By Judith Lavoie, Canwest News Service;
with files from Agence France-Presse
The Vancouver Sun
The grey whale that has stunned scientists by showing up off the coast of Israel is probably one of the whales that usually swims past Vancouver Island, migrating from the birthing lagoons in Mexico to the Bering Sea.
"It is quite remarkable," said John Ford, head of the cetacean research program at the federal Pacific Biological Station in Nanaimo.
Ford is pondering the possibilities that led to a whale heading to the Mediterranean instead of Alaska and wondering whether the Arctic is sufficiently ice-free to allow passage by a wayward whale.
"It's certainly a big topic of speculation," said Ford, wondering whether the whale could have swum the Northwest Passage, connecting the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, in late summer or fall when ice cover would have been at its thinnest.
"The ice cover last winter was pretty minimal," he said.
So did it get lost, forget to ask the way or deliberately head into unknown waters?
Possibly, it did not listen to its mother.
"I don't think grey whales have their migration routes genetically hardwired. I think they learn their migration route by swimming it the first time with their mothers," Ford said. "It was probably wandering around looking for food."
The 12-metre whale was first sighted off Herzliya, Israel, on Saturday and was identified by Aviad Scheinin, chairman of the Israel Marine Mammal Research and Assistance Centre.
Scheinin believes the whale swam the Arctic route.
"Here you have an animal that is supposed to live in the Pacific and, because the ice in the Arctic is melting, it managed to get through this corridor near the Bering Strait," he said.
Ford is keeping in touch with scientists around the world who are frantically looking at grey whale photo identification to see if the animal was previously photographed.
John Calambokidis, of Cascadia Research in Olympia, Wash. has photo ID of 1,000 grey whales, out of the eastern Pacific population of about 22,000, but has not found a match. In Mexico, where there is a photo database of about 7,000 whales, it will take longer to sort through.
Photos of the western Pacific population, which migrates between the Russian coast and north China, is also being checked but, with a population of only about 100, it is unlikely the whale came from the western Pacific, Ford said.
The other remote possibility is that the whale is a remnant of the Atlantic population.
However, as the population has officially been extinct since the late 1700s, it is unlikely a small group was able to escape detection for centuries.
Scheinin, who described the event as "one of the most important whale sightings ever," said the big question is whether there will be re-colonization of the Atlantic.
"This is very important ecologically because of the change of habitat. It emphasizes the climate change that we are going through," he said.
In the meantime, the whale should be able to eat, provided it is in shallow waters where it can find delicacies such as small crustaceans, sand fleas, tube worms and krill.
"It certainly doesn't look emaciated from the photo," Ford said.
"It is quite remarkable," said John Ford, head of the cetacean research program at the federal Pacific Biological Station in Nanaimo.
Ford is pondering the possibilities that led to a whale heading to the Mediterranean instead of Alaska and wondering whether the Arctic is sufficiently ice-free to allow passage by a wayward whale.
"It's certainly a big topic of speculation," said Ford, wondering whether the whale could have swum the Northwest Passage, connecting the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, in late summer or fall when ice cover would have been at its thinnest.
"The ice cover last winter was pretty minimal," he said.
So did it get lost, forget to ask the way or deliberately head into unknown waters?
Possibly, it did not listen to its mother.
"I don't think grey whales have their migration routes genetically hardwired. I think they learn their migration route by swimming it the first time with their mothers," Ford said. "It was probably wandering around looking for food."
The 12-metre whale was first sighted off Herzliya, Israel, on Saturday and was identified by Aviad Scheinin, chairman of the Israel Marine Mammal Research and Assistance Centre.
Scheinin believes the whale swam the Arctic route.
"Here you have an animal that is supposed to live in the Pacific and, because the ice in the Arctic is melting, it managed to get through this corridor near the Bering Strait," he said.
Ford is keeping in touch with scientists around the world who are frantically looking at grey whale photo identification to see if the animal was previously photographed.
John Calambokidis, of Cascadia Research in Olympia, Wash. has photo ID of 1,000 grey whales, out of the eastern Pacific population of about 22,000, but has not found a match. In Mexico, where there is a photo database of about 7,000 whales, it will take longer to sort through.
Photos of the western Pacific population, which migrates between the Russian coast and north China, is also being checked but, with a population of only about 100, it is unlikely the whale came from the western Pacific, Ford said.
The other remote possibility is that the whale is a remnant of the Atlantic population.
However, as the population has officially been extinct since the late 1700s, it is unlikely a small group was able to escape detection for centuries.
Scheinin, who described the event as "one of the most important whale sightings ever," said the big question is whether there will be re-colonization of the Atlantic.
"This is very important ecologically because of the change of habitat. It emphasizes the climate change that we are going through," he said.
In the meantime, the whale should be able to eat, provided it is in shallow waters where it can find delicacies such as small crustaceans, sand fleas, tube worms and krill.
"It certainly doesn't look emaciated from the photo," Ford said.
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Swimming with Whales
