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| Northern bottlenose whales are spotted off the bow of Balaena. |
Hunted for centuries for their oil (and until the 1970s for dog food), there may be only 160 of these gentle giants in the population found off Nova Scotia. In 2006, this聽 population (known as the Scotian Shelf population)聽 was聽designated as endangered by the Canadian Species At Risk Act.
They can be hard animals to study. For one thing, it鈥檚 tough to get out to their prime habitat (in deep submarine canyons along the edge of the Scotian Shelf, about 200 kilometres offshore of Nova Scotia), especially in the winter when the weather is rough. Secondly, they鈥檙e a deep-diving species which spends most of their time underwater. They make long, deep dives sometimes for 70 minutes, reaching depths of more than 1,400 metres. They surface to breathe for about 10 minutes, before diving down again in search of their primary prey, the armhook squid.
SEE PHOTOS: All aboard Balaena with photos by Catalina Gomez, Marina Milligan and Kristin O'Brien.
SEE RELATED VIDEO: August 2010 expedition聽by Hilary Moors.
Not that the difficulty in conducting research has discouraged Hilary Moors. The PhD candidate with Hal Whitehead鈥檚 Cetacean Research Lab just calls them on the 鈥渉ydrophone.鈥�
Well, sort of. The hydrophone is a scientific instrument that鈥檚 been positioned on the ocean floor to record sounds.
She鈥檚 been able to make recordings of the northern bottlenose whale鈥檚 underwater vocalizations. The whale鈥檚 echo-location signals, used to help them navigate and locate food in dark murky waters, sound like high-pitched clicks as captured by the hydrophone.
One of the questions Ms. Moors has answered is whether the population that frequents The Gully, a Marine Protected Area on the edge of the Scotian Shelf, is year-round or migrating. It鈥檚 an important question, particularly as scientists attempt to determine if oil and gas development activities in the vicinity have impacted at all on the population.
鈥淲e knew they were around in the summer, but the winter? That鈥檚 what I wanted to find out,鈥� says Ms. Moors, who works part-time for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans as a marine mammal observer. 鈥淲hat we鈥檝e been able to determine is that they鈥檙e generally out there in the winter as much as they are in the summer.鈥�
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| Photographs of the northern bottlenose whale's dorsal fin assists in identification. |
Last summer, Ms. Moors observed the whales as part of the crew aboard Dr. Whitehead鈥檚 12-metre sailboat and floating research station, Balaena.
鈥淧retty much anytime you go out, you can see them. They鈥檙e very curious and they love to check us out,鈥� she says.
Joining the expedition this summer was Kristin O'Brien, a master鈥檚 student originally from Surrey, B.C. Her job was to photograph the whales at the surface; the nicks and gouges in the dorsal fin can help researchers identify individual animals.
鈥淲hen you鈥檙e out there, you don鈥檛 see land for weeks, but we do see lots of marine life鈥攏orthern bottlenose whales, blue whales, which are also endangered, pilot whales and Sowerby鈥檚 beaked whales"
"It鈥檚 almost like living in a camper,"聽adds Ms. Moors. "You鈥檒l either love it or hate it, but I think for me, it鈥檚 made me very enthusiastic about the research.鈥�
From Kentville, Nova Scotia, Ms. Moors has wanted to be a whale researcher since she was a little kid. 鈥淚 remember doing a project on whales in kindergarten and that鈥檚 always stuck with me. Here I am, living the dream!鈥�