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flippers and flukes june 2012 volume 25 number 1 nswoeh licence no mwl000100230 issn 1032-6073 orrca s annual whale census day 24th june 2012 please join us as june is prime time for whale watching each year on the last sunday in june orrca members together with interested members of the public count the humpback and southern right whales as they pass on their annual northern migration there are many ideal places along our coastline which provide perfect platforms from which to watch and count these magnificent creatures over 1,400 whales were sighted on last year s national whale census day you too can become involved it is free to take part and a great way for the whole family to be involved in whale research to find out if there is a location nearby or if you wish to participate at another location please send an email to orrca@orrca.org.au and we will provide the relevant information a sightings guide and log are available on our website further information can be obtained by calling 02 9415 3333 or emailing orrca@orrca.org.au www.orrca.org.au orrca is the only wildlife carer group in new south wales licensed to be involved with marine mammal rescue rehabilitation and release all our members are volunteers and come from all walks of life age groups and nationalities we operate as a non-profit organisation and have charity status which means that all membership fees donations and any funds raised go directly to the organisation to assist the animals donations over $2 are tax deductible photograph humpback whale jervis bay © wendy mcfarlane orrca inc whale census day is fast last year s count was 1,496 approaching and this year let s have as many people falls on sunday 24th june as possible aware of this event and have them head we have been working on out to one of the designated updating our sightings guide vantage points or if you have and log together with some your own spot we would love information for you please to hear about it copy the above flyer and post to any notice boards the information for land based or hand to friends who may whale watching sightings log wish to participate in this and observation id chart can annual national event be found on pages 5 to 7 our updated sightings guide is available for download at www.orrca.org.au please share the above information with family and friends we look forward to hearing from you soon please call 02 9415 3333 or email orrca@orrca.org.au for further information orrca s store on-line www.facebook.com marine.mammal.rescue please contact us if you are able to assist with the hotline please email orrca orrca.org.au we are happy to advise that we have set up an on-line store which can be located at www.cafepress.com.au orrca_inc we look forward to hearing orrca_whale_dolphin_seal www.orrca.org.au from those of you who are rescue intending to help us by hotline 02 9415 3333 taking part in this fun day page

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stranding report species risso s grampus griseus summary the animal was transported back to the npws depot further photographs were location callala beach obtained and it was noted jervis bay that the animal s teeth were date tuesday 24th january worn and that there were numerous scars on the 2012 animal including rake marks background and squid bites etc monday 23/01/12 the necropsy was conducted this animal was first sighted on 25th january 2012 at on the morning of monday which time samples were 23rd january and identified taken for analysis by taronga by staff on board dolphin staff the dolphin s stomach watch cruises tekin iii it was empty except for sand was observed to remain in a and a little fluid indicating that specific area and was said to no food had been recently be swimming in circles the consumed skipper of tekin iii advised that the animal spent quite a hotline report bit of time swimming around we have been kept rather the bow of the vessel the busy of late with many calls animal would surface at a 45 of hauled out seals penguins degree angle to the left an and turtles activity that this species is balgowlah and surrounds known to do were lucky to have this tuesday 24/01/12 handsome chap spend time 12.15pm local police in the area including the advised that the dolphin had marina where he managed stranded on the northern to find just the right head end of callala beach rest upon which to take a an attempt was made by snooze lifting the animal onto a rescue mat with the intention another regular visitor has of returning her to the water been a new zealand fur however as the tide was seal who has been closely by orrca receding and waves breaking monitored members in the cronulla it was decided to return the area animal to the shore dolphin npws had contacted a local vet and orrca members continued with palliative care until the vet arrived this past week we have been called to a sub antarctic fur seal that hauled out firstly at coalcliff and then at gerringong unfortunately this little seal was harassed by a pug forcing the seal to return to the water the animal s breathing appeared laboured and what appeared to be a large amount of mucus was being emitted from the blowhole thank you there was no noticeable odor being emitted from the · to each and every member blowhole and therefore it who has responded to call outs and attended was believed that this animal these incidents may not have eaten for some · enviroprint australia for time sponsoring various print material including our 3.00pm a decision was made new handout in consultation with npws · club marine for once again and the veterinarian that the sponsoring our zodiac dolphin be euthanased trailer registration 3.15pm the animal was pronounced dead page

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marine mammal rescue exercise in may npws in conjunction with jervis bay marine parks booderee national parks and orrca conducted a very successful exercisewhich was open to the public an area was set up at greenfields beach vincentia where attendees were required to register as if they were attending an incident a brief safety training session was presented by shona lorigan before they proceeded to the beach where they were able to watch a mock rescue take place this presentation was provided by npws with the assistance of steve skinner a huge thank you to all the south coast orrca members who attended and assisted throughout the event we would also like to thank all the agencies who participated and to npws for the wonderful lunch provided normal recently world news scientists worry that warming seas may be harming the endangered right whale by peter brannen 2012 the washington post may 1 2012 provincetown mass normally for a few days in spring beach goers on this hook of land stretching into cape cod bay witness one of the rarest scenes in the animal kingdom dozens of surface-skimming north atlantic right whales lumbering just a few hundred yards from shore but that rite of spring was upended this year the critically endangered animals which usually arrive in late march or early april to graze on shrimp like plankton began arriving before christmas as water temperatures hovered several degrees above because of their slowness and buoyancy after being killed thus making them the it s a confluence of right whale to hunt for their remarkable things we ve oil and baleen but there are got extraordinarily rare indications that in the coming animals nearly extinct decades the whales will acting very unusually said be affected by a changing charles stormy mayo planet director of the right whale habitat studies program at it was a terrible year for right the provincetown center for whale calves says tony coastal studies lacasse a spokesman for the new england aquarium before arriving early in cape a leader in right whale cod waters one of their research main feeding grounds right whales had a difficult winter female right whales venture off florida and georgia as far south as florida to give where they gave birth to birth and the past decade has fewer calves witnessed an encouraging up tick in calving numbers with scientists are reluctant to a yearly average of 20 and draw a straight line between a high of 39 born in 2009 warmer water and changes but this winter aerial survey in whale behaviour but some teams in florida and georgia feel that they re seeing more have counted only six new than coincidences water calves including one that temperatures in and around likely died apparently from cape cod bay were more malnutrition than 3.5 degrees above average this winter although according to scientists the scientists say this is probably disappointing numbers could a short-term anomaly that be linked to changes in the can t be directly attributed to animals northern feeding climate change grounds brought on by water that is warmer but also less to me or you 3.5 degrees salty because of melting isn t a big difference but in arctic sea ice an ocean system it means different oceanography 12-million-year-old dolphin different currents and different skull found on beach near biological processes mayo calvert cliffs said he suspects this could by michael s rosenwald be driving changes in the the washington post april distribution and timing of 25 2012 plankton blooms in turn influencing the whales odd we live in a distracted world we walk into poles while behaviour staring down at our smart with only about 400 of phones children seem to the animals in existence type more words into text north atlantic right whales messages than they speak inevitably attract attention during the day have i been when they venture close to caught by my wife staring at shore the vast majority of my twitter feed while sitting them bear the scars of ship on the beach yes i am strikes and entanglement lame with fishing gear two leading causes of right whale the down side of all this mortality and a threat to the distraction of course is that we might miss amazing species survival things happening in the real humans have long posed a world such as our children threat to the docile hugebuilding sand castles people headed animals which were walking into poles while hunted to near extinction in reading smart phones and the 19th and 20th centuries 12-million year-old dolphin page dispersing only skulls sitting right before our very eyes capital news service confirms the upside of paying attention to the physical world with the following report solomons ­ amateur fossil hunter noah cook and his mom were walking along the beach near calvert cliffs this february during a period of unusually low tides when they spotted something odd it was the top of what is believed to be a 12-millionyear-old skull of the extinct dolphin species lophocetus pappus only the third such specimen ever found the fossil is being preserved and studied by a team of experts led by stephen godfrey curator of the calvert marine museum in solomons although unexpected the discovery didn t come as a shock to godfrey given the area s bounty of fossils from the miocene era which occurred between 8 million and 18 million years ago the cliffs contain fossils from as many as 30 different species of whales and dolphins said david bohaska a palaeontologist at the smithsonian museum of national history bohaska described calvert cliffs as world renowned and said palaeontologists from as far away as new zealand visit them regularly because the fossil was found below the mean high tide in other words it was usually covered by water godfrey didn t have to ask for the property owner s permission to excavate that allowed his team to remove the fossil before it was destroyed by the waves but they aren t always that lucky we re required of course to actually get permission on private land and occasionally we lose something because

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people say no bohaska said bohaska has tried to preserve the calvert cliffs coast with mixed success he said he worries that a second generation of landowners will sell their land to developers the result would be the loss of history and present beauty it would be as if you had a book and started ripping pages out of the book and said those pages aren t important godfrey said the fewer pages you have access to the less of that story you are able to tell amazing the miocene era i hadn t even heard of that era or remembered not learning about it back in high school when i was probably distracted by the sports section until coming across this story heritage listed macquarie island in february the harpoon ship yushin maru no 3 was shadowing anti-whaling protesters and remained in state waters for more than 24 hours defying federal government protests humpback whale songs change tune unexpectedly tuesday march 27 2012 push for whale sanctuary david killick www.themercury.com.au april 16 2012 legislation intended to declare tasmanian waters a whale sanctuary will be debated in state parliament this week greens mp cassy o connor is backing a bill that seeks to close a loophole in the law on whaling in state waters the australia whale sanctuary starts three nautical miles 5.5km offshore and protects whales from that point to the edge of the exclusive economic zone 200 nautical miles out whaling is prohibited in state waters but the greens want the area formally declared a whale sanctuary this would be in line with federal legislation the issue was thrown into sharp focus by the appearance of a japanese whaling ship off world the mystery surrounding the songs of humpback whales megaptera novaeangliae has gotten deeper thanks to findings from researchers in the usa madagascar and ms o connor said a greens western australia private member s bill to be published in the january debated in state parliament 2012 edition of marine on wednesday would offer mammal science the study full unambiguous legal by murray et al is the first to protection to any migrating document whales within the whale visiting coastal areas same ocean basin singing the bill would also make it an almost completely different offence for anyone to help in songs taking whales in tasmanian this is an exception to waters what is usually found many whale watching and when comparing song loving tasmanians would be from breeding sites within surprised to know our waters the same ocean during a are not a whale sanctuary breeding season says ms o connor said researcher anita murray currently at university of i think they will also be queensland s cetacean surprised if either or both ecology and acoustics of the major parties found laboratory a valid argument for not males from breeding sites creating a state sanctuary within the same ocean basin environment parks and usually sing the same song heritage minister brian meaning they sing the same wightman who opposes themes in the same thematic killing whales said the order government was unlikely to in fact the whales monitored back the bill off the coasts of madagascar the tasmanian government and off perth exmouth and is already committed to pender bay only had one protecting whales he said theme in common out of 11 they re protected under recorded tasmanian law and we re our study indicates the working with the australian cultural transmission of song government to set up a between whales from different national network of whale breeding assemblages is not and dolphin sanctuaries as clear as once believed we are also working says ms murray to implement national she speculates the guidelines for managing difference in song could human interactions with be due to interactions whales and dolphins the greens proposal while no doubt well intentioned appears to simply duplicate those protections and [our ongoing work unravelling this mystery will be a challenge involving studying song comparisons from gabon madagascar wa and eastern australia over multiple years to understand the patterns and directions of transmission image noaa between breeding grounds in madagascar and gabon noting 2003 research that found the whales sharing the same song despite being in different basins a similar outcome was found in australian waters in 2000 when western australian song replaced eastern australian song over a twoyear span ms murray believes some geographical overlap occurs in which members of separate basins interact unlike in the northern hemisphere there are no land masses to block this type of mixing in the southern hemisphere different whale assemblages could come into contact with one another during migration to antarctic feeding grounds or during the feeding season itself this study is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what we have left to discover about the complicated and dynamic cultural transmission of song in the southern hemisphere says ms murray unravelling this mystery will be a challenge involving studying song comparisons from gabon madagascar wa and eastern australia over multiple years to understand the patterns and directions of transmission of course knowing how songs are transmitted still doesn t answer the mystery of whale song itself humpback whale song is a male acoustic display used on winter breeding grounds migration routes and summer feeding grounds page

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information for land-based whale watching orrca s annual national whale census day any headland which provides a good view preferably 180º view of the ocean is definitely worth a visit as the humpback whale migration peaks in mid-winter warm clothing is essential and it doesn t hurt to be prepared for rain bear in mind at that time of year three seasons in a day is not uncommon on the coast an early morning start at about 7:30 am is ideal as it is usually calm at this hour i.e little or no wind it is easier to see the blow against a backdrop of calm sea and thus get your eye in for the rest of the day be aware that at this hour you will be looking directly into the sun so don t forget to pack your sunglasses a pair of binoculars is a must and please takes plenty of food and drink also please don t forget sun protection clothing wise it is ideal to dress in layers and we would advise a warm hat gloves socks and scarf if your chosen site doesn t have seating take a comfortable collapsible chair a clipboard with several copies of the sighting log and a reliable pen are essential or display nor can we sell raffle tickets or merchandise without council approval this usually means submitting a development application believe it or not however if we have a site within a national park permission to conduct such activities is usually granted if that is what you wish to do please let us know as the orrca committee will have to submit the application south coast booderee national park cape st george historic lighthouse hill 60 ­ port kembla kiama ­ bombo headland ulladulla ­ warden head sydney bondi cape solander tamarama ­ mackenzie point north head barrenjoey headland central coast newcastle tips and techniques you are better off scanning the ocean for whales with the naked eye and then using binoculars once you have located an animal prolonged viewing of the ocean through binoculars can cause headaches and some people even develop a type of motion sickness after a time your initial clue as to the presence of a whale is usually the blow ­ a column of vapour formed above the whale s head as it exhales an animal may blow once twice or several times between dives and this is to be recorded on your log sheet sometimes the first thing you see may be a large dark shape on the surface or even a huge splash as an animal breaches leaps clear of the water or indulges in some other form of display use your binoculars to zoom in and observe the animals as closely as possible whales can also leave footprints these are smooth circular patches of water caused by the up-and-down movement of an animal s tail flukes sometimes they appear just before a whale surfaces and sometimes they appear after either way they signify the presence of a whale swimming close to the surface and are worth tracking try to be systematic in your search divide the ocean into imaginary sectors and scan one sector at a time whether you start at the horizon and work towards shore or the other way round doesn t matter as long as you are consistent if you have company allocate a different sector to each person this is not an endurance test and you will need regular breaks ask a companion to monitor your sector while you have a snack drink walk or whatever please remember to phone the hotline to report every sighting the locations listed opposite have been utilised in the past and if you wish to use one of these please be aware that as some sites are on public i.e council land we can t set up any form of stall abn 19 416 546 368 bateau bay ­ crackneck lookout copacabana norah head newcastle north ­ streslecki lookout redhead wybung head mid north coast anna bay boat harbour port macquarie ­ tacking point lighthouse north coast byron bay queensland tasmania point lookout north stradbroke island maria island do you have a favourite spot of your own if so please email us on orrca@orrca.org.au so we can add it to the list thanks for being a part of our annual whale census day © orrca inc 2012 registered under the associations incorporation act nsw email orrca@orrca.org.au website www.orrca.org.au 24 hour marine mammal rescue hotline 02 9415 3333 po box2262 bomaderry nsw 2541 page

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marine mammal sighting log moon phase direction strength choppy calm swell sun rain clear fog overcast date time location tide high low wind water weather species and number comments presence or absence of boats jet-skis aircraft swimmers or divers etc bird fish and seal activity please utilise the back of the form for any further notes and return to orrca inc po box 2262 bomaderry nsw 2541 marine mammal incident hotline 02 9415 3333

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orrca inc po box 2262 bomaderry nsw 2541 registered by australia post print post approved pp238756/00005 newsletter

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