Comments on: Humpback Whale Calf Summary

By: Gale McCullough

Gale McCullough — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:05:59 +0000

I work as a flukematcher for Allied Whale which holds the catalog for whales in the North Atlantic. But there is an effort to gather south pacific humpback flukes for identification since little is known about the health of this population and it maybe hunted once again. Would you be willing to share your fluke photos with Allied Whale? If so I will ask Judy Allen to get in touch with you... she manages the catalog.

By: noinudee

noinudee — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:58:13 +0000

ooooiiiii super good foto tony!!! *v* lv lv excellent work! nice doc!!!

By: Nonie Silver

Nonie Silver — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 15:22:46 +0000

Tony – just sent you a message. I just returned from Mounu and have two more moms and calfs. Loved looking at the photos and reliving our encounters. Look forward to sharing.

By: Tony Wu’s Humpback Whale Calf Summary « Alexis Tabah.\Blog

Tony Wu’s Humpback Whale Calf Summary « Alexis Tabah.\Blog — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 06:09:17 +0000

[...] http://www.tonywublog.com/20091003/summary-of-humpback-whale-calfs-in-tonga.html [...]

By: Tony

Tony — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 01:49:01 +0000

Hi Carlos,

Thank you very much. We actually don’t have many fluke photos, as we’ve found concentrating on flukes to be a relatively inefficient way of ID-ing the southern hemisphere humpbacks in Vava’u. Many of them have such distinctive body markings that we have a greater success rate ID-ing with the entire body. And the whales don’t always fluke-up when they dive. In fact, it’s only a minor proportion of the time that they do. With limited time and resources, we concentrate on the methodology that gives us the greatest amount of verifiable data while we’re there.

If we can keep this going for several more years, it’ll be interesting to see what trends develop.

Hope your skin-sample analysis is going well!

By: Carlos

Carlos — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 19:20:00 +0000

Hi Tony. Your pics are great! I spent three winters in Vava’u getting skin samples of humpback whales for my PhD where I saw lots of whales. However, is a different story watching a fluke or a dorsal fin from above the sea surface compare to what you have here. I suggest you to contact people at University of Auckland that has been doing research there for years. I am sure they will be able to complement the resighting histories of the mothers if you send them fluke photoIDs. Congratulations for the quality of your work. All the best, carlos

By: Tony

Tony — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 23:34:58 +0000

Stew: We ID-ed 26 babies this year, over a period of about 5 weeks. Last year, over a 6-week period, we ID-ed 14.

I’ve received 3 additional IDs so far. I have all the data for one so far, and am waiting for the relevant information for the other two. I will upload a revised file once I have the information.

So that makes at least 29 babies this year. I’m certain there are more.

Heidi: Thank you. Take a break from the office, and come visit the whales some time!

By: Tony Wu catalogs humpback whale calves in Tonga | AnythingScuba.com | Articles, tips and comments on SCUBA diving.

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 20:19:00 +0000

[...] results are available as a PDF download. If you’d like to help in this year’s calf survey, please contact Tony [...]

By: Heidi

Heidi — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 19:07:53 +0000

I loved looking through this, Tony. The images are beautiful, and as I sit at my desk in my windowless office I can’t help but think that your job is much better than mine. That’s a boatload of whales.

By: stew smith

stew smith — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 17:52:35 +0000

I have just re read your initial posting and it is actually 31 not 24, 24 was the number that were not ID-ed. Amazing.

StewSmith