Monday, September 26, 2011

L90 Update: September 11, 2011

L90 in Haro Strait, September 11- Photo by Dave Ellifrit


L90:
We have been episodically monitoring L90 - taking respiration rates, surfacing/ 
dive intervals/traveling speed, and videotaping , as well as taking good-quality close-up photos of her melon, etc. 

She continues to consistently trail the other whales and  is breathing at frequent intervals ranging from 20 sec-120 sec, with  
most in 30 second range. Her dives are typically shallow (often visible underwater at about 60'), and when observed the in calm water near East Point on September 20th, she was making brief  vocalizations between breaths. At the time, she was lagging behind the other whales by about one and a half miles. Her surfacing posture  is unusual - when logging she "bobs" for each breath, and when traveling she surfaces horizontally and then dives rather  "stiffly", as if there is a problem with her spine. She has been doing this since July 6, before the alleged vessel strike. 

We recently noted her surfacing about 100 feet behind a yacht wake  and she appeared to be thrown off balance from the wake. She was also observed rolling on her side going through kelp. She does not show evidence any emaciation. The most notable aspect of all of this, and it is also notable for other ailing/trailing whales we have monitored in the past: there is little to no obvious care-giving behavior exhibited by the other whales. Presumably she is eating, otherwise she would show evidence of emaciation.  

We all have concerns for the fate of this whale, but there is very little that anyone can do but observe. This has happened before, and it will happen again.



3 comments:

  1. :( Poor Girl.... I hope she is not in TOO much pain...

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  2. It's been almost a month since you updated. What's going on now?

    ReplyDelete
  3. just read your end of year article-quick note-the "bubbles" sea world san diego has is the same whale from marineland-the problem is that it is not the original bubbles marineland had-there are articles that have an employee from marineland basically saying this-I have also seen photos of a "bubbles" with a white spot under the chin-at one time the performing "bubbles" was actually male-sea world is not going to answer your ridiculous conspiracy theory questions

    ReplyDelete

Candace Calloway Whiting