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Without too much fanfare and media scrutiny, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) has been holding their annual meeting in Morocco for the past several weeks. The meeting began on May 27 with "pre-meetings" and scientific committee meetings while the formal 
commission meeting began today and will run through June 25th.
There are both whale conservation organizations and commercial whaling groups in attendance - each making their case for either the greater protection of whales or the maintaining (or increase) of current catch quotas. Several nations including Japan and Norway have expressed a desire to resume full-scale whaling operations. Having been shown on the worldwide stage of public opinion that their "whaling for scientific research" to be largely a farce, Japan has, in particular, been rumored to favor major expansion of its whaling activities.
We'll have to wait and see what the final outcome of the IWC meeting will produce. The petitions have all been signed, the key players are there, and the backroom political leveraging, I am sure, is in full swing - so all we can do is hold our breath and hope that reason prevails in determining the future of what is, by today's standards, an archaic activity and an ironic reminder of the consequences of dependence on a limited resource - once it was whale oil, now it's crude oil.
My brother Chris alerted me to a clever and interesting interactive article in the BBC News that lists a variety of whale species and then provides key information as to their size, range, and current population and threatened status (Click on the image of a particular whale species and up pops a photo and key data). I don't know how long the article will be available in the BBC archive, so take a look now to get a handle on some of the key cetacean species that are of concern with many conservation groups.
And let's cross our fingers and flippers and hope for the best for earth's dwindling cetaceans.
Read more about the IWC's meeting agenda.
Read the BBC interactive article.
Humpback whales - those beautiful songbirds of the cetacean world - may have another behavioral trait that sets them apart from the other baleen whales: the ladies apparently form lasting friendships among themselves - kind of an oceanic "Sex in the City."
According to research being conducted by the Mingan Island Cetacean Study of Canada, along with researchers from Germany and Sweden, when humpback whales return to the Gulf of St. Lawrence following extended periods of migration and breeding, the females congregate in groups to feed - not just any group, but the same group of females year after year. They develop friendships.
While toothed whales, like orcas and sperm whales, have shown similar types of social behavior, baleen whales are much less social. The study, reported in the journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, reports that no such behavior was seen between blue and fin whales. Only the humpback whale exhibited this bonding between females, bonding that resumed with the return of the whales year after year.
"I was expecting stable associations within one season, not beyond. I was particularly surprised by the fact that only females form these bonds, especially females of similar age," said Dr. Christian Ramp, one of the Canadian leaders of the study. "Staying together for a prolonged period of time requires a constant effort. That means that they feed together, but likely also rest together. So an individual is adapting its behaviour to another one."
What has yet to be determined is how they find each other every year - perhaps by their distinctive songs or some other low frequency sounds which can travel great distances 
underwater. Another question to be studied is what implications does commercial whaling have on this behavior. Did this bonding in female groups make them easier targets for whalers in the past? If countries that are proposing a resumption of large scale whaling were to have their way, would these friendships among female humpbacks once again make them easy targets? What are the socio-biological implications of disrupting this behavior; how is the overall family structure - hunting, breeding, calving - impacted?
This is another fascinating component in the complex world of marine mammal behavior. Just like a group of women getting together to have lunch and catch up on maybe some juicy gossip. (I'm not being sexist - men do they same thing; they just do it around the tube with a six-pack and a bag of Cheetos!)
Read more about this in BBC Earth News.
An article from the Associated Press looks at the possible declining numbers of gray whales off the eastern Pacific coast. Actually, no one's really sure whether there is a real decline taking place or, perhaps, an anomaly for this season.
These whales migrate all the way from the Arctic to Mexico and back, and are a popular species for whale-watchers. But according to boat captain and whale-watching operator Bill Reese, the numbers this season have dropped from highs of 25 per day in good years to a current low of only 5 per day. Is something happening with the gray whale population? Scientists at this point aren't sure.
Unfortunately, one of the results of listing an animal as endangered, as the gray whale was in 1970, is that as the numbers improve (if they improve), then the census counting from which total populations are estimated becomes less frequent - a typical result of limited 
government/scientific resources and funding. And so, if there are any negative changes to the number of whales, it can take a while before the data accurately reflects those changes.
However, simultaneous to this reduction in ongoing population tracking, the International Whaling Commission is considering allowing the taking of 1400 gray whales over the next decade (140 whales per year for subsistence use by Alaskan/Arctic aboriginals. Is this sustainable or too much? Because of a lack of reliable data, many scientists are unsure.
"If you count 2,500 animals [a number recorded in 2006 and used to estimate a total population of 20,000], all you really know rock solid for sure is there are more than 2,500. Beyond that you're using models and assumptions," said Stanford University marine biology professor Steve Palumbi. "The problem comes when you say, 'We do know how many whales there are and we're going to start making unalterable management decisions on that basis.'"
"You can't set specific quotas for 10 years based on 2006 data," said Sara Wan, a California Gray Whale Coalition member who is also a state coastal commissioner. "It's irresponsible."
It looks like we are heading towards a butting of the heads of commercial and scientific interests that won't be resolved until there is more data that more accurately and conclusively indicates the actual current trend in the gray whale population. In the meantime, the gray whale may pay a high price.
Read the Associated Press article.
Without too much fanfare and media scrutiny, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) has been holding their annual meeting in Morocco for the past several weeks. The meeting began on May 27 with "pre-meetings" and scientific committee meetings while the formal 
commission meeting began today and will run through June 25th.
My brother Chris alerted me to a clever and interesting interactive article in the BBC News that lists a variety of whale species and then provides key information as to their size, range, and current population and threatened status (Click on the image of a particular whale species and up pops a photo and key data). I don't know how long the article will be available in the BBC archive, so take a look now to get a handle on some of the key cetacean species that are of concern with many conservation groups.
