Sperm Whales Communicated Data About Whalers

More: Norway announced it will allow hunting of Minke whales this year. Norwegian whalers killed 503 common minke whales (Balaenoptera acutorostrata)in the previous two years. The quota set by the ministry of fisheries is set at 1,278. Once again whale hunting is caught up in nationalist fever and cultural identity. Demand for whale meat is miniscule, but whale hunters apparently have a pipeline into governement decision making. In response to international criticism, the government claims the hunt is sustainable. A global moratorium went into effect in 1986, but a few countries, notably Japan, Iceland and Norway have ignored it. Conservationists argue the hunting whales unethical and cruel and the history of whaling indicates that the industry is anything but sustainable. They also say there is a growing scientific awareness of the role whales play in the functioning of a healthy marine environment.

Despite continuing whaling in the face of an international ban, Norway is positioning itself as a leader in ocean conservation. It recently joined the Ocean Panel along with thirteen other natioins committed to sustainable managing 100% of their territorial seas. The country is also playing a role in cleaning up marine litter. It published useful guidelines on how to release whales entangled in so-called "ghost gear"--nets, lines and other debris abandoned by fishing vessels. Animal welfare advocates say harpooned whales do not die humanely Roughly about 18% of the animals in the Norwegian hunt every year do not die instantly. Some take as long as 15 minutes to die. Killing a whale at sea, even with high powered rifles to administer a coup de gras is not easy. The northeastern Atlantic population of minkes, which is targeted by Norway, is around 86,000, counted in 2010. Thirteen ships are anticipated to sign on by April when the hunt starts. Since 1993 Norway has killed more than 14,000. Japan also hunts minkes in the Southern Ocean.

{17/03/21}Cetacean scientists published a paper in the Royal Society journal that concludes 19th century whales communicated information about their killers. Using digitized log books from whaling vessels, Hal Whitehead and Luke Rendell found that the harpoon strike rate fell 58% within just a few years. The inevitable conclusion is that whales, a global population, shared information about lethal human hunters and avoided them if possible. Sperm whales form defensive rings with powerful tails pointing outward against orcas, their only other predator. Such behavior made them easy targets for whalers. Abandoning their usual defensive formations, the whales swam upwind to escape hunters’ ships hampered sailing into the wind.

Sperm whale bulls were known to attack whaling ships. Infamous bulls were giving nicknames by seaman, such as 'Tom' or 'Dick'  The 70 ft long albino whale known as 'Mocha Dick' was greatly feared by whalers for he succeeded in destroying about 20 attacking vessels before being killed himself in defense of a mother whale and her calf.  Melville's Moby Dick was inspired by another huge bull that sunk the USS Essex in 1820 off the coast of Chile. Wreck survivors took their three boats and wandered for 95 days over the vastness of the Pacific's "desolate region"--the South Pacific Gyre.  Only five seaman survived the ordeal after having resorted to cannibalism to save themselves.

Whitehead and Rendell have written persuasively of whale culture in which local populatioins adapt their feeding techniques to suit their environment. One example of this are the grey whales in Puget Sound who risk stranding to pursue clams buried in shallow mud banks at high tide. Humpback whales make subtle changes in their songs, which scientists are trying to understand. The same shared learning decreased the kill rate by 19th century whalers. Now there are man more technological hazards that whales cannot escape, such as harpoon cannons, long- line fishing rigs, pervasive ocean noise, and climate change affecting their food sources. Whale culture is much, much older than man's--we need to learn from it just as Leviathan learned from ours.