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Grey whale hangs out near estuary

StoneMtn

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StoneMtn

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May 3,2010

Sylvie Paillard

spaillard@squamishchief.com

Local environmentalist John Buchanan said he got the thrill – and scare – of his life this weekend when he found himself eyeball to eyeball with a grey whale.

“Very exciting, I couldn't sleep for two days,†he said.

On Friday (May 1), Buchanan paddled his canoe near the Squamish Estuary to the mouth of the Squamish River when he encountered the hulking creature, which can reach a length of about 16 metres and weight of 36 tonnes.

“I'm just drifting in the canoe where it's feeding. It knows I'm there. Swam right underneath the canoe, came up beside me and had a B-line with my eye and had a look at me and carried on with its feeding,†he said.

“It's a bit frightening, I got to tell you. When he comes up, he's four feet away from you. You don't know where he's going to come up. You have no idea.â€

Buchanan returned Saturday and Sunday (May 2 and 3) and took video, which he posted to Youtube. He also sent close-up shots to the University of Victoria whale lab along with reports of his observations.

“When he was off to the mouth of the Squamish River where the water was a bit deeper, he would act differently out there,†said Buchanan.

“But when he went in the central basin, I started to get a bit worried there because he was in like four feet of water, on his side, stirring up the bottom feeding on the organisms on the bottom.â€

Calls to the university's whale lab were not immediately returned.

Buchanan said despite the thrill, he'll be happy to see the whale resume its three-month migration, which the mammals make each year starting in October between their feeding grounds in the Bering Sea and mating areas in southern California and Mexico.

“I don't really want him to hang around here too long. He should be going up to Alaska where he belongs,†said Buchanan.

There have been a number of reports of grey whales washing ashore along the Pacific Northwest over the last month.

On Easter weekend, a whale died on the shore of East Sooke Park. Another landed in Oakland Bay in the southern reaches of Puget Sound. Shortly afterward, a grey whale beached at Samish Bay near Anacortes. The next day, another dead whale turned up north of Whidbey Island in Deception Pass. And a few days after that, a grey whale died near west Seattle.

Buchanan said he had never heard of a grey whale getting that close to the estuary, and wondered if the past few years' attempts of reestablishing local herring populations attracted the crustacean-eating mammal.

“We had a huge [herring] hatch out about a week ago,†said Buchanan.

Herring has long used pilings to spawn their eggs. During the 1960s herring was plentiful in the channel, according to reports, but something occurred in the 1970s that caused the population of the fish to decline.

In 2006, Squamish Streamkeeper co-ordinator John Matsen discovered the creosote meant to protect pilings was poisoning herring eggs and killing them.

Since then, the Streamkeepers have been wrapping the pilings with material non-toxic to herring eggs. Since then, the population has boomed, and along with it, the sea life it sustains.

Buchanan also had another theory, however.

“Well, The whale seems to know his way around,†he said. “The Squamish Nation had a pole raising ceremony last year – this could be one of the old, wise Squamish chiefs coming up for a visit.â€

http://www.squamishchief.com/article/20100503/SQUAMISH0101/100509999/-1/SQUAMISH/grey-whale-hangs-out-near-estuary

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Velvet Rookie

Velvet

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I assume this is fresh water? I never thought about it before but I suppose a whale could live equally well in fresh or salt water provided they have a food source. Wonder if whales ever make it to the Great Lakes?

You've been posting some interesting stuff lately.

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SaggyBalls Newbie

SaggyBalls

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Wonder if whales ever make it to the Great Lakes?

How would they get there?

The St. Lawrence has only been open enough for large creatures for less than a hundred years.

Plus, it's highly polluted.

Would you rather swim in a clean saltwater pool or my bathwater?

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hamilton Newbie

hamilton

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Wonder if whales ever make it to the Great Lakes?

How would they get there?

The St. Lawrence has only been open enough for large creatures for less than a hundred years.

So... what you are saying is that for almost 100 years, it has been theoretically possible for a whale to have made it to the Great Lakes.

Looks like you answered your own question there.

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Velvet Rookie

Velvet

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"How would they get there?

The St. Lawrence has only been open enough for large creatures for less than a hundred years.

Plus, it's highly polluted.

Would you rather swim in a clean saltwater pool or my bathwater?"

"Of course they probably could but why would they want to?

Jeez."

Jeez.

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Esau. Contributor

Esau.

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Saw this on the news last night, pretty awesome thing to see I imagine (the footage was great). Was glad to hear the whale eventually made his/her way back out to bigger water.

Beluga are still in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, but numbers are dwindling.

True, but not dwindling like was during the mid 80s/early 90s thankfully. I remember hearing about all the dead ones showing up on shore back then. Still though, its said that since food is abundant, no natural predators and hunting them illegal (for the last 20 odd years anyway) there are roughly 200 ( about 1/4 the population) residing in the St. Lawrence. They are also the only species of whale that lives there year round out of the 13 different kinds of whales that inhabit those waters during warmer weather.

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AD Newbie

AD

Posted
Posted

Grey whale hanging out in False Creek this week too. They need their GPS units calibrated.

It was an interesting question, the fresh vs. salt-water one, so I looked it up. Whales can technically live in both, but are built for salt-water as the majority of their food lives in salt-water so they have to follow that. Also, salt-water is better for their skin and helps cuts heal faster. Apparently whales are susceptible to some skin diseases which the salt-water is very good at counteracting.

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hamilton Newbie

hamilton

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It just occured to me that Lake Ontario would be the farthest a whale would theoretically be able to make it in the Great Lakes anyway. I think they would have a difficult time negotiating Niagara Falls, and I would imagine that operators would have noticed and attempted to prevent a whale going through the lock system in the Welland Canal. Then again, maybe not.

Anyway, I'm sure we will be provided with an opinion about whether whales "would want to" ride through the lock system shortly.

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AD Newbie

AD

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Montreal would be the furthest west a whale could get. There's the Lachine Rapids (and subsequent locks and dams) at Montreal, the Beauharnois and Pointe-des-cascades dams just a bit west of that, and then there's the Massena Hydro Dam.

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TheSloth Newbie

TheSloth

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They could take a bus.*

Land Whale!!!!!

*I'm not suggesting that a whale would want to take public transit to one of the Great Lakes, just that it probably could.

Yeah but why would a whale take the bus when it could just spend a little more and ride the train and enjoy the bar cart.

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