragments that my leaking-boat of a brain still holds.

I was staying with Peggy for two weeks… Two weeks of intensive research… Out on her boat ‘Sweetpea’ every day on the hunt… Photographing dorsal fins left, right and center (the established method for identifying individuals)… Recording reams of written data on their behaviour, numbers, interactions with other animals… Slowly, slowly building up a network of data that on its own may seem insignificant but, over the days, months and years, becomes a valuable repository of information to be used as crucial evidence in some future moment of political or business decision making that may impact the lives of whales for better or worse… Important, scientific inquiry… Long, exhausting days at sea from pre-dawn to dusk, plus hours of imputing data into computer programs, processing photographs and establishing whale ID’s…

Well, that was supposed to be the general idea… Assuming that we could get out on the water… BUT, assumptions have no control over the weather or the ocean. (When have human assumptions, thoughts, wishes or demands ever convinced such powers of nature to obey?)

For almost a week of my two week stay we remained grounded on dry land. The wind blew and the waves in Monterey Bay frolicked in response; adorned with more gleeful, white tiaras of foam than I have ever seen in the bay, (more even than Peggy is generally used to seeing). We grew accustomed to the official sea reports displaying advisory warnings for boaters and we enjoyed the view from Peggy’s window; watching the waves run away to join the circus and come back to put on a show. We could but sigh wisely, nod our heads and acknowledge that this was just one more example of the complications and challenges of being a cetacean researcher.  And, with the amount of work which Peggy ALWAYS has lying in piles and on long lists all around her, the week was of course put to good use.

During our second week, providence saw fit to deliver a mixed bag of offerings, the highlights of which were:

  • Almost, but not quite, capsizing and living to tell the tale
  • Being rained on intensely, and for long periods of time
  • Chasing strange smells, oily slicks and elusive reports of killer whales hunting prey
  • Being an object of sport for fast paced dolphins, while simultaneously navigating round humpback whales, testing an underwater camera and preventing an excited dog from falling overboard
  • Briefly spotting three orcas, before inadvertently, but ever so quickly, losing them again

Let me elaborate…

Almost, but not quite, capsizing and living to tell the tale

Well, we almost made it out of Moss Landing harbor, certainly no one can say we lacked enthusiasm for the task. This was to be our first day out and we had Blue Ocean Whale Watch’s naturalist and MLS volunteer Kate Cummings at the wheel. The sea was still only just returning from the circus (and wondering what had gotten into itself) and we had heard some strange, curious warnings about the perils of Moss Landing’s harbor mouth… But we heeded them not. Peggy and I had spent several hours preparing gear ready to take to the boat and the three of us worked hard on stowing it all securely. Whiskie the Whale Spotter, the seasoned sea-dog that she is, was on the boat, wrapped up in her many layered outfit, ready to sniff out a few whales for us.

And all went well. For about the first five minutes. And then… It didn’t go so well after that.

As we turned the corner from the main harbor and out towards the harbor mouth, the waves being pushed and channelled in from the open water outside the harbor suddenly appeared to be rearing up in front of us, dauntingly and unexpectedly high. In that strange way that time often does backflips in moments like these, and even though Kate had slowed the boat almost to standstill as we questioned the wisdom of any attempt to exit the mouth, all at once we were right in the center of it, with the channel narrowed around us and the waves coming towards us, proudly presenting their highest and most powerful peaks.

And then there it was… Neptune’s moment of glory… A wall of water right in front of the bow and bearing down on us… Everyone grabbed hold of something, anything, and somehow Whiskie got herself to safety further back in the boat… Sweetpea climbed painfully up the blue-grey wall, and I remember wondering vaguely in frozen-brain state if she would flip over as she neared the peak, then the wave smashed onto us and was gone. In a second, the boat, us and Whiskie were drenched, and there was water filling the tiny deck all around us, with boxes of equipment that had been knocked from their carefully stowed positions floating pathetically in it.

And somehow we were now sideways on to the waves… A dangerous place to be… And the next wave was showing no mercy but heading straight towards us… If it hit the boat sideways it would most likely flip it, and us, over… But Kate was at the wheel and, although she was still new to captaining a boat, she kept her cool, gave some power to the engines and turned the wheel… Just in time. The next wave hit as we were almost perpendicular to it and we were carried, in a lurching-awkwardly-to-one-side kind of way, on its crest, like some virgin surfer having a miraculous moment of beginner’s luck, back in towards port.

And that was pretty much that. We were all in one piece. Kate was a hero. The boat was a complete mess. We were sodden and shaken. And Whiskie did not seem to care… So much for our day on the ocean, but that did not matter. We were alive and we had just been given a powerful lesson; never, ever, ever, not even in your sweetest dreams, be lulled into thinking that Life Is Safe. It is beautiful, it is a mystery, it is a miracle, and it may even love you… But the Promise of Life will forever also hold uncertainty, fear, pain, danger, death and decay in its outstretched, benevolent hand. Still, you know, always look on the bright side…

Being rained on intensely, and for long periods of time

A much simpler tale to tell, and far less dramatic. We did eventually get out to sea and we did have several days ON the water. However, we also spent some not insignificant periods of time, IN it too. It rained on us. Lots. And then some. Not every day, but on a couple of particularly sodden days, the rain really did seem to want to make up for the fact that it had left us dry on previous occasions. (Never forget… the distinct lack of obedience coupled with uncertainty held in the benevolent hand.)

Now, I enjoy rain. And I look back on those water-logged days with a kind of childlike glee. We had our ‘might save your life if you fall in the ocean, and should at least prolong it, but don’t wear to a fashion parade’ suits on, so we had some protection. But still, after a day at sea, we all managed to arrive back in port with water inside the suits, inside our boots, inside our gloves and inside our ears. Our make-up had given up, run down our faces and slid off onto the deck of the boat, and our hands took on that wonderfully endearing, wrinkled prune texture.

The PROBLEM, or should I say CHALLENGE, with the rain, was visibility. In dearest little Sweetpea, (and I should add that she is open to the elements on all sides), we can only see about three miles in any direction under the best of conditions. Low, grey, dark clouds, with rain hitting waves and casting spray, a breeze and anything greater than 1 on the Beaufort scale (used for measuring surface wave state), do not constitute good conditions. MLS‘s data sheet where the data recorder (sometimes myself, sometimes other volunteers) records various measurements, has boxes for, amongst other things: sea state, visibility and cloud cover. Visibility can be marked as EX, GD, FR or PR; it does not take much to decipher the short hand. On our most rainy day at sea, I was driving the boat while Cindy Thomas, who volunteers with both MLS and Blue Ocean Whale Watch, was recording data. So I cannot be totally sure, but I would hazard a guess that she entered PR for the majority of that day.

In short, during our rainiest days out in Monterey Bay, we did not see any killer whales. In fact, on one day I don’t think we saw any sign of life under the waves at all. We did however spend the eight or so hours faithfully scanning every inch of ocean, (with each person informally taking turns to assume responsibility for one patch of blue-green-grey-ness be that, bow, aft, port or starboard), talking in companionable good humor, dancing some must-get-warm jigs, wishing we’d brought bigger flasks of hot tea, and occasionally being brave enough to pull down our yellow/orange jelly-baby-suits to pee in not-quite-ladylike fashion over the back of the boat.

But now, this whale of a tale has miraculously grown legs and run away on them, so for the rest of those bullet points, (left dangerously hanging somewhere near the top of this post), I’ll have to complete them in my next post… And I’ll be very happy if you’ll be kind enough to come back and read them soon.

Laurie Murison’s top ten quirky whale facts!

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1. Sperm whales wear lipgloss! You know that squid are luminescent and glow in the dark, right? And you know that sperm whales eat squid? Well, sperm whales have been seen with glowing lips as if they are wearing squid-lipgloss! What is not yet known is whether this is an entirely unintentional consequence of their diet or whether the whales are harnessing their fashionable new look for a more serious purpose. “It is possible that they use their luminescent lips to attract and catch more squid. If a sperm whale hangs upside down in the water, the squid would see the light shining upwards and may swim down to investigate, thinking it is food or a mate.” And then of course the squid will become just one more mouthful for the pouting sperm whale.

2. Blubber (which lies underneath a whale’s skin) has more weird and wonderful properties than you might at first give it credit for. You can probably guess that it keeps a whale warm, helps with streamlining by ironing out any bumps, and can be used by the whale as food if absolutely necessary. But, you may not have known about its amazing elastic band properties. Blubber is stretchy and, just like an elastic band, if you stretch it out and then let it go, it will ping back into shape again. “When a whale swims, its tail propels it forwards by moving up and down. As the tail goes up, the blubber on the underside of the tail stretches, so as soon as the whale stops moving its tail up, the blubber pings back, pulling the tail back down with it. Blubber requires less oxygen than muscles, so having blubber to do half the work conserves oxygen.” Very useful for an animal that spends long periods of time underwater holding its breath!

3. Ever wondered why some whales majestically show off their tail flukes when they dive and some don’t? Well it’s because some whales are sinkers and some are floaters! “Have you ever noticed how some people tend to naturally float in a swimming pool and some people sink? With whales, certain species are naturally buoyant and others are not. Finback and minke whales, for example, are sinkers, so they do not need to throw their tail in the air before they dive. Humpbacks on the other hand are floaters, so they need all the help they can get. They have to make a real effort to dive down deep, so they throw their tail up to give themselves maximum thrust.” So if you ever go whale watching and want to see a whale’s flukes, make sure you choose a location where you can see a floater and not a sinker.

4. Different whale species sometimes hang out and play together. Last week in the Bay of Fundy, finback whales and Atlantic white-sided dolphins were doing just that. In one small area there were about three groups of fin whales with three groups of dolphins escorting them. The fin whales who usually dive for four minutes or more were only diving for about two minutes; matching the dive time of the dolphins. As they all came to the surface, the dolphins bow rode in front of the whales and the whales emitted loud trumpeting calls. “This was their equivalent of screaming in high-pitched excitement, they are not normally vocal, at least in the spectrum that us humans can hear them.” More and more whales appeared, manoeuvring themselves to join the party, and the dolphins completely ignored our boat as they were having so much fun with the whales.

5. Whales can mistake plastic for food and eat it, which may harm or even kill them. For example, a sperm whale was found dead after ingesting a weather balloon. Imagine swallowing a few plastic bags yourself… they may manage to make it through your body and come out the other end, or they may stay in your stomach, plugging it up so that nothing else can get in. “Helium balloons from Massachusetts, in the middle of the North American continent, have been tracked and found far out in middle of the ocean. Every simple little action can have huge consequences!”

6. There is more than one way to get a mouthful of plankton. Finback, minke and humpback whales eat plankton… So do right whales. But they go about it in a different way. The fin, minke and humpback whales are gulpers, or lunge feeders. “They take one big gulp of water and food, shut their mouth and then expel the water out through the baleen while retaining the food inside.” (These whales have baleen instead of teeth and they use it like a sieve; it allows water through, but not food.) Right whales on the other hand are skim feeders. “They swim slowly along, with their mouth open. Water and food enters through the front of the mouth where there is no baleen, then the water escapes through the baleen at the sides of the mouth, while the food remains inside.” In this way, skim feeders are able to feed continuously but can only eat smaller prey, as anything large like a fish would have the strength to swim right back out the front of their mouths. Lunge feeders on the other hand can on occasion go after larger prey such as herring. “Right whales can skim feed at the surface and underwater, just as lunge feeders can gulp at the surface or underwater. When eating underwater, lunge feeders only dive for 4-12 minutes gulping down big mouthfuls of food, whereas skim feeders stay underwater for up to 30 minutes skimming slowly and continuously along.”

7. A whale’s skin is quite peculiar. It is very thick (in right whales it is a centimetre thick!), so thick that if it were to lie horizontally like our skin does, the whale would not be able to feel touch or exchange food and waste products because its blood vessels and nerve endings would not be able to penetrate it. Instead, a whale’s skin lies vertically, like microscopic fingers hanging down. An added bonus to this structure is that it aids streamlining. “Water is rather choosy, it likes to travel in waves, and does not like to travel in a flat motion. The texture of the whale’s skin encourages the water to flow over it in a wavy motion.”

8. Toothed whales, such as dolphins and porpoises, have to learn from a young age to eat their fish the correct way. “Everything on a fish is designed for streamlining them in the water: try stroking a fish, you’ll notice that their scales, gills and fins only stick out if you stroke them backwards.” Now imagine trying to swallow a fish backwards… urgghh, yes, you might end up with a fish stuck in your throat and, if a porpoise does not learn the correct way to eat fish quickly, it may end of up with a throat full of choking-fish too!

9. Whales of today live in urbanised, industrial cities… Or at least, the ocean equivalent of urbanised, industrial cities. Their world is subject to noise pollution, chemical pollution, constant traffic, sonar and all sorts of crazy human antics. Even planes high up in the sky add to the noise level which they have to contend with. “When air traffic around the world was stopped on September 11th 2001, equipment measuring noise level in our oceans showed that they had suddenly gone very quiet indeed.” Unfortunately for the whales, they cannot call the anti-social behaviour police and complain about our actions. Instead, right whales are shouting louder than they did forty years ago to make sure they are heard. Research is in its preliminary stages to determine whether whales are currently suffering from stress, (which can be detected by measuring hormone levels). However, “Research already carried out on land has proven that animals living in urban environments are more highly stressed than their cousins living in natural environments”, so it would be reasonable to assume that whales of today may also be living with a higher degree of stress. Probably not very helpful for their sex drives which, considering they are still trying to recover from our past misdemeanours towards them, is a problem they could really do without.

10. Whales cheat! If you thought migration was a simple clear cut process, with whales moving from feeding area ‘A’ to calving area ‘B’ back to feeding area ‘A’ with everyone obeying the rules… then think again! “Whales in the northern Atlantic do not follow the rules. Whether they are a finback, humpback or right whale, they can do unexpected things.” A right whale, for example, might decide to pop over to Norway or the Azores for a few months, even though they have never been there before, and any males or females not involved in breeding and calving one year, may decide to stay in a feeding area such as the Bay of Fundy, or go on an excursion. “Right whales go walkabout sometimes, they might appear at Cape Cod or elsewhere in the Gulf of Maine, traveling their own little circuit.” You can never be completely sure where a whale may or may not pop up next, which of course makes the conservation of them and their critical habitats even more tricky.

From my experiences of Laurie I would say you can never quite be sure where she will pop up next either… One moment it may be on a whale watching boat, the next at a teenagers holiday camp, then at a lighthouse, and then maybe in the bathroom with a power tool in her hand… Laurie’s life is a constant, tremendously impressive, juggling act. And it is her supreme powers of multi-tasking which will form the subject of my next post about her…

Peggy Stap – her best bits!

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You may have noticed that every whale related job Peggy has ever done has been as a volunteer. Peggy calls it the “3 M’s method – Maui, Monterey and Michigan!” Whale research has been her passion and vocation, but it has never made her wealthy. I asked Peggy to tell me about her most memorable encounters from her love-affair with cetaceans and why these experiences make her feel like the richest person alive. She found it hard to answer, “I’ve been lucky enough to have so many amazing experiences, it is hard to pick some out”, but with a bit more begging from me here is what she came up with:

The first time that Peggy lived her childhood dream of swimming with dolphins was in 1998. She was asked by the Oceanic Society to work on their Spotted Dolphin Project in the Bahamas over the summer. Participants on the course were learning photo ID techniques. At the dive site Peggy was the first person in the water to check things out while the students were getting ready. She remembers the amazing sensation, part hearing, part feeling, of the dolphins echo-locating her, and listening to their various whistles and clicks. Then she had the good fortune to watch the dolphins at play. One dolphin found a piece of seaweed and carried it in its mouth, then flicked it to its pectoral fin, from there flicked it to its tail flukes and from there passed it to another dolphin. Peggy was exuberantly happy to be treated to watching a graceful dolphin equivalent of a football game.

Peggy remembers the first time she got really close to a Humpback whale while researching in Maui. On this particular day she was snorkeling with the whales, documenting their behavior on film. A Humpback chose to swim up from the depths straight to her till it was within two feet of her with one eye staring straight into hers. It then swam past her so close that its pectoral fin moved under her body as it passed her. Peggy remembers keeping the advice of another researcher at the forefront of her mind with the words “Do not worry, stay calm and stay still.” At the same time her own voice was calling out in her head, “I love you whale!” To this day those are the only words she has to describe this encounter as she was, and is, so in awe that any other words simply fail her.

While working one year for the Oceanic Society in Monterey Bay, a Humpback decided to mug the boat. ‘Mugging’ is the term given for a curious whale who approaches a boat to investigate. It circled the boat for a while and then played its own game with the people on board. It started on one side of the boat, with all the people hanging off that side looking at it, then it dived and resurfaced on the other side. Of course all the people ran to the other side… Then it dived again and resurfaced on the first side, and all the people ran back to that side… This continued for a while with the people on the boat looking like drunken sailors staggering from one side of the boat to the other and back again. Then finally, for the grand finale, the Humpback threw its tail up on the starboard side of the boat. For a glorious moment it sent its fluke arcing over the boat itself so that the people had to lift their heads to see it above them before it dived down and away. Everyone on board the boat, including seasoned researchers and naturalists, turned into little awe-struck children that day, giggling and smiling their way back into port.

Around 2005 Peggy was with a volunteer researching in the bay. Two Orcas were close to the boat with another one further away. The boat was stationery and Peggy was lowering the hydrophone into the water to record their vocalisations. She heard a “Kerplunk” and looked up to see the third Orca pop its head up ten feet from the boat. Then it disappeared again. Through the headphones she heard a “Ssshhh, sshhhhh” sound. What was making this strange noise? She gave a little tug on the lead and to her surprise there was a tug back. She tugged again and felt another stronger tug back. Suddenly she realised that she was engaged in a tug of war with an Orca. The Orca, with its inquisitive nature had come to investigate the hydrophone, taken it in its mouth and was now pulling it away from the boat. For a minute or two Peggy was worried it might tear the hydrophone from the lead, but a moment later it let go. For the next 45 minutes the recorder, which was accidentally left running, recorded an ongoing conversation along the lines of, “Oh my god, it had it in its mouth! What do we do now? Do we put it back in? What if it comes and grabs it again? Oh my god, can you believe that? I know, I know, that was incredible, it had it in its mouth!”

In 2010, Peggy was researching in Monterey Bay with new volunteers. They had spotted a Blue whale quite far from the boat but then it had vanished again. 45 minutes later they were sitting with the engine off and the hydrophone in the water, trying to locate Orcas by their vocalisations. Out of nowhere the Blue whale surfaced about 400 yards from the boat. Then it kept surfacing and circling round until it was heading straight for their boat. 80 feet of Blue whale headed straight for the stern of their 19 foot boat. By now, Peggy had got the video camera going and was thinking “Oh my god, oh my god, I hope I’ve got this in frame!” The volunteers experienced a mixture of awe and fear that the whale might ram the boat. Peggy had to “Sssshh” all their exclamations so she could capture the sound of its blow on the video. The Blue whale came within 10 feet of the boat and then dived giving them the best possible view of its magnificent fluke before it disappeared into the depths, never to be seen by them again. When Peggy later sent in the photo ID for the whale she learned that this particular individual had only ever been recorded twice before, in 1987 and 2006. Peggy says that this encounter still amazes her; it is the only time she has ever had a Blue whale come so close, it was just “unbelievable”.

In 2008, Peggy was in Maui assisting on the filming of ‘Humpbacks – from fire to ice’ by Ross Isaacs. Peggy was in the water when two Humpbacks approached. It was a female and her calf. The mum kept swimming towards Peggy and each time she did so Peggy tried to slowly retreat so as not to get between mum and calf. But at one point she could not retreat any further because of the positioning of her, the whales and the boat, so she lay completely still instead. The female Humpback swam close so that it was within two feet of her and parallel to her. The calf swam up to them both and decided it wanted to get close to its mum. So it gently squiggled and wriggled its way in between Peggy and its mum, making contact with Peggy while doing so, like a child climbing into bed between its two parents. As the calf nudged its way in, Peggy was gently rolled off to one side. While she certainly did not ‘fall to the ground with a scream and a shout’ (lyrics to a children’s song), she did cry a fair few tears of love and gratitude that day.

In all of Peggy’s encounters she has held strongly to the belief that you never reach out to touch an animal. It is their world and we are visitors; if they initiate contact then that is their choice but the choice should always be theirs. She says of swimming with dolphins, “You do not swim with them, they swim with you if they so choose. And if they do choose to do so, you are truly blessed.”

When I hear Peggy speak of her experiences, I have the greatest tingling sensation when she refers to them as, “Touching the soul”. Peggy has of course had many encounters with humans as well as cetaceans during her years as a conservationist. More about whether or not those experiences have also touched her soul and what she thinks about humanity’s role on this planet next time…

Peggy Stap – her present day life with Marine Life Studies

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Finally we arrive at the present day! In 2006, after Dan Salden suggested that Peggy apply for her own permit to study whales, Marine Life Studies was born. In the years since, it has become an independent organisation staffed entirely by volunteers. Today, the organisation’s work encompasses three strands: research, conservation and education.

Here is a mini-tour through each strand…

Research

Peggy’s research focus is Killer Whales and she is fascinated by them. She is especially keen to study interspecies interactions, the prey preferences for different sub-groups of Orcas and how they utilise different areas in the bay. Peggy loves, absolutely loves, being out on the water photographing and collecting data on the animals. The photographs are used to create ID’s of individual animals. The accompanying data creates a picture of where in the bay the animals are, what their behaviour is and what interactions are occurring.

A researcher has to love sitting for long stretches of time in front of a computer analysing photos. Peggy gets completely absorbed in this task; she can spend an entire evening till gone 2am working on the 500+ photos she may have taken on any given day. She will become exuberantly excited over the dorsal fins in particular photos, exclaiming things like “Ooh, I think that may be CA 39!” (Researcher speak.)

Marine Life Studies shares its data with anyone who wants it. In particular Peggy shares it with other Orca researchers. In this way it is possible to see, for example, that an Orca pod generally resident to a particular part of west coast USA sometimes visits another part of the coast. Data and hydrophone recordings are shared with organisations and researchers writing scientific papers. Peggy is also keen for college students to use her data as the basis for their own research projects.

Conservation

For us normal folk, a question on our lips could be “What is the point of research? Does it just satisfy the needs of academics wanting to study something for the sake of it or does it serve a greater purpose?”

The importance of research in the context of conservation is that it supplies a piece of the puzzle which, when added to other pieces of the puzzle, enables effective conservation measures to be established. As Peggy says, “Research gives us a baseline measurement on which to measure things against. It tells us what the general trends are over time, whether the abundance of certain animals is on the increase or decrease, what food sources different animals depend on etc. Management strategies based on data are likely to be more successful than those with no baseline data.”

A specific conservation project which Marine Life Studies has been instrumental in establishing is W.E.T – Whale Entanglement Team. Prior to 2006 there was no formalised team operating within the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. Marine Life Studies began working towards establishing one in autumn 2006. Peggy wanted to create a coordinated team, with appropriate training, tools and boat, and a freephone number for the public to report animals in distress. In spring 2008, the first training was given and by spring 2009 a toll free number and public response card had been set up.

Education

Marine Life Studies carries out several educational programs with adults and children. The ‘Junior Research Scientist’ program focuses on educating children. Peggy and her volunteers work with children from local schools and the Boys & Girls Clubs. The children learn basic research techniques on land and then apply these techniques at sea on a whale watching boat.

Peggy strongly believes that understanding is crucial to help us protect our oceans:

“I hope we can give adults and children the opportunity to experience whales and dolphins in the wild and to be a part of their world. I was lucky enough to be given that opportunity. The more that people have the chance to know and experience the ocean first hand, the more environmental stewards are likely to be born. We have to help people see that the small things they do in their lives, like whether they use plastic bags and balloons, can make a huge difference.”

Dreams and challenges

Having accomplished so much in so many different areas, I asked Peggy what dreams she still has for Marine Life Studies. Not surprisingly she has a few:

She dreams of… having a coordinated whale entanglement team covering the whole western coast of USA. At present different areas have their own teams which are not linked together and do not have a unified phone number for the public. Peggy thinks it is particularly important to form a coordinated team to deal effectively with whales which migrate up and down the entire length of the coast.

She dreams of… being able to spend more days at sea. She currently spends between 20-50 days a year at sea, so her research constitutes a “very small piece of the jigsaw puzzle”. Peggy wants to spend 130 days per year at sea, and have a bigger boat which runs on biodegradable fuel, has an inside where you can get warm and dry, and a loo. At present her tiny research boat has no cover from the elements and no toilet; quite a challenge when you are spending up to 12 hours on the water zipped up tight in an all in one waterproof suit.

She dreams of… having more people to run the many jobs on land. In particular, she believes strongly that the organisation’s educational work must develop. For this to happen she needs to be able to pay for a full time education coordinator.

She dreams of… one day handing over Marine Life Studies to the next generation of conservationists. She is after all 56 years old and, although she has the energy of a 20-something, there may come a day when she has to slow down and spend some time relaxing with her husband.

There is so much that Marine Life Studies has accomplished and wants to accomplish in the future. When I asked Peggy what the main challenges were to achieving this the answer was obvious, “Money and manpower”. It is an unavoidable fact that every aspect of the organisation’s work requires financial resources. At present Peggy is lucky to have a pool of people willing to donate their time to her for free, but at the end of the day she is still personally attempting to do the work of ten people. Peggy has never applied for funding to pay herself and is not concerned with doing so. She would however love to have the resources to pay others to work for her full time, allowing her to spend her time out on the ocean where she feels most at home.

And that wraps up this post about the work, challenges and future ambitions of Marine Life Studies.

Next time: Peggy’s best bits! (or, her most memorable moments from her incredible life at sea…)

Peggy Stap – from Maui to, almost, now

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“Somehow it all weaves together… Maybe life offers a path that is meant to be…if I had not taken those opportunities presented to me, then what?… I met the right people but I also worked hard… Life sometimes hands you a golden moment and then you have to make it come to fruition… Dreams can come true if you work hard and stay positive…” – Peggy Stap’s musings on her life as a whale and dolphin researcher.

From 1996 until today Peggy has lived a life which she considers to be her dream. Amazing chance meetings helped this dream come true but without Peggy’s stubborn, positive dedication the dream would not have born fruit.

When Peggy flew to Maui with her mum in January 1996 she was still mourning the loss of her dad and “bawling my eyes out” every day. But on Maui she had encounters with Humpbacks which completely changed both this and the course of her entire life for the next 15 years.

Peggy and her mum went out whale watching on the Lin Wa II, a charming old Chinese junk with underwater windows, and the Lahaina Princess. Peggy remembers trips where they saw Humpbacks surrounding the boat, breaching right next to the boat, rolling around, slapping their pectoral fins against the water and “getting up to all sorts of antics”. She especially remembers looking through the underwater window to see a mother and calf looking up at her through the glass. On her last day whale watching, Peggy had the distinct feeling that the animals were saying “Aloha” to her.

Peggy was completely blown away by these encounters. She was enthralled by what she saw. She felt like “Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz when she first walks into the castle… Words cannot express the feeling… I was so drawn to them, they touched my soul.” These animals sparked an inner light in her. The sheer, childlike joy and wonder of her encounters replaced her sadness with magic and a sudden definitive wish to become a cetacean researcher. In that moment she would have stayed on Maui if she could; she wanted Dick to bring the cat and dog and move there immediately.

But, of course, she had to return home. Her first words to her husband on her return were “I wanna move to Maui and do whale research!” In response, Dick hung his head and shook it softly with the reply, “Whatever you want…” Peggy thinks he was so relieved to see her no longer crying every day that he would have agreed to anything.

Peggy began to research how she could pursue her new dream. She gave herself the modest timescale of five-ten years to work her way in to this very new world. She wanted to study a degree course in marine biology but there was not one in existence at the university near her, so instead she sat in on a class they offered. She remembers the other students, after having just eaten lunch, sitting with sleepy heads and disinterested attitude, while she sat leaning forwards from her chair with eager enthusiasm.

She phoned Debbie Ferrari, a researcher she had heard about on Maui, to enquire about volunteering. Debbie was not recruiting volunteers but recommended Peggy contact Dr. Dan Salden, director of the Hawaii Whale Research Foundation. Peggy duly emailed him but received no reply. A friend of Peggy’s told her about the Oceanic Society in Monterey Bay. They ran week long courses which students paid to go on and learn research techniques. In autumn 1996 Peggy went on the course and “stood out from the crowd”. On completion, the head researcher invited her to help as a volunteer on future trips. Peggy sent her CV and arranged to work for them the following autumn.

In January 1997 Peggy went to the ‘Whales Alive’ conference on Maui. There she was inspired by such figures as Flip Nicklin, Jim Darling, Paul Spong and Linda Weilgart. She had her CV in hand in the hope that she could give it to Dan Salden. While there she went whale watching on the Lahaina Princess. She recognised the female captain; it was the same one as when she had been to Maui the previous year. Peggy remembered that she had taken photos of her so, in her usual friendly way, Peggy got talking to her, offered to send her the photos and told her why she was on Maui. To Peggy’s surprise the captain, Jill Mickelsen, responded “Why don’t you give your resume to me, I’m the secretary treasurer of the Hawaii Whale Research Foundation.”

Peggy’s jaw dropped to the floor! What a startling coincidence. What’s more, Jill arranged for Peggy to meet the director of her whale watch company. He was interested in having a volunteer onboard his trips doing opportunistic research and interviewed Peggy for the job. She got it, but had to wait until the following January to start her research.

She returned to Michigan to work, then in autumn 1997 she volunteered with the Oceanic Society and in January 1998 she returned to Maui for 11 weeks to carry out the research. One whole year later in January 1999 she returned to Maui again, with her research data complete. She had correlated all photo’s and data in detailed and organised fashion and handed it in. She thinks this was the moment when Jill took her seriously. Up till now she had the distinct impression that she was undergoing a test to determine whether she was a “screaming tourist or deeply serious”.

Then came the fateful day (one of many) on the whale watch boat with Jill. Peggy had her CV with her in the hope of handing it to Dan Salden at the end of the day. At midday, the whale watch boat met Dan’s research boat to throw his team their lunch. Peggy asked “Is it OK if I put my resume in with the lunch?” Jill agreed and as lunch was thrown from one boat to the other she radioed Dan to say “There’s a little something extra in the lunch today for you to look at!”

And that was that. Dan called Peggy (yes, at last!), arranged to interview her and offered her a volunteer post with the Hawaii Whale Research Foundation. Peggy worked with them for ten years, spending about three months on Maui every year. In the autumn of each year she worked for the Oceanic Society in California and for the rest of the year she was in Michigan working in the landscaping business which her husband ran (in 2000 she sold her own business to him and worked as an independent contractor for him).

If Peggy had not gone to Maui in 1996 none of this may have happened. If she had not taken Jill’s photograph and then met her again, none of this may have happened. But most importantly, if she had not persevered this remarkable journey would certainly never have happened. It took Peggy three years to finally get Dan Salden to look at her CV. It took her own individual effort as a lone researcher on the whale watch boat on Maui, and a year of collating the data, to get herself taken seriously. It took a deep conviction that this was the right path for her and that she must not give up.

In 2006, at Dan’s suggestion and under the umbrella of the Hawaii Whale Research Foundation, Peggy applied for a permit to run her own research in Monterey Bay, California. And with that came the beginnings of Marine Life Studies.

But more about that next time…

Awesome Orca’s all round

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Peggy and I are conducting research on commercial whale watching boats. Peggy has her own research vessel but with rising fuel prices and the costs involved in making the boat sea-worthy, she cannot afford to put it in the water. She had a choice; she could afford to take the boat out in the spring OR the autumn, but not both. She chose the autumn as she has collected less data for this time of year so needs to balance her research. This is the everyday reality for a conservationist; a lack of funds means difficult decisions must be taken regularly and life cannot always be as one would want. Peggy’s absolute first love is to be out on the water with the animals and she would spend 90% of her time at sea if she could. But often she may only get 10% of her time at sea with the other 90% being taken up on land carrying out education work, fundraising and other organisational tasks.

However, a mere lack of funds and dedicated research boat will not stop us getting out there and doing the research. Luckily, Peggy has an excellent relationship with most of the whale watch operators in and around Monterey, so we are able to go out on their boats several times a week. We may only get a few hours at sea rather than a whole day and cannot get as close to the animals, but we can still collect a wealth of data and photographs for the photo ID catalogue (used to identify individuals).

Now I have to tell you about the encounter we had this Wednesday but firstly I must give a mention to Monday. Monday was my birthday and we were welcomed on board Monterey Whale Watch’s boat ‘Princess Monterey’ owned by Benji Shake and captained by Leon Oliver. My birthday presents that day included seeing a pod of Risso’s dolphins and two groups of Humpbacks, with some spectacular breaching (where the animal propels itself out of the water) and fluking (where the animal dives and shows it’s tail, or flukes, as it does so), followed by flowers and dinner from Benji, and cake from Peggy. A lovely day all round.

But now, onwards to Wednesday. We were invited to join Naturalist Kate Cummings and Captain Jim Davis on Blue Ocean Whale Watch’s boat ‘High Spirits’.

We were hoping for Killer Whales, or Orca’s as they are often known, as these are the main focus of Peggy’s research, and Peggy had made a wish that morning to come across a group close to the boat. The transient Orca’s (transient meaning they are not resident here but roam over large areas of ocean), can enter the bay throughout the year but spring is a particularly good time to find them. At this time they are in the bay to hunt female Gray Whales and their calves. The Gray Whales are migrating through the area from Baja California in Mexico, where the mothers have given birth to their young, to their feeding grounds in the North.

This would be my first ever encounter with them, if we were lucky enough to find them, and they were a species which I had a secret wish to see close up. Well, we found them and had what turned out to be one of those rare encounters that happen once in a deep blue moon.

I’ll give you a running commentary version of events:

We are about 40 minutes out of port when Kate spots what she thinks are going to be Humpback Whales up ahead. Ten minutes later as we draw close it becomes apparent that these are not Humpbacks but Killer Whales. Suddenly there are Orca’s seemingly on all sides. They are spotted in front, then to one side, then further off to the other side. How many? Hard to tell at this point. They are moving purposefully in different directions, porpoising through the water, (leaping the waves to create less friction and travel faster). They are on the hunt, although hunting what exactly we cannot tell. Are they chasing multiple prey? Have they already corralled one victim away from a group or its mother to play with it before the kill? We keep watching, not fully aware as yet of the significance of the unfolding drama.

We have counted at least seven Orca’s by now with males, females and calves, but there are probably more as they have split off in different, disorientating directions. Up in front the action becomes more lively, with one or more Orca’s going into attack mode, leaping out of the water and crashing back down, possibly lunging on their prey, although the prey is still not visible to us. The breaches out of the water where the Orca’s entire body flies through mid-air for a flash of a moment are spectacular and draw stunned gasps from everyone on the boat. Then there is a split second moment where one adult Orca leaps and while in mid-air I glimpse something just ahead of its mouth; it has to be the prey. In that moment, Peggy and Kate are snapping away on their cameras with no idea of what image they may capture. Is this the actual moment of the kill, or was the victim already dead? Is it a Harbor Seal or Sea Lion fated to be their feast this day? We do not know, but I am aware of opposing feelings of thrill at having witnessed such a spectacle, gladness that the Orca’s have food to eat and empathy for the doomed victim.

After this climactic moment their behaviour changes. The pace slows, there is some general milling about with Orca’s popping up on different sides of the boat. Are they relaxing after their frenetic activity? Who is eating the kill? We do not see the prey being eaten so will never know if the calves are the ones to feast on this day. We do however have the privilege of seeing an adult Orca spyhop twice right in front of the boat (sticking its head directly up out of the water to take a peek at whatever is around; in this case us). In this moment their character appears different to us; from sleek, fast, determined, professional hunter to playful, inquisitive, multi-focussed and aware creature. (Although our human interpretations may be meaningless to these beautiful animals whose intelligence and consciousness are so different from ours.)

Their behaviour shifts again as they set off travelling in one clear direction, moving sometimes at the surface and then diving for a few minutes before resurfacing again further ahead. We hear that another boat about three miles ahead of us has also been with a group of Killer Whales. Have the two groups been communicating? Is our group now travelling to meet the other group further out in the bay? We follow the pod as they maintain their direct line of travel, by now we know there at least 11 individuals, but maybe more, with at least two males in the group, (mature males have much taller striking dorsal fins than females and immature males). Somewhere along the way, the group splits with some heading off southwards and the others west; whether any of them meet the group further out in the bay remains unknown to us as it is now time for our boat to start heading back to port.

All in all, we spend over an hour with this pod of Killer Whales and everyone is exuberantly happy, if a little exhausted, from the excitement of the experience. And I would say that none are more happy than Kate and Peggy who know better than anyone how rare and fortunate an encounter this has been

That night, Peggy sat in front of the computer going through over 500 photos from the trip. It was only now that we discovered in amazement that she had a picture of the actual kill. Now we could see that the prey was not a Seal or Sea Lion at all but was in fact a Harbor Porpoise.

… Or so we thought. The following morning, when looking with less tired eyes and comparing with Kate’s photos, we were able to determine that it was not a Harbor Porpoise but a dolphin of some kind.

…Species as yet unknown.

For more photographs look at Blue Ocean Whale Watch’s photo page!