Humpbacks and humans deserve better

It just gets worse, the deeper you dig.

Bad enough that the government’s down-listing of humpback whales was accomplished just in time to make way for the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline. Now it appears that the ‘independent scientist’ retained to write the science advice for the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) was in fact the same person retained by Enbridge, and now Kinder Morgan, to provide evidence in support of their pipeline and tanker projects.

Just say you’re the government and you’re looking for a humpback whale expert to write an opinion about the state of their recovery for COSEWIC. Do you ask one of the 19 researchers who just last year completed and published a comprehensive investigation of the North Pacific humpback populations? Or do you ask Andrea Ahrens, a Stantec employee with a M.Sc., living in Gainsville, Florida, whose sole contribution to humpback literature is a paper, published in 2008, that analyzes humpback whale population numbers using photographs? And who happens to have been retained by both Enbridge and Kinder Morgan.

From Ms. Ahrens’ Linked In profile: “She serves as an advisor for the Canadian North Pacific Humpback Whale Recovery Team, co-authored the Draft Recovery Strategy, and wrote the COSEWIC Assessment and Status Report on the Humpback Whale in Canada.” You guessed correctly.

Vital feeding areas for Humpback Whales around Gill Island are designated as critical habitat. This area is also part of the proposed tanker route. Humpbacks are the species of whale most commonly reported to be struck by ships in B.C.

Odd that she didn’t mention her retainers when writing an opinion piece for the Vancouver Sun defending the humpback decision. Equally odd that Andrew Trites’ spirited but not especially scientific defence of the COSEWIC decision and his former student (“Let’s say every whale in the Douglas Channel is run over; you would probably never even notice it in terms of the recovery of whales on this coast.”) refers repeatedly to the independence of COSEWIC.

Trites and Ahrens may insist that there is no conflict in working for both the government that is supposed to protect whales and the companies whose ambitions will harm them. And perhaps there is none: the government has repeatedly signaled an overriding ambition of its own, to approve pipeline and tanker projects that will impact whale habitat. You would expect them to be a little more forthcoming about the author behind the downlisting recommendation, though, if it were truly so innocuous.

At Living Oceans we believe the public—and the whales—deserve better.

Photos from the coast: the good, the bad and the hopeful

Unless you've been hiding out under a rock in a cave on the dark side of the moon, humming to yourself really loudly with your fingers in you ears, you've probably picked up on a bit of the recent media frenzy over the proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline and associated tanker route through some of B.C.'s most treacherous waters.

Wow, that was a long sentence. But that doesn't make it any less true.

The controversy over the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines Project, which could see as many as 320 supertankers visit the heart of the Great Bear Rainforest every year, has surfaced in the media to varying degrees over the past couple of years. But coverage of this proposed development really kicked into high gear last week when B.C. Premier Christy Clark announced that she was taking a long-awaited stand on the project by laying out a list of five requirements the project would need to meet in order for the B.C. government to support it. Well... sort of.

In fact, the first four requirements laid out by the premier are measures that are either already required or will do nothing to safeguard the B.C. coast. The only relevant demand that Premier Clark outlined was the requirement for B.C. to receive it's "fair share" of the profits from this project. Putting aside the legal and constitutional can of worms that this opens, the Premier is saying basically this: If the price is right, we are willing to accept the admittedly grave risk that the Northern Gateway Pipelines Project presents to the B.C. coast.

Hmmm...

Entangled humpback finds its final resting place, with a little help

You may recall hearing about a young Humpback that washed ashore near White Rock, BC, on June 12th. This unfortunate whale was entangled in some sort of fishing line (though not of a type immediately recognizable to any experts) which resulted in starvation and eventually death. The whale attracted a good deal of media attention at the time, as well as a great deal of interest from people in the area. If you have not already read the excellent piece by the Marine Detective on the whale's sad yet beautiful story, I highly recommend it.

However, the whale's story didn't end there. It was loaded onto a barge and towed up through Georgia and Johnstone Straits to Bauza Cove, just around the corner from Beaver Cove on northern Vancouver Island. The reason for this location is the Whale Interpretive Centre in nearby Telegraph Cove where the whale's skeleton will eventually be put on display and used for public education.

Before that could happen though, several thousand pounds of flesh and entrails had to be removed.

Last week I had the opportunity, along with many others, to take part in the first step of this process which involved "flensing" or removing the outer layer of blubber from the whale. As you can see from the pictures below, this was no mean feat since the entire exterior of the thirty-foot long whale was covered in a three-inch layer of the stuff.

Video - How Humpbacks hunt with Bubbles

Earlier this week, I posted a video about a remarkable human being hunting under water while holding his breath. Now here's a video (courtesy of Science Friday) that shows how humpback whales hunt by doing the exact opposite: blowing nets of bubbles to concentrate their prey (also called bubble-netting).

You may recall that I mentioned this research by NOAA's David Wiley and the paper he published in a previous post, but it's always better on video. Enjoy!