Strawberry Isle Scuttlebutt
May' 98 Report
by Rod Palm

Our first necropsy for the year was a long dead Sperm Whale that drifted onshore at the entrance to Nootka Sound. This animal was reported to Doug Banks who heard it from a hiker. On May 1 Mike Woods, Richard Beopeid and myself headed up through the fog to have a look at this guy. The problem with this sort of undertaking is distractions. First off we ran into a scattering of Bonaparte's Gulls about 5 miles off Hot Springs Cove. These are very delicate little birds that, from a distance, look headless. The reason for this is that, in sumer plumage, their heads are black and blend in very well with the dark water. Is there a reason for this odd coloration? Skirting the edge of a tide line in about the same area we saw two dead Glaucous Winged Gulls. We're used to seeing the odd dead bird but to see two of the same species in such close proximity was cause for concern. If any of you see any numbers of dead sea birds we'd like to hear about it.

Just as we're getting close to the Estevan Pt., Mike spots a curious head streching above the surface to get a look at us. "Sea Otters, about 50 of 'em rafted up." Mike scooped up a floating Red Sea Urchin test (outer shell) that is broken open in the area of the five jawed mouth. There is nary a speck of inerds left inside. The Reds, with an overal diameter of 20 cm, are the largest urchins in our waters and are an important part of the Sea Otters diet. It still beats me how they can deal with these living pin cusions without being entirely impailed.

Rounding Estevan Light, it's a short run to the shelter of Homis Cove where we anchor the "Eco". A ten minute walk along the shore and there it is, a mass of festering blubber. "Let's try and work on the windward side of this one." The only evidence we have here to identify this carcass is the unmistakable long narrow jaw of a Sperm Whale. Probing finds no evidence of other bones, most of the dorsal vertebrae, ribs and even perhaps the skull seem to have fallen out during the corpse's months long voyage along the ocean currents. Mike and Richard spread out over the surounding area and found some teeth, phalanges (finger bones) and a 15 meter tail section about a third of a mile down the beach.

" What can we learn from this blob?" A measurement of the toothed section of the jaw (2.8 meters) tells us that this whale has to be about a 17 meter bull, it is far too large to be a female. The female's head is only a quarter the length of the body while the male's is closer to one third. The jaw is broken just past the end of the last tooth socket and it apears to be too old of a break to have been caused by the body beeing tossed around over the surf covered rocky shore on its initial grounding. Bull Sperm whales have been seen with broken jaws over the years. This was said to be the result of males dueling for the favours of a female. Sounds romantic but I have been unable to back this up with any literature. A subsurface blubber sample is carefully cut out with a scalpel and picked up with sterilized tweezers for deposit in a Vial of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). This is the stabelizing chemical Lance Barrett-Lennard requires for doing DNA finger printing. We are sending one of the teeth away for aging. This is done in much the same way as with Bears. The tooth is cut longditudally and growth rings are counted. Will let you know the results when they come in.

Coincidentally, Coast Guard reported a dead whale drifting 5.5 miles W of Estevan Point during this same week but it was not identified.

Killer Whales. On April the 27th Pat Koreski on the "Leviathan II" reported close to 30 Kawkawin working their way up the coast from Cox Point. Got to be fish eaters or several transient gangs travelling together. Ariving on sceane, a big bull surfaces about a quarter mile from us. Even at this distance we can see the teltale swirl of his saddle patch that identifies him as a resident. Transient saddles are invariably plain, like a white comma with a feathered tail extending off the side. "Poof," ther's another bull with the top of the dorsal fin missing, it's G11. These are northern residents. It's early in the year to be seeing them, especially here. There regular stomping grounds are up in the Johnstone Straits on the inside of Vancouver Island. There are several sub pods here H6, I17, I1, I2, G16. It's interesting that these animals are weaving in and out of the reefs in much the same manner as seal hunting transients. On most occasions when we see residents they are simply passing through, staying about a mile offshore. More interesting is "Where did they come from?"

To this day it is not known where these animals spend their winters. Dr. John Ford hopes to find this out. It may sound bizare but John has recently installed his first Killer Whale cell phone. No kidding, the system is installed through B.C. Tel mobility and transmition is triggered by Killer Whale vocalization frequencies. Anyway, whenever the Orcas are passing by they give him a call at his office in the Vancouver Aquarium. another part of the Whalelink Project involves an FM radio station at Robson Bight, broudcasting underwater sounds continuously on 88.5 MHZ so local whale watchers can listen live to whales. The "ORCA FM" signal will be monitored at Alert Bay and sent down a land line to the Vancouver Aquarium, where it will be analyzed in the acoustics lab, and rebroadcasted for aquarium visitors. John hopes to install a series of these underwater listening stations along the Northwest coast with the idea of tracking the whales routes when they leave the inside waters in the fall. On May 4, six Killer Whales at Schooner Cove were called in by Pipot on the "Sea Fire." There is a lot of tail slapping along with frantic body gyrations and there are California Sea Lions in the area but there is no positive kill reported. In order to record a kill we must see prey in the mouth, blood or floating chunks of blubber. By the time we arived, the action is over and the whales have split into two groups, a bull with four animals in one group and a lone bull in the other. The lone bull is Seaforth (T029) who we have only seen once and that was in '93. Born around 1957, he is one of the oldest bulls we have seen here in Clayoquot and we have never seen him travelling alone. The remaining five whales are a mystery, they are not in our book. Back on Strawberry Isle we blew the dust off the old Bigg, Ellis, Ford, Balcomb Killer Whale book and there they are T057's or P10's in the old book. It's always fun to add new whales to the list. We have now photo identified eighty individual Killer Whales visiting Clayoquot Sound since our monitoring began in 1991. These whales have been recorded about once a year by Alex Morton from her research station in the Johnstone Straits. May 21. Doug Leys on the "Sea Fire" reports a lone Kawkawin off Rafael Pt. Dougie reports this as a BCTP (Bull with it's dorsal fin Cocked at the Top to the Port side.) A quick look in our coded ID book shows only one possible animal. Numas (T105). We have only had one confirmed visit from this animal and that was in '93. After not seeing him for five years, we have been worried about this animal, he is our oldest bull Killer Whale. At about forty four he is close to 15 years older than what is reckoned to be the average life span for male Killer Whales. Aside from a bit of a droop to his dorsal fin, this old Guy is looking good, even spry for his age. He does several tail slaps and breaches as he forages his way down the coast. He even manages to stay down long enough and swim far enough to give us the slip. This is an ability that transient Killer Whales have that I quite enjoy. If for any reason they don't want to have any company, they can simply up and disappear. We have seen this on many occasions, even when there are several boats trying to keep track of them.

Our pelagic transects have been fairly uneventful over the last couple of months. Large numbers of Pacific Loons were seen passing by on their migration to The Northwest Territories and Alaska. Northern Fulmars are starting to show up in numbers. Sooty Shearwaters are sailing by in the troughs of the swells with their wing tips just dipping the face of the waves. These birds will be gracing our waters by the tens of thousands in another month.

At four miles offshore we saw a blow and spent the better part of an hour trying to anticipate the animals moves before we were able to identify it as a Minke Whale. These animals are occasional visitors to the area with one animal that has spent the last few years keeping company with the sport fishing fleet off Portland Point. Strawberry Isles summer volunteer programs are in full swing along with one full time student (Theresa Rothenbush) position being sponsored by a Federal Summer Career Placement Program. Along with her day to day chores, Theresa is setting up a number of elementary programs so get your kids ready for some interesting fun. Corey Peet will be here for most of the season looking after volunteer works. Anyone interested in occasional help call Theresa or Corey at 725-3958.

Theresa and Corey will be working on a new research project this summer. We are planning to evaluating the population of Ghost Shrimp in Grice Bay in relation to the sector of this population that is accessible to the Gray Whales in this interesting feeding Ground.

On the subject of volunteers, I got in big trouble for not mentioning our newest member of the crew here on Strawberry Isle. Nixie Saline burst out of her salt water environment into our world of gravity at 14:05 on March 8. She was a keeper at 3.5 kg with all her bits and pieces. Nixie is a water sprite (fairy) and her middle name is Saline so as not to be confused with a fresh water Nixie.

The question of month comes from Ian Gill "What the heck is that shimmery stuff on the rocks." Anyone walking the exposed ocean shores at low tide has seen it. There are six species of this medium sized, thin, leafy, iridescent algae but the one we most commonly noticed here is Iridae cordatae. The range is actually quite limited, from northern California to British Columbia. Marine algas are classified in four groups; greens, browns, reds and grasses. Iridae is a red.