Splash Autumn 2016

INSIDE!

AN INCREDIBLE ORCA ADVENTURE

MEET THE WHALES AND DOLPHINS YOU ADOPT

YOUR VERY OWN WDC ADOPTION MAGAZINE

AUTUMN 16

GAMES !

COMPETITIONS !

STORIES

STOP THE

!

W O SH

WHY BRITISH AIRWAYS MUST END ITS SUPPORT FOR SEAWORLD

Let’s make a

rld Just say no to SeaWo

H

i everyone. Would you like to get involved in an important WDC campaign?

We need your help to persuade British Airways, the UK’s largest airline, to stop selling tickets to SeaWorld. British Airways is selling family holidays that include SeaWorld tickets. It is supporting SeaWorld and profiting from the suffering of whales and dolphins in captivity. Most British people don’t think that whales and dolphins should be in tanks. Holding them captive for our entertainment is a cruel and outdated business. Turn to pages six to eight to learn more about our campaign, and find out how you can send your own personal message to British Airways to let them know keeping whales and dolphins in captivity is wrong.

In Amazing Tales we have good news to share. Hooray for our successful campaign to stop Georgia Aquarium in the USA buying wild belugas, captured in Russia. It has now announced that it will no longer buy any whales or dolphins caught in the wild. We are one step closer to ending this cruelty.

Finally, a huge HOORAY to everyone who took part in Charlie’s Cycle Challenge to help protect whales and dolphins. Thank you!

GALLERY

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hank you to Chloe, Ella, Louisa and the pupils of Canterbury Primary School for your brilliant artwork. We’re always excited to receive your whale and dolphin pictures and poems, so keep sending them to us by post or email at splash@whales.org

Chloe Woo

Our address is Splash!, WD C Brookfield H ouse, 38 St Paul S treet, Chippenham SN15 1LJ We’re sorry but we aren’t able to return your art or photo s

Ella Langford

Canterbury Primary School

Louisa Inglis

splash!

THE THINGS YOU DO

Charlie’s angels

Mairi and Mhairi

Orlaith and Sophie

Jacob and George

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Literally going the extra mile were Orlaith Kelly and n spring, WDC’s Adopt a Dolphin Field Officer Charlie Phillips set everyone a challenge – to get on your bike Sophie Lofthouse, two friends who ended up cycling a full 50 miles, a challenging bike ride by any measure! to help protect whales and dolphins! From Suffolk to We were also very impressed with Madeleine Herd from Scotland, you took on Charlie’s Cycle Challenge, and West Berkshire who did the challenge a little later but here are some of the great stories you’ve shared. managed to raise an incredible £255 from her bike The challenge ran from 1–10 April, and Jacob ride. In total everyone raised a fantastic £1,235 Chappell from Kirkby Stephen was one of for WDC. the first ones to complete it. Along with his A very big thank you to everyone else brother George, who came along who took part too – what a fantastic effort in support, Jacob cycled over 10 miles you have all made! We’ll leave the final through the impressive scenery of word to Charlie himself: ‘Well done to Cumbria. He raised an amazing £170 in each and every one of you who took on my support of ‘Rainbow’ and won Charlie’s challenge. The money raised will make a book On a Rising Tide.

Madeleine big difference to the dolphins, whose lives It was difficult to pick a winner as Mairi and welfare we follow closely here in Scotland.’

Mactaggart Dickson and Mhairi Crawford Read about all the dolphins in Charlie’s did equally well with their fundraising, so we Dolphin diaries on page 12 and on his blog at decided to give these two friends a well-deserved whales.org/charliesblog. If you would like to book as well. The girls cycled 10 miles around Loch take on a challenge for whales and dolphins too, Leven in Scotland even though the weather turned email us at events@whales.org on them, and they ended up soaking wet.

DID YOU KNOW?

Dolphins tend to have long beaks and cone-shaped teeth, while porpoises have smaller mouths and spade-shaped teeth Autumn 2016 SPLASH! 3

AMAZING

WDC / ALEX MITCHELL

TALES

WDC dolphin centre picks up top prize

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e are pleased and proud that WDC’s Scottish Dolphin Centre has won the Family Venue of the Year prize at the 2016 Scottish Hospitality Awards.

Centre manager Alison Rose said: ‘We are delighted to receive another award! Everyone loves to get a glimpse of the amazing dolphins that live in the waters of the Moray Firth.’

Balloon release banned

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he biggest celebration of the year in Gibraltar will no longer put marine life at risk.

Environmental campaigners have helped end a 24-year tradition of releasing thousands of red and white balloons on its national day in September.

Once the balloons float back down to the sea, they can be mistaken for food by many species of wildlife, including whales and dolphins.

When eaten, the balloons often block digestive systems and cause starvation. The string on the 4 SPLASH! Autumn 2016

balloons can also entangle, injure and kill individuals.

People and industry are polluting the oceans with increasing amounts of man-made debris such as plastic bags and balloons. This poses a big threat to our natural environment and Gibraltar’s decision is a very welcome, positive step towards turning the tide on plastic pollution.

Aquarium ends captures

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n a dramatic U-turn, Georgia Aquarium in the USA has announced that it will no longer buy dolphins or whales taken from the wild. Incredibly this same aquarium had, until recently, been trying to import 18 wild-caught belugas from Russian waters. WDC successfully campaigned to prevent this happening and when the courts in America ruled against it, the aquarium was forced to drop its plans. This is very good news!

DAMS TO BE DEMOLISHED

conservation and tourism communities to the event. Ásbjörn Björgvinsson, a longtime friend of WDC, introduced the concept of whale watching in Iceland in the 1990s. At the time some people made fun of his idea but since 2010 Icelandic whale watching has grown faster than anywhere else in the world, and 20% of tourists visiting the country now go to see the whales.

Trapped orcas rescued

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our orcas that were trapped in ice and shallow water in Russia have been rescued.

Two female orcas and a calf were freed first but a large male orca, who the rescue team had named ‘Willie’, remained trapped.

The team stayed with him all night to make sure he stayed upright and was able to breathe. Finally, at high tide, they were able to help Willie escape to deeper ice-free water.

Without help, the trapped orcas would have faced exhaustion and, ultimately, death by starvation or suffocation. Thank you for saving the orcas, Russia!

A LEIGH OGDE N

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e were delighted to host an event honouring 25 years of whale watching in Iceland.

It took place at the Whales of Iceland exhibition in Reykjavik’s Old Harbour area.

Surrounded by life-size models of the 23 species of whale and dolphin found in Icelandic waters, we welcomed guests from Iceland’s whale watching,

WDC / VICKI JAMES

Iceland celebrates 25 years of whale watching

fter years of campaigning

by WDC and environmental groups, the US government has signed an agreement to remove four river dams that have cut off natural salmon runs, which are the main source of food for critically endangered Southern Resident orcas in the Pacific north-west.

The Klamath River dams currently prevent water from flowing freely and means that Chinook salmon – the orcas’ favourite food and 90% of their diet in the summer – cannot reach the upstream freshwater spots where they lay their eggs.

The agreement says that the dams will be removed by 2020, opening up 420 miles of habitat for salmon that should help boost numbers. This is great news for Southern Resident orcas who are dependent on healthy salmon populations migrating freely between the ocean and rivers.

SPLISH SPL& ASH Autumn 2016 SPLASH! 5

FREE THE FORGOTTEN DOLPHINS Help save whales and dolphins in captivity by joining our campaign to stop British Airways selling tickets to SeaWorld

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DC welcomed SeaWorld’s announcement in March 2016 that it is no longer attempting to breed orcas in captivity, and the 29 orcas it keeps in featureless concrete tanks will be the last. Unfortunately, SeaWorld has not made the same promise to phase out captivity for the other 168 whales and dolphins held in its tanks, and they make up 85% of its collection.

The forgotten dolphins are 138 bottlenose dolphins, 15 belugas, six pilot whales, five white-sided dolphins and four Commerson’s dolphins.

Our next campaign goal is to stop British Airways, the largest airline in the UK, from selling trips to holidaymakers which include tickets to SeaWorld.

British Airways is currently profiting from the suffering of whales and dolphins who are literally dying to entertain people. Come on British Airways, it’s time to stop supporting this cruel industry – even SeaWorld has admitted it shouldn’t keep orcas in tanks. And we know that the forgotten dolphins face the same risks to their health and welfare as captive orcas.

6 SPLASH! Autumn 2016

WDC’s message is the same today as it has always been – please don’t buy a ticket or go to any marine park, zoo or aquarium that keeps captive whales and dolphins for entertainment As things stand, the forgotten dolphins will continue to be bought, traded, bred, manhandled, transported, separated from one another, fed dead fish, forced to take medicines, and perform pointless

circus tricks in cramped conditions, all in the name of ‘entertainment’.

In contrast, wild dolphins lead varied, unrestricted lives, which are full of choices and enriched by social relationships. Together they explore, travel, socialise, cooperate, learn, hunt, rest, give birth, look after their young and experience a variety of habitats.

They are aquatic mammals and so 80% of these activities take place underwater. In captivity, 80% of a dolphin’s time is spent floating at the surface looking for food or attention from their trainers who make all their choices for them.

After orcas, bottlenose dolphins are the species most people associate with SeaWorld – they star in its circus shows and petting pools. In the wild, these highly social, vocal and intelligent creatures live in a world of sound; keeping them in echoing, soulless tanks deprives them of just about everything that is important to them.

No wonder they suffer stress-related illnesses and die young in captivity.

The plight of captive belugas around the world is no less

Ask Ali

Can dolphins smell?

Asked by Martha, aged 7

D

olphins do have noses, called blowholes, but these are only for breathing. They do not have smelling organs or a special lobe of the brain needed for smelling, so they cannot smell. They do, however, have good sight and hearing. They can hear better than dogs and even bats. Using this excellent sense of hearing, dolphins can echolocate. They use echolocation to investigate their surroundings and find prey underwater.

GREMM

heartbreaking. In the wild these stunning white whales are perfectly adapted to life in the freezing polar waters of the Arctic. In captivity they’re kept in unnatural, uncomfortable conditions such as SeaWorld, Florida, and warm-water sea pens off the Mediterranean coast of Turkey. Despite repeatedly trying,

marine parks have failed to establish a successful breeding programme for belugas in tanks. Sadly, many calves have died, leaving grieving mothers behind. Meanwhile, the captivity industry searches for opportunities to boost beluga numbers in captivity by trying to buy wild belugas that have been stolen from their families.

To build a better future for the forgotten dolphins we need your help to stop British Airways selling tickets to SeaWorld.

Turn to page 8 to find out how you can send your own personal message to British Airways to let them know this is wrong.

DID YOU KNOW? Belugas have a layer of blubber up to 15 centimetres thick to keep them warm in the freezing Arctic waters.

Belugas are hunted by polar bears and are particularly vulnerable if they are trapped in ice and using breathing holes.

Autumn 2016 SPLASH! 3 7 Spring 2015 SPLASH!

TELL BRITISH AIRWAYS WHY YOU DON’T WANT TO GO TO SEAWORLD B

ritish Airways, the UK’s largest airline, is still selling family tickets to SeaWorld, where whales and dolphins are kept in small tanks and made to perform tricks to entertain people.

To help convince British Airways that it should stop selling tickets to, and supporting, SeaWorld, we want you to finish this picture of WDC Field Officer Charlie Phillips and some WDC supporters watching wild and free dolphins. You can finish it in any way you like, so get creative – you can colour, paint, use glitter or make a collage, for example.

Add your own message in the speech bubble about why you don’t want to go to SeaWorld and then send it to us. We’ll take all your pictures and present them to British Airways to show it why it should stop selling tickets to SeaWorld.

POST YOUR PICTURE TO… Ali @ Splash!, WDC Brookfield House, 38 St Paul Street, Chippenham SN15 1LJ OR EMAIL Info@whales.org

8 SPLASH! Autumn 2016

l Clark’s book, The One person will win a copy of Rache o print the winning Blackfish Prophecy, and we will als issue, so don’t forget picture and runners-up in the next back of yours! If to put your name and address on the , photocopy it or you don’t want to cut out this picture ales.org/bacampaign download it from our website at wh

To find out more about the many wonderful whale and dolphin species, visit WDC’s Species Guide at whales.org/ species-guide

COMMERSON’S DOLPHIN

WDC has been supporting research on Commerson’s dolphins for more than 20 years, making it one of the longest-running dolphin projects anywhere in the world.

Find out more at whales.org/patagonia

DID YOU KNOW?

WDC / NICOLA HODGINS

Commerson’s dolphins are highly social and are often seen with Burmeister’s porpoises, Peale’s dolphins and Chilean dolphins.

Did you know?

With their striking black and white patterning, Commerson’s dolphins are immediately recognisable. Calves are born grey, black and brown. This colouration turns to black and grey when they get a little older, and then lightens to become the distinctive black and white of an adult. Their maximum length is 1.7m.

Appearance

Commerson’s dolphins are very fast, active swimmers and they are often seen bow-riding next to boats, swimming upside down and even spinning underwater.

Behaviour

Commerson’s dolphins feed on small fish, crabs, octopuses and shrimps in kelp beds close to shore and near the seabed.

Feeding

You’ll find Commerson’s dolphins off the coast of southern Argentina, around the Malvinas/Falkland Islands, off the south coast of Chile, and around the Kerguelen Islands in the southern Indian Ocean (see map).

Habitat

Commerson’s dolphins are named after the French naturalist Dr Philibert Commerson, who first described them in 1767 while in South America. They are also known as piebald dolphins, black and white dolphins or skunk dolphins – because of their skin colouring rather than any bad smells!

Name

FACT FILE

Understanding orcas iter and author of a new wr ce ien sc , ist log bio , ark Cl el Meet Rach blackfish book that reveals the voice of the

R

achel’s debut book, The Blackfish Prophecy, is for older children and teenagers. ‘I was keen to write a book for my own children and their generation to read,’ she explains. ‘I wanted them to hear the orcas’ story and know the truth about what happened to them.

It’s not all doom and gloom though; it’s a story about love and connections, and it honours the deep bonds that exist between orcas and people.’

The three main characters are courageous teenagers. Terra is the daughter of marine biologists and feels a special affinity with orcas; she and her best friend, Tiluk, whose father is Native American, have grown up together alongside the wild orcas of Washington State. Miles is a troubled teen living in Florida who connects with Terra and Tiluk after he witnesses an orca kill his trainer during a show at an amusement park. In their desire to help the orcas,

10 SPLASH! Autumn 2016

the teens team up and take extraordinary risks to challenge the captivity industry.

Rachel has featured a number of true events in the book. She says: ‘I wanted to let people know about the shocking orca captures in Washington State in the US during the 1960s and 70s. What happened to those sold to the captivity industry? How did the broken families they were stolen from cope? After all, it is only when people are aware of the truth that they can stop these things happening again in the future.’

There is one particularly memorable scene in the book that is based on a true story. The teens plan something special for a family of orcas separated for years: they link them up in such a way that they can hear one another vocalise.

The result is both uplifting and heartbreaking in equal measure. It can leave no doubt in anyone’s mind that the right thing to do for all orcas still held in concrete tanks is to retire them to purpose-made retirement

COMPETITION!

RECORD BREAKER

Win a copy of The Blackfish Prophecy by answering the following question:

Q

What is a group of orcas called?

To enter, send your answer by post to: SPLASH!, WDC, Brookfield House, 38 St Paul Street, Chippenham SN15 1LJ. Or email your answers to: splash@whales.org by 30 September 2016

Orcas are the largest dolphin and fastest cetacean. They can swim at over 30mph in bursts to catch their prey

WDC / ROB LOT T

sanctuaries in the ocean and, whenever possible, reunite them with the families they were forced to leave behind.

There is a definite feeling of hope for the future and opportunities for people to do the right thing in this book. Rachel is optimistic about our ability to work together, learn from our mistakes and collaborate with other beings, rather than to try to dominate them.

This will certainly change things for the better!

The Blackfish Prophecy is available to buy at whales.org/shop

DID YOU KNOW?

Blackfish is the name given to orcas by Native American tribes in the US Pacific north-west region.

They are hugely important symbolic whales and the subject of many legends.

Fossil records show that orcas were swimming in Earth’s oceans for millions of years before humans evolved.

WDC / ROB LOTT

Orcas teach their young all they know, including their hunting skills and secrets.

In total, 45 Southern Resident orcas were taken from their families and shipped to marine parks.

Only one, Lolita (Tokitae), is still alive and she is alone at the Miami Seaquarium.

Tragically, 13 Southern Resident orcas were killed during attempts to capture them.

Autumn 2016 SPLASH! 11

Catch up with

Dolphin Diaries

e

By Charli s p li il Ph

I

ALL IMAGES: WDC/CHARLIE PHILLIPS

t has been a busy time here in the inner Moray Firth.

A good seasonal salmon migration is attracting bottlenose dolphins into the area.

I have been working hard to find each individual adoption dolphin.

As well as my own observations and sightings, I also rely on help from friends and colleagues the length and h breadth of the Moray Firth. Althoug in live bottlenose dolphins generally coastal areas, it’s easy to forget just how mobile they can be. I have reliable sources sighting dolphins many kilometres away from shore.

Thankfully, these bottlenose dolphins have their habits. If I watch and wait for long enough, often with bitten fingernails and a worried expression on my face, each of the six adoption dolphin stars eventually comes into range of my cameras.

I can record each dolphin as I find him or her and report back to you about what they have been up to, who they have been seen with and any interesting or exciting news.

I hope that you enjoy this update about your wonderful, wild and free dolphins – that’s the way all cetaceans should be.

Kesslet and her son Charlie say hello to a lovely old ship in the Kessock Channel near Inverness

Kesslet

Popular local girl

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esslet continues to be the most easily and regularly spotted of all of the adoption dolphins – she is so local in her habits and rarely swims any further than the Cromarty Firth to find

enough food to keep her going. Although her son, Charlie, is totally independent and has his own social group of friends, he still likes to visit his mum in the Kessock Channel and the area around the

Inverness Marina.

Kesslet is looking as lovely as ever. She has picked up a few rake marks around her dorsal fin and body, demonstrating that she does still mix with other dolphins.

Spirit and her youngest offspring at the back of a social group of dolphins close to Chanonry Point

Spirit

Becomes a granny

Cromarty Firth Chanonry

H IRT YF RA MO ER INN

Dornoch Firth Cromarty

Kessock Channel Inverness

Nairn

12 SPLASH! Autumn 2016

Spey Bay

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pirit was the last of the six adoption dolphins to return to Chanonry Point to visit me this year. It was great to see her and her youngster, who will be two later

this year, cruising past the beach.

Exciting news just confirmed too about Spirit’s older daughter, Sparkle – she did indeed have a baby last autumn, and that makes Spirit

a young grandmother.

This is great news and we are all so pleased. I’d love to get a photo of all four of them together (five if you count Shimmer) but that is going to take some doing!

friends

Find out how your adopted whales and dolphins are getting on Moonlight

Rainbow breaching at Chanonry Point – great to see her so active!

Giving fishing lessons

Moonlight hunting at Chanonry Point

M Rainbow

On the hunt again

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ainbow and her boisterous young son, Indigo, have already arrived back at Chanonry Point, looking healthy. Rainbow has picked up two broad but superficial light-coloured abrasions on the right side of her dorsal fin, possibly from rubbing up against something. They might not last for long,

as a dolphin’s skin repairs itself about ten times faster than humans’. Indigo is having great fun, hunting for fish by his mother’s side – she is an expert fisher and teacher. Indigo has a slightly ‘wobbly’ dorsal fin and it’s amazing to watch it vibrate as he pumps his tail up and down while he sprints after prey.

Mischief and a young friend near Chanonry Point with a tour boat in the background

Sundance

Showing who’s boss

S Mischief

Looking after the kids

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ischief seems to be happily cruising around the Inner Firth surrounded by youngsters as usual – almost being the crèche master, as it were.

But every now and again, he and his big buddy

Sundance go storming off into the distance at top speed and then there are huge fish being thrown around all over the place.

It’s great to know that Mischief is keeping his strength up and is looking as powerful as ever.

oonlight and her youngest calf, who will be two this autumn, arrived back in the Cromarty Firth at a similar time as they did last year. I’ve been enjoying watching Moonlight teach her calf all about catching fish in the fast tidal current at Chanonry Point. With a barely noticeable rush of water, Moonlight had her first huge salmon firmly in her jaws. She will encourage her calf to eat more solid food and rely less on her milk. I’m hoping that there is a good supply of salmon so that Moonlight and her calf stay around longer than they did last year.

undance has been kept on his toes, as there have been a few young pretenders around the Inner Firth recently. I have seen a bit of dominance behaviour going on from time to time.

I spotted Sundance leaping right over the top of young Conran a few times one day after a bit of charging around – a sure sign that he was

Sundance speeds through the waves chasing a fish

demonstrating that he’s still ‘top dolphin’.

He was also showing that from time to time Conran and some of the sub-adult dolphins need reminding of their place in the complicated social structure of bottlenose dolphin society.

Autumn 2016 SPLASH! 13

Orca Odysseys

By Helena Symonds & Paul Spong

S

igns of the climate crisis are everywhere these days. We know that we, and life as we know it on our planet, are in trouble.

Unprecedented deluges and the floods that accompany them, and an

atmospheric carbon dioxide meter that climbs relentlessly, tell us so.

So does the appearance of common dolphins in the Pacific north-west.

This species, which normally ranges through warm tropical oceans, has never been sighted in our waters before. It adds to the uneasy feeling we have about the oceans. Last year’s Climate Change Conference in Paris

Simoom

gave us hope for the future, and indeed there are signs of change.

The question remains, of course, whether it can happen fast enough to ensure a future for orcas.

Our fingers are crossed.

W

into Johnstone Strait we realised that it was the C6s, close relatives of the C10s.

Then came the surprise; we suddenly heard a few A1 (Simoom’s pod) calls!

The next day there was no evidence of Simoom’s family.

It was intriguing and left us feeling that eventually Simoom’s family will return.

hile we waited for Simoom and her family to return for the 2016 season, we had a hint they were on the way.

On 11 June, the C10 orca pod was near Port Hardy and they belong to the same clan as Simoom. This was the first sighting of the Northern Residents near this area.

We spotted orcas travelling south through Blackney Pass and when the whales came

ALL IMAGES: JARED TOWERS

Relatives are getting around

Bend

Fife

g spots Knows the best huntin

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ife and his family know where the best areas are to hunt fish and they return to them each year. Johnstone Strait is one such area, offering the whales a nearcertain feast. Historically, the

Holly

Heading south for salmon

14 SPLASH! Autumn 2016

Chinook have been an abundant resource for the whales but in recent years their numbers have declined.

Coincidently, the number of different orca families visiting the Johnstone Strait area has also declined. The whales have possibly been checking out other haunts. No sooner had we written these words than a report of Fife’s family came from a sighting off the central coast of British Columbia, not far away. They are getting closer!

H

Life and soul of the party

B

olly’s family has already been seen along the north British Columbia coast several times in the early spring.

On 3 June, they moved far enough south for our colleagues at Cetacealab to see them. There was lots of foraging that indicated the

end’s family, being part of the A1 pod, seem to have a significant role in overseeing the social summer scene.

We have come to expect them to arrive close to the beginning of the season, establish a routine and usher other groups to and from the area.

Bend, as a relatively new mother, is now a mature member of her group and as such will be very aware of the role her family plays in the summer social scene. She will be passing this on to her little one and any future babies she may have in the years to come. presence of tasty salmon. A good sign! Holly’s young ones, Current and Cameleon, were off by themselves while the rest stayed close to the Gil Island shoreline.

Such sightings usually indicate that the whales are starting their long trek south along the coast.

Humpback Headlines

By Regina Asmutis-Silvia

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ur North American office is in the midst of the busiest part of the whale watch season, with so many sightings!

The humpbacks returned to the Stellwagen Bank National Marine

Sanctuary in mid-June, instead of mid-May. We were befuddled as we could see lots of small schooling fish, but no whales to eat them. We know the humpbacks sometimes like to feed in the waters of the Great South Channel, east of Cape Cod, so we decided to investigate. We found more than 30 humpbacks using all kinds of feeding techniques, including

kick feeding, bubble net feeding and even lunge feeding! It now made sense as to why the whales had not moved north when they had a seemingly endless buffet where they were.

Reflection

Salt

eding Brilliant at kick fe

World’s best mum

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alt has been spotted in New England and brought her 14th known calf with her! This calf is Sriracha, as Salt’s calves are the only ones to receive names in their first year. In addition to Sriracha, Salt’s family has four other new arrivals! Her daughter Thalassa has her tenth baby, and her daughter Mostaza has had her third. Salt’s granddaughter Etch-A-Sketch has her second calf and Salt’s 11th-born, Sanchal, brought back her very first calf this year! This makes Salt’s immediate family 14 known children, 14 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

We hope that the females in Salt’s family continue to have calves every other year!

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reat news! We have already spotted Reflection during our early-season whale watch trip to the Great South Channel. She is easy to identify as she has a unique black and white pattern on the underside of her tail, and is an absolute expert kick feeder. Kick-feeding whales kick

the surface of the water to create disturbance which confuses small schooling fish, causing them to bunch together and making them easy to catch. We also saw Crisscross, Reflection’s calf from 2009, who was bubble-net feeding in a group, and Buzzard, Reflection’s older calf, born in 2000.

Pepper

ALL IMAGES: WDC

ills Passing on her sk

A

Midnight

inter ight for the w Putting on we

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idnight, and the rest of the Gulf of Maine humpback population, come to these waters to feed as much as they can during the spring, summer and autumn months. After the long winter relying on her blubber reserves for energy, Midnight is ready to put back on that weight and prepare

for next winter. She has yet to be sighted in New England, but we have no doubt that she is feeding nearby. The first females that we see arrive each feeding season in the Gulf of Maine are the juveniles, followed by pregnant females, females without a calf who are not pregnant – and then finally by mothers with calves.

s an adult female, Pepper migrates to the Caribbean to find a mate or to give birth to a calf in warm waters. She then comes back to the Gulf of Maine to feed, probably because it’s where her mum taught her to go when they left the Caribbean and how to successfully feed here. This is the place where Pepper has shown each of her 11

calves to feed. We know Pepper is a grandmother as her daughter, Habanero, has had three calves already. Pepper is very likely to have many more grandcalves as her sons will have mated with female humpbacks in the Caribbean breeding grounds.

Autumn 2016 SPLASH! 15

Fun factory Put your whale and dolphin knowledge to the test with these puzzles and brainteasers

BIG DIFFERENCE

Can you number these whales and dolphins in order of size, the smallest being 1 and the largest 4? See bottom of the page for answers

in se dolph Bottleno

ck whale Humpba

Orca

dolphin Hector’s

1. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 2. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 3. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 4. _ _ _ _ _ _ _

OCEAN SEARCH

Solve these whale and dolphin clues and then circle the answers in the wordsearch 1. Cold ocean where beluga whales live 2. Tiny crustacean eaten by baleen whales 3. Breathing hole on top of a dolphin’s head 4. Name for a baby whale or dolphin 5. Whale with a long spiraled tooth

L N C V G F N B L B R I L M L O I W S A T O G Y R X C B W C Y Z K T F H W K R H L B O N A F U A G L A H W R A N E L H V R Q M K

Did you know? In Vietnam, the Irrawaddy dolphin is believed to be sacred Editor Ali Wood SPLASH! is sent to all junior whale and dolphin supporters by WDC Whale and Dolphin Conservation, Brookfield House, 38 St Paul Street, Chippenham, Wiltshire SN15 1LJ Registered Charity No. 1014705 Tel 01249 449500 Email splash@whales.org Patrons John Craven; Monty Halls; Miranda Krestovnikoff; Michaela Strachan Published for WDC by Think Editor Alec Mackenzie Design Dominic Scott Sub Editor Andrew Littlefield Account Director Helen Cassidy Cover pic Sean Rodwell Cartoons Glen McBeth Think, Suite 2.3, Red Tree Business Suites, 33 Dalmarnock Road, Glasgow G40 4LA Tel 0141 582 1280 www.thinkpublishing.co.uk WDC cannot guarantee the return of unsolicited articles, photographs, etc. Reproduction of articles is not permitted without approval. Opinions expressed in SPLASH! do not necessarily reflect those of WDC. COMPETITION TERMS AND CONDITIONS: SPLASH! competitions are open to residents of the British Isles, Eire and the Channel Islands, except employees of WDC, Think and their families, or any associated companies. SPLASH! will not share your personal details with third parties. Only one competition entry per person. Winners will be the first correct entries drawn after the closing dates. The editor’s decision is final. Entrants to SPLASH! competitions must be 14 or under. No purchase necessary. No responsibility can be taken for entries lost or damaged in transit. SPLASH! will not enter into any correspondence. Winners will be notified and their names and addresses available on request. No cash alternatives will be offered. The winner may be required to partake in media activity relating to the competition. Congratulations to the following winners from last issue – Keira Findlay, Lawson Richardson, Maya Hussain – your prizes are in the post! Winners are picked at random from all correct entries. Remember to tell us what you think about SPLASH! by emailing splash@whales.org ANSWERS: Big difference 1. Hector’s dolphin 2. Bottlenose dolphin 3. Orca 4. Humpback whale

16 SPLASH! Autumn 2016