Carolyn Copper - Photographer
Copper Range LLC
Connecting you with nature
Will Work for Whales
I have a whale of a story that I hope inspires you as much as me. It’s about a Humpback Whale I photographed last month (July) in Bonavista, Newfoundland, Canada. When I get good quality Humpback Whale photos – specifically tail or “fluke” photos -- I submit them to organizations with the tools and resources to analyze photos for identification. The color, scarring, and edge patterns on Humpback Whale flukes are unique to each one -- and like a human fingerprint – are used to establish the identity of individual Whales. A clear photo of Humpback flukes is a step toward identification. For various reasons, identifications from photos aren’t always possible, but when they are, we might learn something about the whale’s age, gender, whether it’s had calves, and how far it’s traveled or migrated in its lifetime. Since Humpback Whales can live 80 to 90 years, those kinds of facts aren’t only fascinating, they reveal a great deal about animal behavior.
I shared my photo with an organization called Allied Whale. Allied Whale has been using photographic identification (photo-ID) techniques to study North Atlantic Humpback and Finback (Fin) Whales for over 40 years. Allied Whale, managed and curated by the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine, published the first North Atlantic Humpback Whale Catalog in 1977. That first Catalog contained 120 Humpback Whales. Today’s Catalog includes sighting information for over 10,000 individual whales from all the known feeding and breeding/calving grounds in the North Atlantic Ocean. The North Atlantic Ocean encompasses a large area of North America, Europe, and parts of South America and Northern Africa. The North Atlantic Ocean meets the South Atlantic Ocean at the equator. Allied Whale is the central Humpback Whale identification database for all the North Atlantic Ocean.
What I learned about this Humpback Whale, which Allied Whale identified as “na1982” is that it was first photographed 45 years ago in 1979 in the same area of Bonavista Newfoundland I took my photo. So.... exciting fact 1 is that this Humpback Whale is older than 45, and possibly much older. The other exciting (magical??) facts about this Humpback are, (2) my sighting in July 2024 was only the second sighting of this Humpback since 1979, and (3) the first and only other sighting was by Dr. Jon Lien, a man who later became an international leader in marine conservation and animal behavior.
Let me share some important information about Dr. Lien, sometimes called the “Whale Man.” Dr. Jon Lien, originally from South Dakota, was a pioneering marine biologist and conservationist who made significant contributions to the protection of marine life through his groundbreaking work with entangled whales. Known for his innovative approaches to disentangling whales from fishing gear, Lien's efforts not only saved countless whales but also raised global awareness about the dangers of human activities on marine ecosystems. He was concerned about addressing both the welfare of the whales and the concerns of local Newfoundland fishermen. Newfoundland was where Dr. Lien first started his work and research.
In the early days of whale entanglements, many Newfoundland fishermen couldn’t get help or support to free whales from their nets and some resorted to shooting whales to maintain their livelihood. Dr. Lien’s creation of the Whale Release Program utilized specialized tools and techniques for safe disentanglement and became a model for similar initiatives worldwide. Lien's dedication to both research and education left a legacy in marine conservation, highlighting the critical need for ongoing efforts to preserve the delicate balance of our oceans for marine life and humans.
Dr. Lien’s empathy to both the whales and the people of Newfoundland and Labrador led to the rescue of more than 500 marine animals during his career and the improved livelihood of many Newfoundlanders and Labradorians. He was awarded the Order of Canada the second-highest Canadian honor for merit and the Order of Newfoundland and Labrador a civilian honor for merit in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Is na1982 just a fluke?
Sources and Information:
https://www.coa.edu/allied-whale/research/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Lien
https://www.mun.ca/science/graduate-students/the-dr-jon-lien-memorial-scholarship/
https://gazette.mun.ca/campus-and-community/the-whale-man/
