A Southern Right Whale rolling in Golfo Nuevo off the Argentinian coast.
Seeing a whale up close is astounding. You know they’re enormous, maybe from books or a scale model at a museum. However, alive, moving, and close enough you could jump in the water with them, their size is breathtaking. When you add whale calves with their mothers, it becomes a once in a lifetime experience. We recently had an opportunity to go whale watching in the calving grounds of Southern Right Whales off the coast of Peninsula Valdes -- the small hammer-like projection halfway down the Atlantic coast of Argentina, and home to an amazing diversity of marine life including sea lions, elephant seals, orcas, dolphins, and penguins. Our experience left us feeling we had encountered an animal that was charismatic, friendly, and curious. Conclusions that didn’t take much anthropomorphism to reach, as some of the whales actively approached and interacted with our boat and occupants, seemingly as interested in us as we were in them.
Before our whale watching tour we sat down with Maria Soledad Lindner, of the Right whales photo identification project, to learn more about an interesting research project that works in conjunction with whale watching tours. What follows is an excerpt and translation (from Spanish) of a larger interview.
Ben and Devon West: What does the project consist of?
Maria Soledad Lindner:The project works to photo identify the Southern Right whales using tourist boats out of Puerto Pirámides, the only place on Peninsula Valdes that is authorized to provide whale watching tours. Those of us working on the project go to Puerto Pirámides, board the tourist boats, and take photos of the whales and their unique markings in order to identify them later. We also take note of the whales behaviour, collecting a range of observations about their behavior during our visit. What do they do when the boats approach them? Do they move closer, do they move away, or do they remain indifferent? What happens when the boat approaches quickly? How do they respond? What happens when the boat approaches slowly? Does the reaction of the whale have anything to do with what direction the boat approaches from?
Fundamentally we’re interested in collaborating on management decisions and improving how the tours are carried out. Our intention is to evaluate if there is an effect from the visits on the whales and to use that information in conjunction with the photo identifications that are made at the same time. One of our main goals is to evaluate how often the whales return to the area where tours take place around Puerto Pirámides, which is why we only work on the tour boats.
BDW: Are there any laws or rules regarding the whale watching tours?
MSL: There is a law specific to whale watching that was reformed a few years ago. The new law was introduced in 2009 and was constructed with the participation and presence of all parties. This included members of the state, the secretary of tourism, the general of wild animal and plant life, the director of conservation, all whale watching operators, NGO’s such as ourselves, Universities, the National Patagonia Center, CONICET (Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas), and all the groups that have some form of relationship with the whales. We discussed it (the new rules) point by point. Such as, how close should boats be able to come to the whales? We felt this was a point of safety for the whales and 100 meters would be best for conservation, others said no. These points were resolved after much negotiation. We said the best rules for the whale watching activities were those that are the most favorable (for the whales). The final rules were decided on by accord, reaching a consensus on each of the points. It was hard work, taking over a year before we arrived on the visitation law that regulates all of the whale watching activities.
BDW: What have you found through your studies observing the whales?
MSL: This project was started in 1995. From the start of the project up until 2009 we have identified around 1300 to 1400 individual whales. From our analysis of the data we have found that 85 percent of the whales return to the area of visitation in successive seasons. While there exists a small percentage, around 15 percent, that likely visit the area once and never return. It’s difficult to say if this is due to the tours because there are other natural populations of dolphins and whales that exhibit a similar kind of behaviour -- they visit an area one time and never return. What we are inferring is that this could be due to the tours, but it's something we might be able to determine with more certainty in the future.
So what happens when we try to measure the frequency in which the whales return? We know the largest gap between visits is every three years to the area. Of course there are exceptions, we have whales that return every year, and some that return every two years. When we analyze the probability of where a whale will fit in this cycle, if they will return every two or three years, the difference is insignificant. When talking about whales there isn't as much certainty as with other animals like dolphins that move in large groups or pods. It's an animal that navigates and moves around according to their particular needs, an animal that is adapted to be able to just appear. For example, we don't know if it (an individual whale) will return, if it will return with its calf, or stop coming to this area. A whale might return, but it's possible a number of years could pass without returning. We really don't know much about their needs and habits. Indications are that they don't return to this site. However, one can’t say the whales don’t return to Peninsula Valdes. The only thing we can say is that they don’t return to the area (for the whale watching tours) around Puerto Pirámides. It's desirable over the long term to be able to make a comparison of the rate of return of the whales to Puerto Piramades in comparison with the rate of return to Peninsula Valdes.
What we do know is that a small percentage of the whales, less than 20 percent, respond positively to the presence of the whale watching boats. They usually exhibit this response by moving closer to the tour boats and continuing to interact with the boats. The majority, consistently move away from the tour boats or appear indifferent to the tours and don't change how they behave. What we want to do is work with the groups that remain receptive. This won’t be all of the whales, and whales that are receptive might not be that way everyday. Their desire to socialize with boats may be different on different days. They are, by nature, very curious animals, but the recommendation is this: the tour boats should work with the animals that want to socialize on that particular day. If we have a mother that is with its calf and we are bothering it while it's nursing, and it doesn’t want to interact, the best thing to do is to leave it alone and not interrupt this activity. We don’t want to interrupt this bonding activity. We want to work with the receptive animals. To ensure this happens the boats should get close, but not too close, something around 50 meters, and shut off the motors so the whales know there is a boat there. Then wait and hope the whales respond positively to the boat.
Fortunately in Golfo Nuevo, where the whale watching tours occur, we have a large number of whales during the season. If people go on a tour they have a good chance of having a positive encounter with the whales. These types of positive encounters are one of the best ways for the tours to continue. We believe that the tours are good, that they are positive, because they are an excellent tool to increase the level of awareness people have about whales. It is an excellent tool for people to have an interaction with the whales, to learn respect for them, and an opportunity to inspire people to do something to protect them.
You can read more about the project and their current activities on their blog (in Spanish). If you can’t read Spanish, the site is still worth a visit to look at their wide range of Southern Right whale photos.
NRDC has also done significant work on protecting whale calving grounds, most notably Laguna San Ignacio in Baja California. You can read a first hand account and brief history of those calving grounds here.
A short video clip of a rendevous with a Southern Right Whale and calf:
