Humpback whales were commercially hunted from the late 1800s until mid-1960s, with an estimated 28,000 humpback whales caught in the northern Pacific Ocean, including BC's west coast waters.
What some call gentle giants, due to their seemingly peaceful nature, humpbacks have slowly increased their population numbers and have come back to the Salish Sea (Georgia Strait) and qathet waters. The krill-eating, 40-tonne sea mammals migrate thousands of kilometres in the spring/summer to feed and to calve in BC's west coast waters. Recently, humpbacks have been spotted near Lund and off the shores near Willingdon Beach.
Since 2015 filmmakers and naturalists Jude Abrams and Terry L. Brown have been on a mission to document humpback whales and understand how humans and whales can live together harmoniously. The couple networks with researchers and activists in coastal communities to share their citizen science information.
According to their website and blog titled, Welcoming Whales, "Our audiovisual stories of the whales inspire humans to act to ensure our local marine ecosystems thrive."
On July 16, Abrams and Brown presented an audiovisual journey of the return of humpback whale populations to local waters at Powell River Public Library.
"What we want people to know is that it's such a privilege to live here; we live on this amazing body of water called the Salish Sea, and it's an inland waterway that's been heavily impacted," said Abrams. "We don't have [enough] marine protected areas, and we take it for granted that this ocean is here for us."
An increase in marine traffic and vessel noise has been blamed for disturbing undersea wildlife, including whales and dolphins. Although the federal government has implemented new laws limiting the speed of marine vessels when in and around whales, noise pollution and entanglements from industry debris is still impacting marine life in a negative way.
Findings from a 2022 BC Whales scar analysis study revealed that 47 per cent of humpback whales in northern BC have suffered from and survived an entanglement.
Abrams is a musician and regularly records nature sounds while kayaking, sailing or hiking, and has used a hydrophone to record humpback whale songs. Abrams decided she wanted to go further with exploring underwater mammal communication and started playing music to ocean creatures after being inspired by Songs of the Humpback Whale, an album released by biologists Roger and Katy Payne in 1970.
"They are ambassadors of the Pacific Ocean, coming here from Hawaii, Mexico, the Philippines, Japan, Russia and Alaska," said Brown, about the humpbacks. "The mothers bring their babies, and so we have an opportunity to reconcile with them; we have a chance to resume a relationship that was not good 100 years ago, and we can change that now.”
Abrams said the humpbacks will respond to music.
"We're trying to communicate with them," she added.
Currently the couple is near Lund and want to get out to witness the return of the humpbacks to the region. However, their sailboat Blue Parrot is being repaired.
"Unfortunately, we haven't been out with the whales very much yet because of the boat repairs," said Brown. "There's been quite a few sightings right out in front of Powell River, so if people go down to the viewpoint or Willingdon Beach, they might see the whales. I think sometimes they like to put on a show for people, because they'll be breaching and doing all kinds of surface activity near shore there."
The couple has travelled and worked as guides in Baja, where Brown had a meaningful interaction with some friendly gray whales.
"We know people who have been out in a small inflatable dinghy when out fishing and a whale came right up to them," said Abrams. "They turned their motor off, pulled it up and the whale, [named] Eros, he's known for interacting with boats, went on his back, and he lifted the dinghy out of the water on his belly and swam around. The whale took them on a tour, and hung out with them for over an hour."
Brown said they haven't had that kind of experience themselves.
"I will chant like a didgeridoo in my voice, and we'll talk with the whales, and we don't know how much they can hear from above water underwater," said Abrams. "Listening to them breathe, that is my favourite thing.
“"That's our major thing this year, is communication. Can we communicate with each other?"
Over the years Abrams and Brown have observed whale behaviour, such as them playing with seaweed or noticing their body language.
According to space.com, in 2023 researchers from the SETI Institute, University of California and the Alaska Whale Foundation conversed for the first time with a humpback whale named Twain using an underwater speaker, and recorded a humpback contact call. Scientists are using this research to better understand how to detect and interpret extraterrestrial signals from outer space.
"Nobody really knows exactly what the songs are," said Brown. "They improvise and each individual sings differently; they're very creative. What I would like people to know is that every whale is an individual, like your dog or your cat.”
Brown said it wasn't until around 2015 that humpbacks began to return to what were their traditional feeding grounds in the Salish Sea. Although hunting humpbacks was banned in BC in 1966, the whaling industry took a major toll on the population, and it took more than 55 years for them to inhabit BC's coastal waters again.
As of December 2022, the Canadian government still designates the humpback whale a special concern status. The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) stated that: "Although the population of this baleen whale in the eastern North Pacific Ocean is recovering, it is not secure. Estimated rates of increase in abundance in BC waters during 2004 to 2018 are four to eight per cent a year, with an estimated abundance of over 4,000 mature individuals in 2018."
However, COSEWIC emphasized that the humpback whale population still faces several threats, including mortality from ship strikes and entanglement in fishing gear or debris, noise disturbance and toxic spills. COSEWIC indicated that one new but major threat to humpback whales is ecosystem change, due to marine heatwaves, which are projected to increase in frequency and intensity as a result of climate change.
"The whales were excavated from the Salish Sea," said Brown. "From 1905 until 1965 there was a major whaling effort, and they wiped out the local whales and the humpback did not stay here to feed any longer, but now they are here, so it's a real privilege."
For more information, go to welcomingwhales.com.
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