Are human activities influencing any or all whale species? The Government of Canada does not have even one scientist dedicated to answering these questions in the North Atlantic. This is despite the fact that most whale researchers consider the populations off Newfoundland and Labrador to be among the planet's most abundant but least studied whale gatherings.
At Atlantic Whales we welcome the submission of properly documented whale photographs from around the Atlantic. The Newfoundland and Labrador-based tour company Wildland Tours has made the development of this research website a company priority. However every visitor to the Atlantic coast is encouraged to take scientifically useful whale photographs and to submit these photos to us. It is our intention to edit and post useful photos so they are freely available to researchers — and whale enthusiasts — from around the world.
Attention Whale Researchers and Students This is your site. Feel free to borrow these images or to contact us for higher resolution shots. We do require professional acknowledgement of this Atlantic Whales website and our contributing travelers, observers, scientists, and tour operators but we charge no fees. Our primary goal is to contribute to the knowledge of whale biology and distribution in the Atlantic — especially the Northwest Atlantic.
We welcome your support and your suggestions. It is you who will make this site work for the whales and our shared future. Ratilal started her scientific career studying military sonar and found that fish would seriously clutter the rebounding signals.
Fishermen already use fish-finding sonar but it typically uses very high frequencies and can only map the water column directly beneath a boat. By using lower frequencies, Ratilal could detect fish over thousands of square kilometers.
And a lot of fish, at that. In September , the team ventured out into the Gulf of Maine with two ships: one that sent out sound waves and another that detected the rebounding echoes with a string of hydrophones.
Together, they visualized the movements of a quarter of a billion herring. During the day, these fish stick to the ocean floor and largely keep their distance. But come sunset, they gather to spawn, rising to the surface and aggregating into a kilometers-wide mega-orgy—a shoal of million fish all busy creating millions more baby fish. While working on the herring, the team kept on hearing whales in their recordings. They initially focused on humpbacks, reputedly among the most vocal of the whales.
And sure enough, we found them. They are also rather shy animals by nature, and this shyness combines with their fast speed can make them challenging animals to get a close look at. But when yu are able to get a good look at Fin whale you will no doubt be amazed at their size and beauty.
The chevron of each Fin whale is slightly different which enables researchers to recognize individual whales in the field. By following the movements, behaviors, and associations of individual whales throughout their lives we are able to learn about that species. They can reach adult lengths of just over 30 feet but this rare.
The Minke whales we see in our area usually range in size from feet. Minke whales are quite common and seen on most trips. Minke whales may, in fact, be the most abundant whale species in our area, but their small er size, fast speed, and usually shy nature make them difficult to spot especially on rough weather days when they tend to disappear in the troughs between waves.
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