WDCS Fieldwork Blog

The sun was up, the clouds sparse and the wind minimal so it was off out to sea for us! Trusty Tim had the boat ready and we set sail from Stornoway, heading south towards the Shiants, the small group of islands off the east coast of Harris. Despite the beautiful conditions the water appeared to be void of flippered critters although the presence of the one remaining scallop dredger may have kept them from the area - the noise that dredgers make as they scour the sea-floor must be pretty off-putting for those with sensitive hearing. A few miles from the Shiants we decided to turn the boat around and head north (away from the dredger)!

Very soon we came across a few porpoising harbour porpoises, (which is slightly unusual in itself as porpoises don't often porpoise) and a little flurry of puffins hanging out on the surface but diving when we got close. We headed north past the lighthouse - our land-based survey site - with still no additional animals. The swell was increasing and the sea-state was picking up to provide us with more and more white-caps, making the job of cetacean spotting all the more difficult. After some time, we were beginning to think that perhaps we should call it a day (when the land started disappearing behind the swell) when all of a sudden .... a huge splash in the distance, followed by another about 300 metres to the left of it, told us that we had dolphins!! And Risso's dolphins at that!

And these guys were absolutely flying ... spread out over about 2km, 8 animals were surfing over, under and through the swell and travelling at a rate of knots - an estimated guess is about 15 knots as we were going at about 7 knots and they were leaving us for dust! One of the best ways to see where they were was to look for the white foam that accompanied their every move - these guys really were like little rockets through the water, leaving foam trails in their wake. As before however, even at the speed they were going, some of them made time (and the effort) to come over and check us out - these guys really are rather inquisitive! Photographs were almost impossible although it has to be said we got a lot of brilliant splash shots, wave action and bits of fins as they flew by. As soon as they'd appeared ... they disappeared ... we followed them back to the lighthouse and then ... they were gone, leaving us on an adrenaline high!

The next morning we were anticipating a quieter, more sedate day as we were headed for the lighthouse for some good old land-based watching. We'd been there for less than an hour when I spied a few large fins to the south of our survey area and declared that we had Risso's in the room!! Three individuals were quite widely dispersed and not really doing very much so we carried on with our normal watching, keeping an eye on them just in case! About half an hour later, all of a sudden there was what can only be described as "absolute bedlam" taking place right in front of us! Out of nowhere another 12 dolphins joined the 3 we had spotted earlier on and everyone seemed rather happy to see each other. They were swimming in tight, compact groups, porpoising, breaching, tail-slapping, leaping out the water in unision and then diving head-first (again in unision) back into the water and generally just causing a commotion. The spectacle went on for about an hour and then the waters were dolphin-less and we were left on yet another adrenaline high!

The long-held belief that you need to be out on a boat to see whales and dolphins can now, with this sighting, be well and truly put to bed. Watching animals from land can in fact be extremely rewarding ... just have a look at the images below and make your own mind up!! (And yes ... all images were shot in colour, we're in Scotland remember!!)

As August comes to a close we say a fond farewell to the orca (or killer whale) with a bit of a bumper blog ... from Russia to the Antarctic and New Zealand to Patagonia we're covering the globe!!

Throughout August we've heard from a variety of researchers from around the world and our last project focus is on a long-term WDCS-funded project in the Avacha Gulf off eastern Kamchatka, Russia, where since 1999, researchers have been conducting photo-identification and acoustic studies on killer whales. In recent years, wide-area large ship surveys expanded the study to other regions in the Russian Far East (RFE) including: northeast Kamchatka, Commander Islands, Chukotka, Kuril Islands and northeast Sakhalin. During the field seasons 2005-2006, a total of 434 individuals were identified in the Avacha Gulf comprising at least three acoustic clans with different dialects. Most are resident-type fish-eating whales. Some transient-type marine mammal eating whales have also been recorded in Avacha Gulf and in other areas of the RFE. Transients as well as some residents show bites from the cookie cutter shark which may indicate long distance travel along the Asian coast or out to sea. Although Russian Far East killer whales can be divided into residents and transients as in the Northeast Pacific, there may be some fundamental differences due to the geomorphological characteristics of their habitat. The Russian Far East generally has a straighter shoreline with an absence of deep bays and small islands, unlike the fjordic western North American coast from Puget Sound to Alaska with its thousands of islands and islets. These differences may have an effect on killer whale distribution, size of home range, habitat use and social behavior.

Unfortunately, live captures of orca from Russian waters are still permitted to this day and in recent years at least two subadult females have been removed from the Avacha Gulf residents. A live-capture quota of 6-10 killer whales in the RFE has been granted every year since 2002 (8 for 2007) despite there being inadequate available information and data to support this decision, let alone the welfare implications of a life confined to a small concrete tank.

WDCS researchers will continue to focus their attention on these animals and to work towards a safer future for them and other cetaceans in the region.

Scientists elsewhere have recently recognized a new morph (body type) of killer whale, known as the ‘type D’ killer whale based on photographs of a 1955 mass stranding in New Zealand and six at-sea sightings since 2004. It is the most distinctive-looking form of killer whale, immediately recognizable by its extremely small white eye patch. Its geographic range appears to be circumglobal in subantarctic waters, school sizes are relatively large and although nothing is known about the their diet, it is suspected to include fish because groups have been photographed around longline vessels where they reportedly depredate Patagonian toothfish.

Briefly back to the southern resident orca (the ones in Canada!), scientists have recently reported using infrared technology to observe the orca and have found that they appear to glow in the dark! You can read the full post here!

Whilst we're here let's take a quick jaunt over to New Zealand where orca researcher Ingrid Visser gives us a brief update on what's happening with the killer whales in her neck of the woods.

"We've just had our first orca sighting of August.  Incredible, given that August is normally one of the main seasons for seeing them in this area.  They were travelling south and passed right by the Orca Research Centre, at Tutukaka.

One of the orca who visited yesterday is known as Funky Monkey – because of his funky dorsal fin – it is very floppy and wobbles all over the place.  This is because during his teenage growth spurt the cartilage in his fin hasn’t had time to strengthen and the fin is not yet rigid like an adult male’s dorsal fin.  I’ve known Funky Monkey since he was a youngster and it is great to see them growing up and watch as their lives unfold. There were approximately 10 orca in the group (I didn’t get a full head-count as they were spread out over about 2 km), including Roundtop an adult male orca who is known to frequently strand, yet typically gets off the beach without any problems."

And finally - let me leave you (and the orca blog) with some wonderful images of the seal-eating orca of Patagonia taken by WDCS's very own Rob Lott. Each year, the same orca return to feed off the seal pups, engaging a very dangerous technique of almost beaching themselves in their attempts to ambush the young pups!







And don't forget to join us again in September when it's the turn of the most magical Risso's dolphin!!

Posted on behalf of Sarah ...

This was my first day out on the water and I was feeling optimistic. We’d spent a couple of hours watching from Tiumpan Head and witnessed a sky full of gannets gracefully circling above a distant group of feeding and splashing cetaceans. Dark, lumbering rain clouds drove us away from our boggy observation spot just in time for us to head into Stornoway to meet up with Tim. The sky cleared as we crossed the causeway to town and by the time we were underway and out of the harbour the sea was a moody metallic slick.

A neat pod of four porpoises gave me the first opportunity to test out our new GPS. As we rounded chicken rock and moved towards Bayble, where the Risso’s were last encountered (see previous blog entry!), the anticipation rose – it’s been 6 years since I’ve seen a Risso’s dolphin, during my last season of an intermittent 10 year stretch off Bardsey Island in Wales – I’ve never seen one with Scottish roots!

When Nicola and Tim simultaneously shouted ‘dolphins!’ my heart skipped a beat. There they were – at first one animal, and then another, and then as we approached, we soon realised that we had a dispersed group of about 14 feeding about us. Nicola set about the tough job of photo-identifying each of them and Tim expertly manoeuvred the boat from one group to the next without getting too close and without disturbing them from their brunch. I video recorded. We focused on the job at hand, being temporarily distracted with occasional distant breaches or head slapping on the surface of the water.



The group were spread out and often fluking up before they dove, indicating to us that they were feeding busily. A large number of the group were juveniles and there was also a young calf amongst them. They had plenty of character. One animal swam along side us with sea weed across it’s saddle and another leisurely approached us head on from behind and swam right underneath us, exposing their white belly, before disappearing into the depths. On a more serious note, one dolphin had a nasty raw wound on the leading edge of her fin.







Tim thought he recognised an individual from his surveys 10 years ago, sending a shiver down my spine and confirming the value of our research. Risso’s return to Lewis from deep offshore Atlantic waters every year to feed in these sheltered and warmer (although still cold!) waters.

We left them and continued around to the Peninsula in search of the dolphins we had been unable to confirm the identity of on land. As we moved out into the exposed waters of the Minch the swell became long and lolloping and the wavelets increased in size. We were briefly joined by shearwaters, fulmars, gannets and the occasional storm petrol (an old favourite of mine).

But we found nothing out there and after some searching were soon drawn back into the sheltered waters of the coastline further south. We encountered Risso’s again at the far end of the braighe (the bay created by the causeway connecting the peninsula to the larger island). Nicola called out that she recognised some individuals from our earlier encounter, but there were some newbies in the pod too, which was almost entirely made up of juveniles this time – a nursery group! They still appeared to be feeding but they were much more tightly grouped and surface active than earlier. As one individual tail slapped repeatedly on the surface, others in the group headed in their direction and they swam in formation.





The light was beginning to fade and Nicola had captured a photo-id shot of as many animals (and each side) dorsal as possible. We decided to head for home after a productive and rewarding days work. These Scottish Risso’s do not disappoint and we’re hoping for more of the same tomorrow – when hopefully we will find the adults too.

And as long as those clothes include waterproofs and wind-buffetting gear then you'll be fine ... !!

It had to happen eventually ... we knew it wasn't going to last ... the weather broke, and quite spectacularly at that! Severe weather warnings were issued for the island, ferries cancelled and anything not tethered down or heavy enough to withstand the approaching gale force winds taken indoors! We were in for some brutal conditions but thankfully, the rain proved not to be a constant companion to the wind and we've been spending our time investigating the many cliff-tops and beaches of Lewis ... sometimes at an angle of less than 90 degrees as we battled the invisible force that kept trying to knock us off our feet!

Although the conditions at sea (big swell, white-caps as far as the eye could see, huge breakers on the shore) made it virtually impossible to see too much out in the deep blue, the avian life-forms that ruled the skies were adept at keeping us entertained. The usual suspects were out in force including gannets, shags, fulmars, guillemots and various species of gull. (Noteworthy is the annual hunt for fledgling gannets, called 'Guga', that has recently begun on an island (technically a large rock) 40 miles north of Lewis called Sulasgeir, one of the most important breeding grounds for gannets, with some 9000 breeding pairs. In the autumn of each year, villagers from Ness in the north-west of Lewis set sail for the rock to kill around 2,000 young gannets (or guga) to bring home to feast upon. Special dispensation written into the 1954 Wild Birds Protection Act by a Statutory Order allows this practice to continue today - guess we won't be seeing many fledgling gannets then!)

There were also the less frequently seen species like the skuas (who were honing their piracy skills to the detriment of the other birds), the Arctic and common terns (who were rather vocal), a white-tailed sea-eagle or two and a rather lost looking greylag goose who tried to befriend us on the beach! We also spied shearwaters and the teeny weeny storm petrels - how they manage to make their way this far north from the Antarctic is a mystery. We were also lucky enough to meet two of the islands visitors, 'Mr and Mrs Hooper Swan'. Having made one of the many inland lochs their summer home, their long necks and striking colouration of their beaks made them impossible to mistake for the more regularly seen, mute swan!

Thankfully the storms soon blew themselves out and we were able to get back out and look for creatures of the flippered variety ... !! Although offshore, the sea still looked a little bit angry, the inshore seas were calm and with the turquoise green waters laid out beneath our cliff, we were able to watch a few porpoises (including a mother and calf) both above and below the water. Some of the sea-birds however (the fulmars in particular) took an aversion to us being there and were flying low over our heads, warning us not to get to close to their nests - not much chance of that as if we had, we'd have likely been in the process of falling off the cliff!

On the north-east coast of Lewis the road stops shortly after the "bridge to nowhere" but the hardy (possibly fool-hardy as it is a 'bog-walk' and like walking through treacle most of the time) can coastal walk all the way round to the Butt of Lewis on the north-east coast. We set off to investigate the first few miles of the walk but soon got distracted by more porpoises only metres from the shore, making the most of the calm conditions. We were also lucky enough to witness another amazing display by a "courting" basking shark as it launched itself clear out the water 3 times in a row - quite a spectacle! We are however considering other possible options for this behaviour as for courting to happen surely there needs to be someone (or someshark) to court? Each time we've seen this "breaching" behaviour there have been only the breaching individual in the vicinity! Perhaps they're just full of the joys of life ... island life seems to do that to you!

From the north to the south in a matter of days, WDCS researcher Oli Yates shares his experiences of the orca that make the Falkland Islands in the south-west Atlantic Ocean their home - at least for a small part of the year!

To the south east of the Falkland Islands there is a small, 2 km long island with a lot of charm. The island is uninhabited through much of the year but becomes a busy local attraction in the summer months as people travel there to see the bustling penguin colonies, marvel over the elephant seal bulls fighting for control of the harems and enjoy the sunshine along white sandy beaches.

Myself and a small group working with Falklands Conservation headed out to the island to confirm and document what had long been part of local knowledge – the island was home to another spectacular resident, the orca. Apparently small groups of orcas had been seen over the years, coming close to the sandy shores of Sea Lion Island. When we arrived we found that this was just the tip of the iceberg….

We set up patrols of the main two beaches to the east of the island starting at 5am and continuing through until about 6pm. Long days in some roaring weather conditions were filled with the joy of observing the wildlife of these beautiful islands. Each morning we were met by the sound of the Magallanic penguins enthusiastically calling from their burrows (they sound like donkey’s braying, hence the local name Jackass penguins) and the grunts of the elephant seals as we arrived on the beaches. Initially we only saw the orcas from a distance, a group of five or six individuals passed by with apparent disregard beyond the extensive kelp beds. These sightings offered no more than a confirmation of their presence and it wasn’t until the end of the first trip that we saw their real motives.

By this time, young elephant seal pups had started swimming in rock pools in and around rocky platforms that stretched out from the ends of the long beaches. We soon realised that at the margins of these rocky platforms, the water depth dropped off to at least two meters and got progressively deeper beyond the kelp. During our early morning observations, we found that two of the adult female orcas came to within centimetres of the rocky platforms! They passed silently up and down with just the tip of the dorsal fin protruding from the water. The young elephant seal pups were apparently unaware of the danger that awaited them, but we were breathless as we absorbed the situation.

To our amazement, one of the orcas would spend several minutes perfectly still almost completely submerged with her head just below the water right next to the rocks. During this time they would take the faintest of breaths before submerging in the shallows again. Meanwhile the rest of the group would remain at some distance, perhaps 200 m away playing in the kelp beds. Slowly, the largest female positioned herself in a pool next to the rocks that only filled at high tide. The pool had a narrow entrance, perhaps 1.5 m across and we watched in disbelief as the enormous animal lay motionless with her nose peeking out of the water.

Over the next two seasons we were given a lesson in why they had learnt this behaviour. As the elephant seals made their first forays into the shallows, the orcas lunged from their ambush and were rewarded with energy rich meals at the expense of the elephant seal population. We recorded two groups during our time at Sea Lion Island and a total of 12 individuals that repeatedly visited the rocky platforms and sandy shores to attack the young elephant seal pups. During the second season one of the juvenile orcas had disappeared. We feared this young animal must not have survived the winter as the mother was still present but alone. On our last day, one of the other females arrived with a very young calf staying right at her side.

Of all the animals we observed, only the lead female displayed all of the ambush behaviour that was so impressive. Perhaps what we witnessed was part of teaching the younger animals the tricks to surviving in the harsh Southern Seas.