I’ve just updated my humpback whale calf summary file with another calf addition…calf #30 (a female), contributed by Nonie Silver.

Nonie named the calf “Kiran”, which means “ray of light” in Hindi/ Sanskrit.

The good news is…there is more calf information coming in, with at least two that look to be baby whales that are not in the PDF file yet.

The bad news is…it’s a lot of work(!) to go through all the information, verify IDs, prepare images, update and upload the file. Since I’m leaving for my Eastern Fields trip soon, I probably won’t have another opportunity to update until I’m back at the end of the year.

Click to download the Summary of humpback whale calfs: 2009, v4.

View Calf IDs Tonga 2009 in a larger map

I’m a week behind posting this update. Partially, the delay is due to travel. I was in transit for several days, and I had lots of people to see and errands to run along the way. Mostly though, I haven’t felt like writing since I received the news of my friend Ongo’s passing. Actually, I haven’t felt like doing much of anything, but it’s time to get on with life.

My final week in Tonga for this season was characterised by wind. Lots, and lots of wind. In fact, the entire season has been windy, such that some areas around the islands have been difficult or nearly impossible to access on many occasions. Sure, there were a few OK days, but it’s been the windiest I’ve ever experienced in Vava’u.

I’m no weather expert, but I think I discern a possible pattern.

The first time I visited Vava’u was in September 1998. The weather was horrific. Cold, wet, windy…miserable. The next time, in September 2002, the weather was just shy of horrific. 2003 improved somewhat. 2004 and 2005 were fantastic. 2006 was ok. 2007 a bit worse. 2008, lots of rain and generally not great. 2009…ripping winds, though much less rain than 2008.

1998-2000 was an El Niño/ La Niña period. A minor La Niña occurred in 2000-2001, and El Niño in 2006-2007, with La Niña following in 2007-2009. Since June 2009, El Niño conditions have formed again in the equatorial Pacific region.

So in my personal experience over the past ten years or so, whenever there’s an El Niño/ La Niña event, the prevailing weather and wind conditions go a bit haywire in Vava’u. Conversely, in 2004/ 2005, when there was no El Niño or La Niña influence, blue skies and calm, flat seas prevailed. Perhaps it’s a coincidence, or maybe the locally discernable effects of these global weather patterns are magnified because Vava’u is in the middle of the ocean with no major land mass nearby.

I have no idea how long the current El Niño will last, or whether it will be followed by La Niña, but I suppose I’ll find out in coming years weather there really is a correlation, or if I’m seeing patterns where there are none.

Counting Calfs
We ended the season with 25 ID-ed calfs…amazingly, the target number I had set relatively early in the season, once I saw the rapid pace of new calf appearances. (03 Oct ‘09 Note: The finally tally turned out to be 26 calfs that we identified. I initially mis-ID-ed one as Mei Mei. See calf summary for details.)

Our final calf find was during our last day on the water, when we came across a friendly mother and relatively large calf in the afternoon. Fortunately, the pair were resting in a sheltered area (we had been beaten up in rough, exposed seas during the morning), so we were able to spend quality time with the whales.

The calf turned out to be female, and we named the baby Nofo. Naming the calf Nofo was in honour of our close friend Aunofo, but as it turns out, Nofo’a means goodbye in Tongan…so we inadvertently picked a name with an appropriate double meaning.

Calfs ID-ed during our final week:
- Mei Mei: Sighted her three days during our final week, including our initial encounter with the RTHK folks
- Ika: Named for Ongo’s eldest son
- Noah: Named for another of Ongo’s sons
- Nofo: Encountered on our final day

Of course, now the hard work begins, as I have to sort through all of our photos and pick the ones that I’ll use in the calf summary I’m going to put together. And then…I have to collate data and actually put the summary together!

Adding to the workload will (hopefully) be images and additional data from other people. For instance, on the Monday after I left Tonga, I received an email from Alexis and Nathalie (who were on one of my boats and stayed on for a few days longer) with photos of another mom and baby that neither Takaji nor I had photographed. So that makes the count 26!

Assuming additional data comes in during the rest of the season, we should easily cross 30 calfs. I’ll post a summary document as soon as I can, and update it as and when more photos and IDs come in.

Jumping back a bit in time…one of the main reasons Takaji and I started doing these calf counts is because we didn’t believe the generally accepted view that between six to eight calfs visited the waters around Vava’u each year. Our initial informal tallies during the 2004/ 2005 seasons led us to believe there were dozens, not a handful, of babies each year. Still, everyone we asked either had no opinion, or insisted that there were only a few calfs.

Our experiences in 2006 and 2007 reinforced our view, so beginning last year, we decided to document the calfs we encountered. By using photographs of mother and calf pairs, we were able to establish definitive IDs for many calfs, and therefore come up with a rigorous tally, which we’re happy to share with anyone who’s interested.

In 2008, we ID-ed 14 calfs around Vava’u (plus an additional two at Toku Island). We spent a total of 66 boat-days on the water (that’s excluding one boat-day at Toku), so that’s 14 calfs in 66 days = 0.21 calfs/ day.

This year, we ID-ed 25 calfs in 59 boat-days on the water (again, excluding one day at Toku), which = 0.42 calfs/ day.

Of course, this isn’t a strict, variable-controlled measurement, but 0.42 vs 0.21 provides a fairly accurate reflection of the difference between 2009 and 2008, at least for the August/ first half of September period.

In short…despite the strong winds and relatively difficult conditions this year, we saw lots of baby whales (as did most everyone else who visited Vava’u this year).

What does this mean? I hesitate to extrapolate too much, but I think it’s fair to say that the common wisdom was flat-out wrong.

In addition, the fact that we documented the return of a humpback whale mother this year that was in Vava’u least year, suggests that another piece of oft-stated “wisdom” may be in error. There are people who insist that the presence of humans in the water is scaring humpback whales away. These people say that there are fewer whales in the area, and that the ones that do come to Tonga stay farther away from Vava’u than before.

Instead of arguing the point (which in the interest of being completely open…I think is a load of ****), it’s best to let the whales do the talking and let the facts speak for themselves. They’re returning to Vava’u, and even having babies repeatedly in the area, so they can’t be all that put off by the presence of a few ungainly swimmers in the water.

Travel Silliness
Anyone who travels frequently probably has a lot of “stupid travel stories”. I certainly do.

Just to add one to my ever-growing list…on the way back from Vava’u, we had a day in Nukua’lofa. We stopped off to see one of the handicraft vendors I’ve known for a while, and we picked up a nice wooden carving of a whale. It’s somewhat big, but not too large to carry, and it’s light, so we figured we could carry it on the plane.

When we reached X-ray at the airport, one of the security guards told us that we could not take the whale on the plane. When I asked what the problem was, he said: “It’s a weapon.”

Pause about five seconds for me to process that statement…and then I said: “Actually…it’s a whale. A nice, friendly one.”, smiling for emphasis.

“No. It’s a weapon. You should know you are not allowed to carry weapons on board. We will have to detain you.”

“It’s actually a whale. Here. Take a look.”

“No. It’s a weapon.”

“Ummm, it’s a whale.”

“No. It’s a weapon.”

You get the idea.

So after all was said and done, we convinced the hyper-vigilant security guard to let us check the weapon whale in, thereby averting the possibility of a renegade wooden whale taking over the plane mid-flight.

Crisis averted.

Shortly after we boarded, we were served a meal, complete with…metal knives and forks. Good thing the whale wasn’t on board to make use of the utensils for nefarious purposes.

Wrapping Up
There are more things I want to write about, but it’s probably better for me to put them off until I’m in a better mood.

Our 2009 humpback whale season was, as always, action-packed. Besides the many whales we saw, the calfs we documented, the strange trill sound we recorded, the whale poop I swam through, the whale dandruff I collected and the injured whale we encountered…we swam with tiger sharks, bronze whalers, sailfish, barracuda, spinner dolphins, pilot whales, large jellyfish, a manta ray (that actually spooked a whale…it was quite funny) and more stuff that escapes my immediate recollection.

All told, 45 people from around the world joined us this year to swim among and learn about humpback whales. We took 15 +/- students from Vava’u High School into the water to see a mother and calf up close. We donated school supplies to a school for handicapped children and schools on outlying islands. We spent time with some of the best friends we have anywhere in the world. And sadly, we lost a dear friend.

Finally…to everyone who joined us this year…thank you for being such wonderful travel companions.

I’ll post my schedule for 2010 in a few days, so if you’re considering joining us next year, check back soon!

This past week was one of the most (if not the most) challenging and rewarding weeks I’ve had in Tonga.

Challenging…because we had a lot of people from several countries here simultaneously: Officially…five from Japan, three from Singapore, two from France, two from the United States. Unofficially, we ended up taking fifteen Tongan students and their teacher out to swim with whales, and also helping a TV crew from Hong Kong.

Rewarding…because we pulled everything off without any major glitches, and because we were able to share the beauty and grace of the humpback whales with so many people from such diverse backgrounds…and influence so many lives in a positive manner.

Calfs, Calfs, Calfs
First and foremost, in the midst of all the activity, we managed to identify another nine calfs by the end of the week, bringing our total to 21 photo-verified mother/ calf pairs over four weeks (compared to 14 such pairs in the Vava’u area over a six-week period in 2008).

As I mentioned in my earlier posts from this season, I suspected early on that 2009 would be a great year for calfs. The abundance and intensity of heat runs over the past couple of years suggested a reasonable probability for a near-term increase in calf births. Emails, etc. from friends in Tonga that I received before I arrived suggested an early start to calf births. And finally, our initial pace of calf IDs suggested that…well, there were lots of babies around.

The calfs we ID-ed this week are:
Luna: Mom has a unique dorsal fin that’s easy to spot
Vanilla: Named for the delicious vanilla gelato that a friend makes for us here
Sesame: Named for the mom and baby’s resemblance to black sesame seeds
Bubbles: Named for the penchant of the attending escort to blow bubbles
Gelato: The other half of “vanilla gelato”
Dialga: A pokemon character (the influence of Takaji’s kids)
Palkia: Ditto Dialga
Mama’s Boy: Named for the tendency of the baby to stick next to mama, despite being large already
Full Moon: So named because we found the calf on the day of the full moon (actually just shy of one day after).

We also re-sighted Luna, Blackberry (from last week) and Dialga…adding to our list of repetitive sightings. The repetitive sightings are important, because they give us some insight into the movements of the moms and babies over time. Our working hypothesis based on last year’s timeline is that the mother/ calf pairs don’t stick around Vava’u for too long at any given time.

It seems as if they’re here for a day/ a few days, then move on, sometimes re-visiting the area at a later point, sometimes never being seen again. Of course, it’s entirely possible that they could re-visit without our noticing, but over time, hopefully we’ll be able to glean some meaningful pattern from all the data points.

One thing I should mention is that it’s not easy ID-ing the calfs. In most places (in fact, in all cases that I know of), humpback whale IDs are based on photographing the underside of their flukes (tails) when the whales dive.

This is better than doing nothing, but I see several inherent problems with this accepted methodology.

First, whales don’t always show you the backside of their tails. In fact, most of the time they don’t. And even if they do, you might miss the shot. This, by definition, significantly restricts opportunities for ID.

Second, there’s a lot more to a humpback whale than its tail. By ignoring the rest of the body (on which there are often easily distinguishable, unique marks), you miss out on ID opportunities.

Finally, by restricting yourself to only taking photographs from a distance above water, you never actually see what’s going on under the waterline, so you can’t associate specific whales with specific behaviour…at least, not accurately. This, by definition, means you gain minimal (actually, quite often zero) insight into what whales are actually doing.

A parallel would be aliens studying human society by photographing only our asses from space while making a point of not observing our behaviour. For some people, this might be adequate. Most people (and whales), however, aren’t just rear ends.

For all these reasons, we ID mom/ baby pairs by using underwater photos first and foremost, and then photographing from every angle possible. We of course look for unique fluke patterns, but we don’t restrict ourselves. We also watch what the whales do underwater, and make notes (in writing and mentally) for future reference.

Our ID of Lilo earlier on this season, for instance, did rely on the fluke, but not the underside (which is what most other people use). We used the dorsal side, which is more readily visible but often ignored. Had we only concentrated on taking topside photos of the underside of the fluke, chances are high we would have missed this ID.

Some whales, like Luna’s mother, have unique dorsal fins. Luna’s mom’s dorsal fin is almost non-existent, with a craggly stump in its place. This, plus four white rune-like marks on the stump, make it easy to ID Luna and her mom. In fact, when I happened upon the pair again two days after my initial ID, it took all over 0.000005 seconds to ID her. Again, had I obsessed about the underside of the fluke…

Other whales have no specific unique marking, but the sum total of the patterns on their bodies makes it easy to ID them…in which cases in-water full-body photos are invaluable.

Of course, taking good underwater photos of whales in a consistent manner isn’t a simple process by any means. At this point, our hit rate is really high, because we know how to read the whales and understand how to behave around each one. Each whale is an individual, and their personalities can differ as much as the personalities of two different people. Accepting, understanding and respecting this is absolutely key.

People Power
The past week saw the most international group of people we’ve ever brought here.

Besides the logistical headache of making sure everyone’s travel arrangements were in order, we had to contend with the challenges of operating in two languages (English and Japanese) and adapting to differing cultural norms. This is something that seems like it shouldn’t be too difficult, but it can be stressful and exhausting. In fact…it was.

However (a BIG however), we had a great time, and we were fortunate, as we have been over the years, to have terrific people join us here. We enjoyed spending time with old friends; we made a lot of new friends; and hopefully, we made a lot of people really happy. The smiles, laughs, and squeals of delight (yes, you Serene), made the hard work worthwhile. All the people who had cameras took terrific photos, so they have a lot to show friends and memories to keep forever.

We also had unanticipated “guests” at the end of the week. On Saturday, I took out a group of fifteen students (+/-, I forgot to count exactly how many there were) and one of their teachers to swim with whales.

Most Tongan people in Vava’u have never seen a whale up close, much less been in the water with one. Quite often, it’s a mystery to them why people would come from distant lands to get into cold, wet conditions just to see the tofua’a (whale in Tongan). Equally often, people here are scared to get into the ocean and/ or scared of being close to the whales.

We decided some time ago to contribute back to the local community, which has been really kind to us. One of the ways we’re trying to do this is by teaching kids about the whales. Last year, we produced a short video that was shown to dozens of school kids, along with a short talk and Q&A about whales. We wanted to take some of the kids out last season, but the right circumstances never materialised.

On Saturday, after sending off some people at the airport, I rushed back into town and hopped on a friend’s boat that we had chartered for the day to take the kids out. The weather was great (unusual this year), with low winds, bright sun, calm waters.

In short order, we found a chilled-out mother and calf (the one we named Full Moon) in clear visibility. At first, the kids were excited to be on the boat, but afraid to get into the water. It took a bit of convincing, but once the first of them joined me and came out of the water babbling incoherently with excitement, everyone wanted to get it…even the ones who initially maintained, “I can’t swim!”

With such ideal circumstances, I was able to get all the kids in for a close-up look at the maternal bond and loving relationship between mother and baby humpback. The boat crew got in too, as well as other people on board.

All things considered, the day was a smashing success, and I have no doubt whatsoever that it’s a day the kids will never forget. I’m pretty sure they understand now why people come from far and wide to peek under the waves. I’m really looking forward to doing this again at the next opportunity.

Finally, on Sunday (technically, not part of Week 4…but since I’m late writing this post, I might as well write about Sunday too), I had a TV crew from RTHK in Hong Kong with me. They had already spent a couple weeks here in Vava’u, so they had quite a bit of footage. They mainly wanted footage of me getting in/ out of the water, taking photos, swimming, etc.

So…we decided to roll the dice and look for cooperative whales in calm waters, figuring that we’d either find them the perfect conditions for filming, or we’d strike out. Fortune smiled upon us, and…bingo! We found a mom and baby whale in an ideal location, both of which gave them a beautiful performance both in-water and topside. (I named the calf Mei Mei, but she goes on next week’s list).

Perhaps the best part of that day was getting the head guy, Jerry, into the water with the whales. Although he had been here for a while, the poor fellow had stayed topside the entire trip to film and give directions, letting everyone else experience the fun stuff. That’s dedication.

So on his final day, Jerry finally made it into the water, and he emerged with same perma-grin that the high school kids and our international group of travellers had on their faces just days before.

Such is the positive power that in-water encounters with humpback whales can have.

Looking Ahead
The upcoming week will be our final one in Tonga this season.

On the one hand, I’m relieved, as it’s been a long, tiring month so far and I really(!) need a break. On the other, I don’t want to leave. I know I’ll miss the whales right away and be wondering how many calfs I’m not seeing, how many heat runs I’m not enjoying, etc. And I know I’ll miss all the great people of Vava’u, many of whom I count among my dearest friends.

After we leave, it’ll take a bit of time, but we’ll compile the calf data that we have, and I’ll put together an organised summary, which again, as with last year, I’ll post to the net and make available to anyone who wants to read it.

Finally, we’ll commence planning for our 2010 schedule, so if you’re interested in joining us, stay tuned…I’ll post details soon.

There are several people here with me now who are taking part in the first non-Japanese group that I’ve organised for swimming with whales in Tonga…two visitors from the US, two from Singapore and two from France.

One of the people, Nathalie, nailed this image of a calf coming up for a breath of air. She was so happy that she showed everyone on the boat (several times) and was all smiles from the rest of the day (and the next day too).

The group decided to name the calf (the 14th one we’ve ID-ed this season) Vanilla…for the delicious vanilla gelato made by one of our friends here. I had three servings the other night…which no doubt contributed to the selection of the calf’s name.

Nathalie took this photo with a Canon G10, proving that you don’t always need the biggest ‘n baddest equipment to get great shots.

Even more amazing is the fact that Nathalie was somewhat nervous when she arrived just a few days ago, and she even lost a fin on her first foray into the water.

Nonetheless, she persevered, and now has this wonderful image (as well as others) to show for her effort…after only a few days.

Well done Nathalie!