One of our tagged sperm whales has left the Newfoundland coastal fjord and gone to deep offshore waters recently, after 26 days of tag data (red is most recent data)
Yesterday our
#DFO
flight crew spotted a group of at least a dozen killer whales 25 km off the Newfoundland west coast! Even at an altitude of 350 m it's easy to identify this species.
Keep your eyes peeled! Someone spotted a North Atlantic right whale skim feeding at the surface just off Long Pond, Conception Bay on 1 Nov. Lots of copepods in the area. New England Aquarium IDed her as
#1408
, "Freckles", born in 2013 and never before recorded in Canada.
One of our last functioning satellite tags is on an adult humpback, for 31 days. Tagged near Cape Bonavista and now headed up the Labrador coast. It has been moving little in the last few days - feeding? Will it go the Arctic?
We just said goodbye to our gentle and loving 12-yr-old beagle, Tanner. He was my first dog, and I am awash in sadness and good memories. 2022 looking to pick up where 2021 left off.
Kim found the errant beagles at 0644 this morning, near where they escaped. They are tired but no injuries. Thanks to all who came out to help look for them last evening.
The female killer whale we tagged almost two months ago near St. Anthony, NL has made a run out to deeper waters south of Newfoundland! I thought she might have stayed around the northern peninsula until the tag stopped transmitting, but no.
On final approach to St. John's, Newfoundland last night after a long flight in the
@PALaerospace
Dash 8. The summer colours are really starting to pop along our rugged shoreline!
In a first for Atlantic Canada, we satellite tagged a female killer whale amongst a group of 8 swimming near Griquet, Newfoundland, Canada. She has been moving around the northern peninsula since 29 July (greenest dot). We hope the tag lasts for months before falling off!
#DFO_NL
Spent 4 hours in ER last night with extreme belly pain + vomiting. Pain eased and sent home. CT scan next morning confirmed a ruptured appendix! But they now sent me home with antibiotics and will set a future date for surgery. No beds to recover anyway. 😬
Possible north Atlantic
#right
whale sightings (2 whales) near the Holyrood area on Conception Bay, NL this hour. If anyone is in that area and can get images it would be SUPER useful!
DFO team about to necropsy an adult male killer whale that died off northern Newfoundland. Estimated to be 4.3 tonnes! Special thanks to the fisher that towed it in after finding it in his gear - a great opportunity for science to learn more about these elusive whales here.
On an amazingly calm day off northern Newfoundland in July, I dropped a hydrophone over the side to listen to the sperm whales hunting in the dark 450 m below us. Their world painted in sound reflections.
I love that my daughters enjoy dance (they do NOT get that from their father). They are very good at it too! Here is my youngest in flight for a photographer learning "action" shooting:
Observers on the Twin Otter sighted a group of 30 (!!) killer whales SE of Newfoundland yesterday (small red "fish" symbol)(+ 3 killer whales earlier). This is one of the largest groups reported in Newfoundland & Labrador waters. Mariners let me know if you sight these whales?
An amazing day at the Whale Festival at Cape Spear, NL! Little wind, 23C, and humpback and minke whales galore - with some feeding right below the lookout. Lots of tourists and townies enjoying the day
The tagged female killer whale, after spending over a month moving around the northern peninsula of Newfoundland, has now moved out onto the southern Labrador shelf (red dots). Hope the tag keeps transmitting!
Clifford Doran, the light keeper at Cape Race, posted these amazing images of a
#right
whale breaching at Cape Race this afternoon! Wonder if it is the same whale that passed Cape Spear two days ago?
An interesting large whale sighted off Chance Cove, then Pouch Cove, over the last week or so. Moves slowly and has a strange skin pattern - maybe ill? If anyone sees it please send me photos?
Our aerial survey team just reporting seeing multiple large groups of killer whales in Conception Bay! Perhaps 25 whales. If anyone gets LEFT side photos or videos (assuming they approach your location) I would love to see them. My boat is down the coast so I am stuck ashore
DFO employee Cynthia Mercer captured amazing photos of a
#right
whale passing below the lookout at Cape Spear, near St. John's, NL yesterday evening! If its the whale "Gandalf", he was last seen in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in the summer. Keep an eye out for this rare whale!
Removed one of the smaller killer whale teeth to section and age it later. Tooth looks large above gum line (pointy triangular 1" section to the left) - but it has a HUGE root for grip strength. Hard to hold and tear a minke whale with small teeth!
I was wondering if I would see
@GrayMarker99
while we were working on whales near Bonavista today! First time I have seen this stack from the water side.
The satellite tagged female killer whale keeps transmitting! She (and presumably the rest of her group) have made 2 trips into the northern Gulf of St. Lawrence, but otherwise has stuck near the coast of Newfoundland's northern peninsula since 27 July. (red = most recent)
After a gruelling day offshore during DFO's harp seal survey, I had the pleasure of finally meeting
@jackiecoates
. Thanks for taking the time to meet me Jackie and maybe we'll see each other again at the airport.
Went to Bulk Barn in St. John’s to pick up cooking needs. Had a personal shopper follow me through store in PPE and with sanitised gear to get whatever I chose. I felt like Bill Gates must when shopping! 🤴
I can't wait to continue research on
#whales
. I hope we are kinder to the world on
#WorldOceansDay
. Here's a humpback match (by Roger Etcheberry) between Newfoundland, Canada and Silver Bank, Dominican Republic eight years apart! These whales can sure get around.
5+ killer whales + 3+ killer whales + 3+ pilot whales + 18+ Atlantic white-sided dolphins + 1 adult fin whale circling ferry + 2+ distant whales (maybe fins) + 1 sunfish. All in 1 hr of eyes-only effort in top of Cabot Strait in good sea state aboard Blue Puttees!
Some men have to improve their behaviour! Women on Arctic research mission told not to wear tight-fitting clothing: "... this idea that women should have to be responsible for managing the behaviour of men."
We satellite-tagged fin and humpback whales in early August in eastern Newfoundland (green dots). After some weeks of feeding where we found them, some, like this fin whale, are beginning to move away (red dots). I hope they stay in touch!
This is Archie - the "guard puppy" at the Summerside PEI airport. So nice to pet a friendly dog during a refueling break in our harp seal survey for
#DFO
! Really makes me miss our recently-passed beagle.
Another day at one of my favourite “offices”: heading out for a 7.5 hr flight along the edge of the Grand Banks with a great
@PALairlines
crew and the new Dash 8 surveillance aircraft
As the last hour of Christmas Day passes, I want to wish all of my Twitter contacts a relaxing & safe holiday. For those providing health, safety, or food services I am very grateful for your efforts and the risks you take for the rest of us. I hope we can all enjoy a better 2021
On 15 July 2021 killer whales were photographed in Bay Bulls, NL. A female, NF0027, was last IDed in 2010 - a remarkable gap! Citizen photos are crucial!
Jul 2003-St. Anthony
Apr 2006-St. Pierre
May 2007-St. Pierre
Sept 2008-Battle Harbour
Jun 2010-St. Pierre
July 2021-Bay Bulls
Our tagged humpback is STILL heading northeast! Will the satellite tag keep transmitting long enough to find out where it's headed? Tag voltage is dropping...
Humpback whale is still in Holyrood eating herring. BUT, reports of boats coming in for a look at this whale have raised concerns that it could be struck and injured by a propeller in shallow water! Please keep back 100 m! Twillingate humpback shows that whales & props don't mix.
We had a short walk out to view the most easterly land in North America - Cape Spear, Newfoundland & Labrador. Great day, although the eagles enjoyed the strong onshore winds more than our beagle!
Lots of individual variation in the current locations of five fin whales and four humpback whales, a month after we tagged them. One humpback headed towards the Arctic, and one fin whale to the mid Atlantic. Exciting technology giving us a glimpse of these oceanic wanderers!
Keep a sharp eye if you are near or on the water off the east coast of the Avalon Peninsula. Yesterday Justin reported seeing a possible north Atlantic right whale just offshore of Brigus South. He was kind enough to report this sighting, and we are trying to see the whale again
Our two foster beagles escaped as we tried to bring them into Avalon Animal Centre on Logy Bay rd. one has a pink harness and both have collars with Beagle Paws’ number. They are sticking together but may be moving anywhere in the area.
Correction: amazing that the right whale seen at Cape Spear, NL on 2 Nov is ID 3545, and the 1/2 brother of Mogul (the wandering right whale sighted feeding near the coast in Fall, 2019)! 3545 is the son of a male that I found dead on the NL west coast in 2017.
@Charlie85915085
No their biggest threat is deceit, bias, and a lack of effort to do thorough research. (And yes, I know there are good journalists, but sadly they are no longer the norm in Canadian media).
Here is a head-on image of the north Atlantic right whale skim feeding close to shore in Bonavista by Eric Abbott. See how the baleen has a gap in the front to allow a continuous stream of water + food to stream into its mouth. Take care boaters as this whale may be distracted!
Keep your eyes peeled off the most easterly point in north America. Dr. Zedel sighted 2-3 killer whales, including a large male, headed north past Cape Spear at 1100 this morning. Any more reports or imagery would be greatly appreciated!
Almost 286 days and still transmitting! Our migrating humpback
#whale
is still not showing signs of returning to where it was tagged in
#Newfoundland
last July.
Pretty amazing to sight a leatherback sea turtle off the coast of Labrador - a rare sighting there of this endangered reptile species (photos by Ian Winters).
Thawing her out for a necropsy tomorrow - pilot whale calf that washed ashore in southern Newfoundland this week. Teeth marks on her side suggestive of an adult pilot whale bite - tomorrow will tell! (thanks to Fisheries Officers Oats and Orchard for retrieving her)
@CBCNL
Rather than tax electric vehicle users, stop subsidising the massive profits of Big Oil. Imagine the road repairs we could do with the hundreds of $millions given to oil companies now.
I am grateful for the people who follow my account. I apologise for being slow in following many back - I try to read each person's bio and their recent tweets before following, instead of just clicking Twitter interface buttons; I seem to have little free time recently!
We are trying to find and image these fuzz balls during
#DFO
’s harp seal survey - not an easy task when they are distributed over thousands of square kilometres of (poor) sea ice!
DFO scientist Charmain looks on as pilot Chris tops up the tanks before we head out to the tip of the Burin and around the French islands to count harbour seals. I have never seen a flatter sea here than we flew over today!
One of the two big Illushin 76s resting in St. John’s YYT while we outfitted our Twin Otter for the summer of right whale searching. What a view from those bottom nose windows!
We made it to Gander! Now the intrepid team continues with the DRL bus ride to the outskirts of St. John’s. After that, get my steps in and home with family (and the famous beagle!)
#SoClose
Harbour seals, like this group on a rock on the Newfoundland south coast, can be hard to see during a DFO aerial survey without photos like these (the original image is MUCH larger). See the young grey seal hanging out with the harbour seals?
Enjoyed taking my new-to-me RHIB (thanks Coast Guard colleagues!) out to bail water and prep for passage of hurricane Teddy next week. Always great to be in a boat!
@HeatherMoAndCo
And yet he can say “oops”, repay the funds (hopefully), and walk away uncharged and unblemished. Most other Canadians pulling that fraud would not be so lucky.
See our paper "Distributions of Arctic and Northwest Atlantic killer whales inferred from oxygen isotopes" at Distributions inferred from these isotopes, as well as other evidence, suggests there isn't a single population distributed across the NW Atlantic
A humpback enjoying the day in northwest Conception Bay yesterday. There was also a large group of patient fin whales, cruising along the same section of shore, that allowed our team to repeatedly ride with them to collect skin biopsies and deploy a few satellite tags. Amazing!
When I was doing grad research on seals in Miquelon 40 (😬) yrs ago, we would listen to the
@TheBroadcastCBC
to get essential weather forecasts. On clear nights we could see the lights on the Burin Peninsula, and the voices on the Broadcast took us home for an hour.
One of 4 humpbacks we satellite tagged in July 2018 is making its way back north up the mid-Atlantic ridge. It spent a few months in the Caribbean in very warm water, but since the tag did not transmit for a month before that we do not know the route it took southbound!
#whale
We visited St. Vincent's on Saturday. At least 13 humpbacks feeding on bait fish (capelin) - some very close to the beach! What a great afternoon! Lots of orange "plumes" near the pair, so they we getting high-energy food. (photo by Kim Lawson)