Second of three parts. Tuesday, July 12: Life aboard ship
By COURTNEY FLATT/Northwest Public Broadcasting
NEWPORT — Scientists aboard the Bell M. Shimada keep an eye out for whales hoping to help predict where whales will show up by studying the food they eat.
High up on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Newport-based research vessel, the scientists don’t take their eyes off the water. They’re searching for whales.
Whales need a healthy, functioning ecosystem, which means the presence (or absence) of whales could indicate the health of the surrounding ocean, said Dawn Barlow, with the Geospatial Ecology of Marine Megafauna Laboratory at Oregon State University’s Marine Mammal Institute in Newport.
To lessen the eye strain 12 hours of staring could cause, Barlow and Clara Bird, a Ph.D. candidate with the lab, scanned the ocean waves, varying between watching with binoculars and just using their eyes.
Also close at hand: bottles of eye drops.
“The eye drops were a game changer,” Bird said.
Wind, rain or perfectly flat conditions, the marine mammal observers scan the seas for any signs of a whale – a water spout in the distance, a dorsal fin breaking the surface, or, if they were lucky, a breach.
These scientists were part of an interdisciplinary 13-person science crew aboard the Shimada from May 6-17. At least twice a year, a science team boards this vessel to sample and observe the Northern California Current ecosystem to study ocean conditions and the tiny organisms that fish and marine mammals need to thrive in the ocean.
This particular voyage traveled from the San Francisco Bay all the way to La Push, Wash. and back home to Newport. Scientists hoped to learn a little bit more about the mysteries of the ocean by sampling, measuring and observing the marine life in it.
Krill acoustics
On this survey expedition, OSU scientist Rachel Kaplan had dual roles.
She watched from the fly bridge to see where the whales and other marine mammals popped up. At other times, she spends much of her days three stories below staring at a computer screen that displays acoustic readings of what was below the water’s surface.
“The backscatter for krill turns up as red. The aggregations can be pretty variable in shape,” said Kaplan, a second-year Ph.D. student with the Krill Seeker Lab at OSU’s College of Earth Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences and the GEMM lab.
In what’s known as the ship’s acoustics laboratory, Kaplan said she hopes to spot the acoustic frequencies of krill swarms on a computer readout at the same time mammal observers spot whales.
Then, the chief scientist on the voyage, Jennifer Fisher, asks to stop the ship for what’s known as an “opportunistic bongo net drop.” The crew dips a bongo-shaped net into the water, hoping to pull up a bunch of krill.
Whales eat krill, so the two species should be around at the same time.
Protecting krill
Krill are so important to the marine ecosystem that in 2006, the Pacific Fisheries Management Council squashed talk of harvesting krill. In 2009, NOAA enacted a rule that protected krill from commercial fishing up to 200 nautical miles off the U.S. west coast.
That’s why Kaplan’s krill findings could have big impacts on fisheries management. In recent years, an increasing number of whales, especially humpbacks, have gotten tangled in fishing gear.
“We’re trying to figure out: how can people who fish off the coast keep fishing because that’s so important to people’s livelihoods and Oregon’s economy,” Kaplan said. “But how can we also mitigate entanglement risks to whales?”
Scientists quickly realized, to answer those questions, they need to know more about where to expect whales off the coast of Oregon.
Some marine mammal research has already helped to change policies. For example, in 2021, the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission restricted Dungeness crabbing gear. Whales most frequently are reported entangled in crab pots.
Now, the gear must stay inside the 40-fathom depth line, a direct result of marine mammal observations, Barlow said. A fathom is about six feet.
On board the Shimada, Kaplan watched for krill frequencies at depths of around 100 meters.
‘Let’s do this’
Typically, the scientists tow for krill at night when the crustaceans surface to eat and have a better chance of avoiding predators. Scientists have found krill will often dive as deep as 200 meters during the daytime.
“But, the water depth right now is only 140 meters, so they can’t go that deep,” she said. “So we can catch them, maybe.”
Research shows krill often scatter away from nets. On Kaplan’s first try, the krill did just that.
“I saw the bongo net on the acoustics screen, and we definitely hit it,” Kaplan said of the group she’d thought could be krill.
Instead, the net brought up a group of pteropods, which are plankton that are incredibly sensitive to ocean acidification. The sample also included a few young krill.
Hours later, Kaplan found krill exactly when she expected them to show up. The crew pulled up a net full of what they called krill soup, or filters full of juicy krill.
At the same time, the marine mammal observers saw eight humpback whales, all diving to forage for food.
“That was part of what made us say, ‘OK, let’s do this,’” Kaplan said.
Soon, the entire ship would hear the acoustics findings had worked, which created a buzz on the fly bridge.
“There are so many papers that look at whale density and say, ‘Oh, that must mean there was food there.’ Now, it will be cool to actually link those together,” Bird said.
Kaplan’s 2-centimeter krill are put ever so carefully in a small plastic vial, gingerly using tweezers to pluck them from a petri dish as if she were using chopsticks. Kaplan hoped to collect up to 30 krill each time to further study on land.
“I’m so sorry, little krill. Thank you for your sacrifice,” Kaplan whispered to each crustacean she collected.
Scanning for whales
Throughout the rest of the survey the marine mammal observers sporadically saw whales.
The highlight for the spotters came six days into the survey, at the famed Heceta Head, named after Bruno de Hezeta, a Spanish lieutenant who commanded a warship that sailed along the Pacific Coast in 1775.
The waters there make up an incredibly productive spot, similar to a raised garden in the ocean, said Kris Bauer, another scientist aboard the Shimada.
“It’s just so plentiful with nutrients. It’s a really special place,” Bauer said.
Especially along the Heceta Bank, each whale sighting brought excitement to the entire boat. Observers radioed the crew whenever something especially new popped into their line of vision.
“Bridge, bridge, fly bridge,” Kaplan’s voice chimed over the crew’s radio one afternoon. “You may already have seen this, but we have killer whales ahead, just so you know.”
Whales ‘yonder’
As a way to lighten the long days, Barlow, Bird and Kaplan came up with their own lingo to describe how far away a potential whale might be: yonder, yonder-plus, and way-the-heck-yonder.
“We’ve just started saying, ‘Oh, look at that yonder blow,’ and if it’s really far away, it’s yonder-plus,” Bird explained of the group’s inside jargon.
“Or even closer is: right here,” Kaplan said. “It works surprisingly well.”
Days later, as a humpback whale surfaces feet from the ship, Bird looked over, laughing, and said, “So, there’s a humpback. It’s, um, right here.”
More formally, the team tracks the distance and bearing of each sighting in addition to identifying as many whales as possible. Some were simply unidentifiable – too far away, or only the brief poof of a spout, or blow, as the scientists called them.
“I have a blow at 1.5 kilometers, 290 degrees, still unidentified,” Barlow said one afternoon.
As the ship moves closer, Barlow identified four formerly faraway spouts as humpback whales.
Over the course of the trip, they spot signs of 232 whales, 111 of which were humpbacks. A few rare sightings spiced up the days, including an unexpected sei whale – many of the spotters’ favorite.
“Not much is known about the distribution patterns of sei whales, so it’s always interesting to see them,” Barlow said.
Also interesting, the scientists said, is an emerging area of research that shows whale excrement makes for a more productive ocean, like giant mobile fertilizers to help grow phytoplankton, which krill eat.
“I think, for a long time, people didn’t think about whales having a big role in ecosystems beyond their role as predators,” Kaplan said.
Now, these scientists are considering that and so much more.
“The questions we’re asking, no one knows the answer to,” Bird said. “That’s why it’s so exciting. No one knows.”
“We love that,” Kaplan said.
“We love that,” Bird echoed. “Science.”
- Courtney Flatt is a Richland, Wash.-based reporter for Northwest Public Broadcasting who traveled with researchers about the Bell M. Shimada during its trip off the west coast in May.