THE UNIVERSITY OF VICTORIA
MARCH 19, 1999
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THE UNIVERSITY OF VICTORIA |
by Valerie Shore
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It's no easy feat to study an animal that weighs 35 tonnes, lives in a hostile environment and spends up to 95 per cent of its time out of your sight. Just ask the small group of researchers in the University of Victoria's whale research lab, who, despite these obstacles, are learning more and more every year about the feeding ecology of one of the largest animals found off the B.C. coast &emdash; the Pacific gray whale. The lab, housed in UVic's geography department, conducts research on a variety of whale-related topics, such as whalewatching and the cultural aspects of marine mammals, but it is the gray whale that is the focal point for most of the work. |
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For three-and-a-half months every summer, the lab virtually empties as faculty and graduate student researchers head out to the wild waters of Clayoquot Sound on western Vancouver Island, where a small number of gray whales spend the summer fattening up for their southward migration in the fall. What the researchers have found out so far &emdash; and what they hope to discover more about in the years to come &emdash; is that the role of gray whales in B.C.'s coastal ecosystem is far more complex than previously thought. "A lot of the literature on gray whales seems to be talking about a different animal than the one we've come to know in Clayoquot," says UVic geographer Dr. Dave Duffus, who heads the whale research lab. "Our studies have revealed some interesting facts and opened up whole new areas for us to investigate." The gray whale is a baleen whale. Instead of teeth, it has plates of baleen &emdash; made of a substance similar to human fingernails &emdash; which hang down from the roof of its mouth. It feeds by gulping in quantities of food and water, and then straining the water out through the baleen plates. Scientists have long believed that the gray whale is primarily a bottom feeder, grubbing in the mud and sand for benthic organisms such as worms and small shrimplike animals known as amphipods. But that doesn't seem to be the case in Clayoquot. "We've found that they seem to prefer to feed anywhere but the bottom," says Duffus. To find out what, how and where the whales are eating, a variety of field research techniques are used, including photo-identification, transect habitat studies, time-depth recorder tagging, plankton tows, bottom dredges &emdash; and patient observation. |
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Valerie Shore photo |
It can be cold, wet and tiring work, yet everyone pitches in to help, including faculty, grad students, and some senior undergraduates. "It's a very cooperative atmosphere," says Duffus. "It needs to be, because there's so little funding, and although the work has a very sexy image, there's a lot of slavery to it." The whale research lab's unusual location &emdash; in geography rather than biology &emdash; gives researchers the "methodological freedom" to explore the spatial aspects of ecology, using such tools as statistics, mapping, and GIS. "Because whales spend so much time underwater, we can analyse their distribution over time and space and overlay things like oceanographic phenomena, bottom topography and water temperature," explains Duffus. Such techniques will come in handy as the Clayoquot gray whale study expands even further in scope. Working with Queen's University geographer Dr. Dennis Jelinski and UVic colleague Dr. Olaf Niemann (geography), Duffus is conducting a major productivity study of Cow Bay &emdash; a popular feeding spot for gray whales &emdash; all the way up to the Cow Creek drainage. "We'll use a variety of techniques to try and understand why some bays are particularly productive," says Duffus. "As we continue the other whale work, we should begin to get an idea of what role gray whales play in local ecological systems. I'm hopeful it's going to be pretty revealing." |
