Splash! Winter 18

INSIDE!

THE LONGEST WHALE MIGRATION

GAMES !

FUN FACTS !

MEET THE WHALES AND DOLPHINS YOU ADOPT

YOUR VERY OWN WDC ADOPTION MAGAZINE

STORIES

S A E P E LIK IN A

POD

READ ABOUT THE NARWHAL WHO WAS ADOPTED BY BELUGAS

WINTER 18

Let’s make a

Keep on colouring in!

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huge shout-out to you, our remarkable supporters! Once again, you have shown us what a committed and talented bunch you are. We are impressed by the ingenious ways you raise money to help WDC. We’ve highlighted some of your stories on the opposite page to say ‘THANK YOU’.

We really appreciate you supporting our ‘Save New Zealand Dolphins’ campaign and sending us your colourings-in. We are collecting them to take to New Zealand’s Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, to show her how much young people care about these unique and endangered dolphins – and to tell her that she needs to take action to save them. If you haven’t completed a picture yet, please download the outline here: whales.org/nzdolphinsheet. Just add your name, colour it in and send or email it to Splash!

We have some great news in this issue. Both Rainbow and Kesslet have gorgeous new babies. Read all about them on pages 12 and 13.

Finally, discover a super easy way for you to help WDC: you can choose to give the gift of freedom to whales and dolphins instead of receiving presents at your next birthday party – have a look on the back page.

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GALLERY

hanks for your excellent artwork and poems, we love receiving them.

Please remember to include your name on any drawing or poems you send. Post them to us, or email them to splash@whales.org

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

Elliot McMinn

Clockwise from bottom left: Arun Verma (6) Hope’s sister, Isla, with mermaid Grace Walby (11) Dolphin poster by Edward Macmillan

Save New Zealand dolphins Right: Well done, Leonard!

Above: Talulla (12) Right: Sam (6) Far right: Rufus

COVER IMAGE: GROUP FOR RESEARCH AND EDUCATION ON MARINE MAMMALS (GREMM) WHALESONLINE.ORG

splash!

Going the extra mile

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THE THINGS YOU DO

e are so proud of our young WDC supporters. Here we want to thank those who have gone that extra mile to help whales and dolphins. You have achieved some inspiring and wonderful things. Whether you have walked, cycled, swum, baked or made things to raise money for the whales and dolphins that you love, we are truly thankful and very impressed by your enthusiasm and hard work.

Well done Ryan and his beautiful dog, Dylan, who together put their best feet and paws forward and walked a phenomenal 100 miles in Scotland. Ryan raised an incredible £740.34 for WDC. Thank you boys!

Vera May ran a stall at her school’s summer fair. Vera and her mum worked hard to make lavender whales, dolphin keyrings and whale-shaped biscuits, which Vera sold on her stall and raised £66 for WDC. Your arts and crafts are beautiful, Vera.

Brothers Finlay and Jacob completed an amazing 100-mile sponsored bike ride for WDC and have raised a whopping £825.50.

Thanks both of you so much for helping whales and dolphins.

Beluga bake-off

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ur star bakers this time are Eilidh and Lottie-Anne.

Eilidh Armour (8) organised a beluga bake-off for WDC. With the help of family and friends, she raised £75 for whales and dolphins.

Doesn’t Eilidh’s table full of bakes look tasty?

Lottie-Anne (9) baked these cute homemade beluga cakes and sold them to raise money for WDC.

Premier plungers

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Little Noah Dwyer is only four years old and has already raised an incredible £200.80 to help whales and dolphins!

He completed a tough, uphill, seven-mile sponsored walk and sold cakes at his nursery. Excellent work Noah!

Ben Parsons

ell done and thank you to our BIG Splash swimmers.

Ben Parsons (7) swam 122 widths of his local pool and raised £80 for WDC. Holly adopter Billy Robinson (6) from Chichester more than doubled the £50 target he set for his BIG Splash Swim, raising an incredible £101.50.

Laura Turnbull (9) and mum Fiona swam 60 lengths together and have raised a big £531 for WDC. Laura adopts Rainbow and said she felt like she could keep swimming even further!

Billy Robinson

Laura and Fiona

DID YOU KNOW? Like humans, whales can’t drink salt water. They get all the moisture they need from their food instead Winter 2018 SPLASH! 3

AMAZING

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young male narwhal, 1,000km (600 miles) from his Arctic home, appears to have hit the jackpot: he’s been adopted by a band of belugas and has lived with them for three years now.

Researchers used drones to film them and the grey, spotty narwhal can be seen swimming and playing in a pod of

nine or 10 white belugas, just as if he was one of them. Can you spot him?

They all swim closely together, near the surface of the water, rolling and rubbing against one another. The narwhal appears to have been fully accepted by the belugas as one of their own – he even blows bubbles from time to time, which is typical beluga behaviour.

Belugas and narwhals are very social species, and in this case the belugas have welcomed a narwhal in need.

New Zealand dolphin campaign

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MIKE BOSSLE Y

he High Court in New Zealand has reversed the decision to allow mining to take place in the West Coast North Island Marine Mammal Sanctuary, which was established to protect critically endangered Māui dolphins. New Zealand dolphins are split into two subspecies – Māui dolphins and Hector’s dolphins.

WDC is running a campaign to save both subspecies. We plan to show New Zealand’s

Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, that children want her government to do all they can to save these special dolphins.

Please add your support to this WDC campaign by sending your ‘Save New Zealand Dolphins’ colouring-in (get yours at whales.org/nzdolphinsheet) to splash@whales.org

It’s a good example of their ability to show care and compassion for species other than their own.

Whales are truly special!

Hooray for Thomas Cook!

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DC is very happy with holiday giant Thomas Cook. The company has decided to stop selling their customers entry tickets to marine parks that hold orcas in captivity.

The parks include SeaWorld in Florida and Loro Parque in Tenerife.

We’ve been working closely with Thomas Cook, advising them about the suffering of whales and dolphins in captivity. We have our fingers crossed that other travel companies will also help us stamp out captivity for whales and dolphins. These creatures should be wild and free, not performing silly tricks for entertainment and profit.

GROUP FOR RESEARCH AND EDUCATION ON MARINE MAMMALS (GREMM)

Narwhal hanging out with belugas

WDC BELUGA SANCTUARY UPDATE Wild dolphins learn from each other to ‘walk on water’… but it’s just a fad

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queak and Tullula are among the nine Australian dolphins who learned from one another to ‘tail walk’ in the wild. It all started when a wild dolphin known as Billie was rescued from a polluted creek and spent several weeks in a dolphinarium before she was released back into the wild.

During Billie’s short time in captivity she could see and hear captive dolphins having to perform tricks in the commercial shows. When Billie was returned to the wild, some time later, she began to perform the tail walking trick

she had witnessed in captivity, which is not a natural behaviour in the wild.

WDC researcher Mike Bossley tracked the rise and fall of this activity, as other members of the wild dolphin community copied Billie and learned to tail walk. It has turned out to be a fad though, as it seems tail walking is now dying out.

Sometimes cultural behaviours thrive and are passed down over generations.

Fads, on the other hand, are short-lived, socially learned behaviours, which flourish for a short time and then disappear.

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he beluga sanctuary construction site in Iceland is now a hive of activity. The anchors are going into the seabed for securing the netting and pontoons, which are needed to keep the belugas safely in the bay. We are also busy designing exhibition panels for the visitor centre that will tell the story of Little White and Little Grey, the first belugas to live in the sanctuary.

Meanwhile, in China, the belugas are being prepared for the conditions that they will face during their long journey to Iceland. We’ve also received very welcome support from Cargolux, one of Europe’s largest air cargo carriers and an expert in the safe transport of wild creatures.

They have donated the flight for free!

WONDERFUL BABY NEWS

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e have great news from the WDC dolphin adoption programme in Scotland.

Both Rainbow and Kesslet have had a baby this year.

This is Rainbow’s fifth baby, making her a super-mum! Rainbow’s older sons are called Prism, Raindrop and Indigo – sadly her very first baby didn’t survive.

We don’t yet know whether her new baby is a boy or girl.

Kesslet’s newborn baby was only a couple of hours old when WDC Field Officer Charlie Philips spotted her for the first time. This is the youngest dolphin baby he has ever seen, and the wee one was still wrinkly and uncoordinated.

Over the following days Charlie watched the baby get used to life at sea beside her lovely mum. He even took this wonderful photo of her underside, which is how we know she is a girl.

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VERSION REPRO OP

ONE OF A KIND

SPOT THE DIFFERENCE

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There are 11 different types of fish below, but only one species is unique – can you spot it?

Can you spot the 12 differences between these two pictures of narwhal buddies?

ART PRODUCTION CLIENT

QUICK QUIZ What species of whale has befriended a pod of belugas?

Here’s a test to see how well you’ve read this issue of Splash! If you can’t remember the answers, then simply take a look through the magazine Bowhead whales break through ice with their…

A. tail B. flipper C. head

What’s the name of the grey whale that holds the record for the longest migration by any mammal?

SPLISH SPL& ASH 6 SPLASH! Winter 2018

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

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Fun factory

Fun factory

DID YOU KNOW?

A bowhead’s head makes up about a third of the total body length, which in adults can be up to 20 metres

CLIENT

WHALE DATA

PRODUCTION

Length: Up to 20m Weight: 90,000kg Diet: Krill and copepods, which are small crustaceans

ART

Known range

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BOWHEAD WHALE

REPRO OP

Bowheads are endangered and there are only between 7,000 and 10,000 left alive today. Commercial whaling was the main cause of their catastrophic crash in numbers. Current threats include Inuit whaling, climate change, entanglement in fishing equipment and collisions with ships.

Conservation

Bowheads are named after their steeply arched upper jaw and mouth, shaped like an archer’s bow.

They are baleen whales that live in the Arctic all year around.

Their favourite meal is krill or copepods and they also eat small fish.

They are slow swimmers, and grow slowly too.

Using their heads, bowheads can smash through thick sea ice.

They are noisy and enthusiastic singers.

Fun facts

These mammoth whales are the ultimate record breakers. They have the thickest blubber (up to 60cm, or 2ft), the thickest skin, the largest head and mouth, the longest baleen, the longest lifespan (over 200 years), and they sing the greatest number and assortment of songs of all whales.

Record breakers

Bowheads are born during springtime, among heavy sea ice in the freezing Arctic seas. Adults are enormous – they can grow up to 20m long and weigh over 90 tonnes. Bowheads are black and chubby and don’t have a dorsal fin. They have a white chin patch and wide flippers.

What do they look like?

FACT FILE

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BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

91SPHNOV18104.pgs 06.11.2018 13:46

Fact file

n w o r u o y w a r D conclusions Colin Drysdale has written a book about Scottish dolphins that encourages readers to fill in the blank spaces with their own amazing drawings. Here we ask Colin what inspired him to write the book, and find out about his favourite species

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n his new book Scotland’s Dolphins, author Colin Drysdale asks you to draw all over it! He’s deliberately left space on the pages to encourage you to contribute your own pictures and become the illustrator. This new activity book is endorsed by WDC and is full of fascinating dolphin facts – so you might want to add it to your Christmas list!

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As you know, the WDC adoption dolphins are bottlenose dolphins, but did you know there are six other species of dolphin regularly spotted in Scottish waters? In Colin’s book you’ll find out all about them, and why dolphins live in groups, what they eat, who their predators are, how their babies keep up with mum and why they gather in superpods.

Are whales and dolphins special?

Yes, I think whales and dolphins are special, and they inspire us to learn more about the sea and to care for it.

In fact, they’re perfect ambassadors for the whole marine environment.

What inspired you to want to study whales and dolphins?

I grew up by the sea, listening to Scottish folk stories about sea serpents, silkies (mythical seals that can turn into people) and kelpies (water spirits that can turn into horses).

As I got older, I realised that real sea creatures were even more amazing than these mythical ones.

Out of this grew my love of all things marine. Almost as soon as I learned that we have bottlenose

dolphins and orcas in Scotland, I wanted to study them.

Do you have a favourite species of dolphin?

Given that I spent about 20 years of my life studying beaked whales I’ll always have a soft spot for them, but my all-time favourite species is the white-beaked dolphin. They’re inquisitive, lively, beautifully patterned and always remind me of Scotland, because they were one of the first species I ever saw when I started working with whales and dolphins.

Unfortunately, they’re also at risk from the effects of climate change and have already gone from some of the areas where I used to see them.

Why did you decide to write this children’s book?

That’s easy. After so many years studying whales and dolphins at sea I really wanted to pass on some of

the incredible things I have learned about them, and to help inspire children to love them and want to protect them.

WHERE TO GET THE BOOK You can order your copy of Colin’s book by visiting the WDC online shop: shop.whales.org

COMPETITION

To be in with a chance of winning one of three copies of Colin’s book, answer these two questions: Q. What type of whales did Colin study for 20 years?

Q. What does Colin Drysdale want you to do to his new book on Scottish dolphins?

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 21 December 2018.

UPDATE ON MARINE PROTECTED AREAS FOR WHALES AND DOLPHINS IN SCOTLAND

WDC first proposed protected areas for whales and dolphins in Scotland back in 2011, because we felt strongly that better protection was needed. We’ve been campaigning, carrying out field research and coordinating public whale and dolphin sighting efforts ever since. Now, we’re feeling very excited because the years of hard work have finally paid off. The Scottish government has announced that it will create protected areas for Risso’s dolphins and minke whales and you, our brilliant supporters, have played a big part in this success story.

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b a l g n i n r Lea All about migration

Discover why whales migrate and which species travel furthest

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igration is not only for birds, caribou and wildebeest.

Many baleen whales are impressive migrators too. The question is why do whales travel so far?

Some whales routinely migrate thousands of miles each year, commuting between cool, productive northerly feeding areas and much warmer waters closer to the equator, where they mate, give birth to their babies and nurture them.

So, the colder waters are ideal for finding plentiful food supplies, needed to satisfy big whale appetites – plankton blooms produce areas rich in krill, copepods and schooling fish – but the warmer waters provide better protection for breeding and raising babies.

The only way to take advantage of both is to migrate annually between the two.

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The champion whale commuters include grey whales and humpback whales. They swim between 4,000 and 5,095 miles (6,400 to 8,200km) each way, when going back and forth between their favoured cold-water feeding grounds and their warm-water breeding grounds.

Some humpback whale populations have been found to journey even further than this, swimming between Antarctic waters, where they feed, and breeding sites in Colombia, Panama and Costa Rica. This is a round trip of up to 7,000 miles (11,300km).

The longest whale migration, and the longest migration recorded for any mammal, was by a grey whale named Vavara. Scientists tracked the female grey whale, as she swam a round trip of 13,988 miles (22,511km) in 172 days.

She migrated between the east coast of Russia to grey whale breeding grounds in Mexico and back again.

The longest whale migration, and the longest migration recorded for any mammal, was by a grey whale named Vavara

Amaze your friends

Fantastic flipper facts

Ask Ali WHO WOULD WIN IN A FIGHT BETWEEN A DOLPHIN AND A SHARK? Asked by Dylan, aged 9

Three dolphins in flipper contact with one another, under the sea

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ave a look at this illustration of the bones inside a dolphin flipper – isn’t it remarkable? You can see the five ‘fingers’, and it looks just like a human hand.

Even though human arms and dolphin flippers appear very different on the outside, our limbs have remarkably similar skeletons. This is one of the indicators that reveal how whales and dolphins evolved from a four-legged land mammal.

Whales and dolphins use their flippers for touching one another, steering, balancing and stopping in the water.

Flippers come in all shapes and sizes – some are long and thin, some are wide and paddle-shaped, some are knobbly and others are pointed.

This is one of the indicators that reveal how whales and dolphins evolved from a four-legged land mammal

DID YOU KNOW? Another name for flippers is pectoral fins

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harks and dolphins generally avoid each other, because if there was a fight between a healthy shark and a healthy dolphin, each would have a good chance of winning.

There is no doubt that dolphins are sometimes attacked by sharks, and many have bite scars to prove it!

If a shark is able to sneak up on a dolphin and injure it then it has a good chance of winning.

The main advantage dolphins have against shark attacks is safety in numbers. They stick together in pods and defend one another from a shark attack by chasing and ramming the shark. Dolphins work hard to protect vulnerable members of their pods and extended families, such as young dolphins and injured or ill dolphins.

They use their strong snouts as a powerful weapon to ram sharks, targeting their soft underbellies and gills to cause injuries and scare them off.

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Catch up with

DOLPHIN DIARIES

By Charlie Phillips

Cromarty Firth River Beauly

Chanonry Point

H IRT YF RA MO ER INN

Dornoch Firth

Cromarty Burghead Kessock Channel

River Ness

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Spey Bay

Moonlight

Me and my Shadow

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oonlight has three children – Lunar, Mellow Yellow and her youngest son, four-year-old Shadow. Moonlight and Shadow recently came sweeping into calm water very close to me on the beach at Chanonry Point. They were with Moonlight’s friend Chewbacca and her youngster, and one of the big lads, Denoozydenzy. These five dolphins

Moonlight bow-riding alongside the Equinox

held their position in the flowing water beautifully, giving me a great opportunity to film and photograph them. After five minutes or so they decided that they would have a look for salmon somewhere else and headed back out into open water.

I spotted them again a few weeks later.

Moonlight was storming along, bow-riding beside a boat.

Charlie’s fantastic photo of Kesslet’s new daughter

Kesslet

A mum once again

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esslet has a brand new baby – the youngest dolphin I have ever seen! I spotted Kesslet and her newborn near Inverness Harbour, just a few hours after the birth on 1 September. The teeny baby was still wrinkly and creased, and her dorsal fin was curled over just as it would have been in

Kesslet’s womb. I saw them again on 13 September, and can now confirm that the baby is a girl.

Feeding on Kesslet’s rich, fatty milk, she is growing and becoming stronger every day. We’re all hoping that she will survive her first winter, as Kesslet has previously lost two babies at this risky time.

ALL IMAGES: WDC/CHARLIE PHILLIPS

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n the social life of the Moray Firth bottlenose dolphins, few things are as important as having babies. Late summer and early autumn are the busiest times of year for new babies to appear beside their proud mums.

Bottlenose dolphin pregnancies last for at least a year and then, once born, that little bundle of joy is reliant on mum for thick, rich milk for about two years.

Mothers teach their youngsters how to catch fish so that they are able to move on to solid food.

It can be another two or three years after this before mum might be ready to give birth again.

So, on average the female dolphins here in the Moray Firth give birth every five years. Birth rates are slow, and every single baby is precious.

friends

DAVE JEFFERSON

Spirit keeping close to her youngster

Find out how your adopted whales and dolphins are getting on

Rainbow and her newborn baby

Spirit

Lots of sightings this season

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other of four, Spirit, has been very kind to me this season by coming into the Chanonry Narrows not just once but three times with her youngest baby (born in 2017) and her four-year-old youngster, Sprite.

All three are looking in great condition.

They were travelling with a group of friends, including one of Spirit’s older daughters, Sparkle, whose own youngster looked very relaxed and at ease as they cruised along, barely making a splash in the water.

I had another lovely encounter recently out on the water with Spirit, her baby, Sprite, Mischief and around 20 other dolphins. They swam near enough for me to take some fantastic photos.

Mischief

Larking around

Rainbow

Expanding family

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ainbow gave birth to her fifth baby at the end of August this year. It is six years since her youngest son Indigo was born and he is now a strapping young lad. Indigo is more independent these days and is often away with his young pals. No doubt he will be popping by to say ‘hello’ to his little brother or

Mischief still likes to play with younger dolphins

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ischief has been dipping in and out of Chanonry for short visits and then heading back out to sea with friends. This could be because the salmon run has been a bit hit-and-miss again this year. I did have an incredible glimpse of him one day, just as I was getting out of my car in the Chanonry car park.

He was hammering along, past the old slipway,

heading for Chanonry Point and then beyond, out to sea. A week later I saw him larking around as usual in Rosemarkie Bay – he seemed to be having a breaching contest with a much younger dolphin.

sister. We also regularly see Prism, Rainbow’s eldest son, in the Inner Moray Firth area and expect him to visit his mum and the new baby too.

It will be fascinating to see whether this baby dolphin shares the unusual feature that Rainbow and her sons have: a jaw that is slightly longer on top than it is at the bottom.

Sundancees

r clu Looking fo

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e still don’t have any confirmed sightings of Sundance, I’m sorry to say, but I’m hopeful that he has just wandered off for a change of scenery in search of fish. This late part of the season is when we study in detail a lot of the photographs of dolphin dorsal fins taken by researchers working throughout the Moray Firth and beyond. I’m just hoping,

Still no sign of Sundance

with my fingers firmly crossed, that Sundance’s unique and big dorsal fin will show up in one of these photos. We will let you know as soon as we get any Sundance news.

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ORCA ODYSSEYS

By Helena Symonds & Paul Spong

Fife

Simoom

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SHARIANA MANNING

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HELENA SYMONDS / ORCALAB

Bend

Glamorous granny

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end’s family was the first to swim into Johnstone Strait last season. They were accompanied by Fife, Surge, and Springer’s families. It was an action-packed season 14 SPLASH! Winter 2018

male and the much younger Hope. Sometimes Echo and Hope’s dorsal fins dwarfed Simoom making it difficult to see her at all! Simoom’s family were the last we heard leaving Johnstone Strait at the end of the busy summer season; we listened to their beautiful calls fade off into the distance.

with orcas coming and going and Bend’s family seemed to be in charge of co-ordinating everyone’s movements and social activities. Bend’s younger brother, Klaoitsis, is maturing and so his dorsal fin is “‘sprouting”’ and become taller. Sadly Bend’s mother, Clio, has lost her baby (born in 2016). However, the family still has twelve 12 members altogether because Bend’s auntie Minstrel has had a new baby.

ife’s family spent less time in our area over the social summer months than they usually do. We wonder whether the severe injury to Eliot’s (Fife’s nephew) back, due to an earlier boating accident, may have contributed to them deciding to stay away during the busy times. Fife was also much calmer than he was the season before when he boisterously visited groups of female orcas. This change in Fife’s family’s behaviour may have led to them splitting from their once constant companions, Surge, and his nephew, Cordero.

SHARIANA MANNING

One big happy family

Streaking ahead

hen super-mum, Simoom, now 44 years old, and her family returned last summer, Kaikash, a lone older male from another family who had joined them after the death of his brother, was sadly no longer with them. Simoom often sandwiched herself between two of her sons, Echo, an adult

chinook numbers in recent years is threatening the orcas’ future. To save fish-eating orcas, we have to protect the salmon and allow them to recover their numbers.

Holly

Dizzying days

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e listen all year round for Holly and her family in the Johnstone Strait and Georgia Strait areas as she likes to return here during the winter. In the middle of the busy orca season, we were delighted to see that Holly’s 14-year-old daughter, Current, had her first baby. It is rather unusual to see a newborn at this time of year and so this was a lovely surprise. Holly is 49-years-old and no doubt she is a very proud to be a grandmother.

Holly’s family spent a few days with Simoom’s family before heading north again.

SHARIANA MANNING

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oth the lives of the threatened Northern resident (less than 300) and the endangered Southern resident (74) orca communities of western Canada are dependent

on eating chinook salmon, the biggest and fattiest salmon species of all.

Orca families follow the salmon migration down the coast each spring and summer and then return north when the feast is over. The continuing reduction of

HUMPBACK HEADLINE

By Regina Asmutis-Silvia

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ur humpback whales are special to us since we can get to know them as individuals. We learn about their behaviours, how and where they like to feed, and who they spend their time with. It’s always lovely for us to see mothers and

Reflection Fond of food

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rue to her reputation as an early bird at the feeding grounds, Reflection was sighted throughout May. She made a couple of appearances in July too, before moving on to a different feeding area to

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babies return together from the calving grounds, and witness how very fast the babies grow up.

At first, a young whale sticks very close to his or her mum’s side and needs her help and guidance to know what to do and how to act. But as the season progresses we see these little ones grow not only in size, but in

catch her food. Out of the six days we spent time with her this year she was kickfeeding FIVE of those times!

Reflection is a notorious kickfeeder and is often seen using her favourite feeding method alone or in a small group. Since she spent so much time feeding, perhaps she is eating for two? Reflection’s most recent calf was born in 2017, so we are hoping to see her come back with another calf in the spring.

personality and independence.

By late summer they are learning how to catch their own fish, interacting with other whales, and spending more and more time away from their mums – a sure sign they are growing up.

Midnight

Playing away

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idnight has been spotted in an area north of Cape Cod outside our core whale watching zone. We think she has spent most of the summer feeding there. We had better luck when we

Salt

Pepper

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Lying low

alt decided to lie low this year and we only spotted her three times. Crystal, Salt’s eldest son born in 1980, surprised us all by being particularly visible this year – he was seen eight times. During one especially exciting sighting Crystal was seen flipper slapping, lobtailing and breaching completely out of the water! Salt’s granddaughter, Etch-ASketch, was also frequently sighted kickfeeding.

went on a whale watch trip outside our normal patch, off the island of Nantucket.

We were able to gather invaluable information about the whales who spend their time in those waters, and once saw 40 humpbacks in a single day.

We were delighted to discover Minuit was among them – this is Midnight’s 18-year-old, born in 2000.

Minuit means midnight in French and this was our first-ever sighting of Midnight’s youngster!

Growing family

Sriracha, another of Salt’s offspring, spent most of the summer with a friend in coastal waters only a couple of miles from our office. On clear days even people on the beach could see these two whales from the comfort of their beach umbrellas.

hroughout 2018, Pepper has evaded the gaze of the entire Gulf of Maine whale watch community.

She has been known to feed further north, so we are wondering if she was favouring a more northern offshore feeding area this year. Pepper’s family continues to grow; her daughter, Habanero, made quite a few appearances with her newest bundle of joy, her fourth baby. Habanero was very attentive to her young baby and throughout August they both displayed lots of different behaviours, including spyhopping, tail breaching and napping – which we call ‘logging’.

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OBC VERSION

DONATE YOUR BIRTHDAY!

REPRO OP SUBS

You can raise money for whales and dolphins when you turn a year older

ART

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PRODUCTION CLIENT

DC’s 30th birthday year is almost over and we hope you all had great birthdays this year too. Julian had a fun-filled 7th birthday party – but instead of presents, he asked his friends for donations to WDC. Julian raised a fantastic £95 to help give the gift of freedom to whales and dolphins kept in captivity.

If you’d like to help whales and dolphins in this very simple way on your birthday (or even at Christmas!), get in touch with us at events@whales.org

BIRTHDAY INVITATION Dear friend,

For my birthday I have a little task,

instead of gifts. I have decided to ask...

Please can you bring a small donation

for Whale and Dolphin Conservation?

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 Julia Bradbury; John Craven; Jerome Flynn; Monty Halls; Miranda Krestovnikoff; Michaela Strachan Published for WDC by Think Editor Andrew Cattanach Design Dominic Scott Sub Editor Andrew Littlefield Account Director Helen Cassidy Cover pic Group for Research and Education on Marine Mammals 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. Winners are picked at random from all correct entries. Remember to tell us what you think about SPLASH! by emailing splash@whales.org

Up to 95% of plastic litter in the ocean comes from the land and is a major threat to whales and dolphins. We’re determined to reduce plastic waste and so your magazine now comes to you without a recyclable polythene wrap.

We hope it arrives in great condition but if it has been damaged, please let us know at info@whales.org If undelivered, please return to: WDC, Brookfield House, 38 St Paul Street, Chippenham, Wiltshire SN15 1LJ

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