Blue Whale Sighted Off Washington
Outer Coast
13 January 2009
Cascadia Research conducts monthly surveys for
marine mammals off the Washington outer coast as part of a collaborative
project with Scripps Institute of Oceanography. On January 13th 2009,
during the course of one of our surveys, we encountered a blue whale in the
vicinity of Grays Harbor Canyon. While we are still trying to track down the
last confirmed sighting in Washington State, this likely represents one of the
first confirmed sightings since hunting this species was banned in US waters in
1966. Although the population of
blue whales off California is among the few worldwide that is recovering with
protection, these whales were once abundant in as far north as British Columbia
and Alaska, but have been slow to return to these areas. Identification photos of the whale
(below) are being compared against a catalog of about 2,000 blue whales from
the eastern North Pacific maintained by Cascadia Research to see if the whale
has been documented in any other regions.
Blue Whale off Westport, WA. Erin Falcone © Cascadia Research,
2009. Do not use without
permission.
Several fin whales were also seen in the same area,
representing only the second sighting of fin whales over the course of over
four years of these surveys. In addition, several groups of southbound
migrating gray whales were encountered, as well as Dall’s and harbor
porpoise, northern fur seals and a Steller sea lion.
Fin Whale off Westport, WA. Erin Falcone © Cascadia Research,
2009. Do not use without
permission.
A team attempted to return to the area where the
whales were sighted (approximately 40nm due west of Gray Harbor) on Thursday,
January 15th to look for additional animals, with the goal of
collecting more photographs, collecting tissue samples for genetic analyses,
and deploying satellite tags to track the movements of individuals, however
they were forced to abort the survey due to high winds. Another survey will be attempted as soon
as conditions permit.
Additional information on the objectives and results
of our surveys in this area, please see the following report: 2006 Progress
Report on Acoustic and Visual Monitoring for Cetaceans along the Outer Washington
Coast