Humpback Comeback

In the Salish Sea, increasing vessel traffic and a rise in the humpback whale population is pushing the need for ways to protect these vulnerable species.

Story by Nathalie Wagler

December 11, 2020

Bart Rulon, naturalist with the whale watching service Puget Sound Express, scanned the surface of the water, waiting for a sign of the humpback whale he had seen surfacing while guiding a tour. He soon realized that he had likely witnessed the whale take its last breath 24 minutes after being hit by a Washington State ferry near Mukilteo, Washington.

Unfortunately, this kind of tragedy is all too common, as humpback whales return to the Salish Sea after nearly 100 years.

In the early 1900s, humpback whales in the North Pacific Ocean were hunted nearly to extinction when commercial whaling operations off the west coast of Washington and British Columbia discovered they could hunt humpbacks year round. These school-bus-sized baleen whales became a rare sight in the Salish Sea until the late 2000s when their population started steadily increasing. However, the threat of increased vessel traffic in the Salish Sea is putting these precious animals at risk.

The humpback whale population on the West Coast grew by about 7% per year between 1990 and 2000, according to John Calambodikis, senior research biologist and co-founder of Cascadia Research Collective. It is now surpassing the early 1900s pre-whaling population.

Big Mama, also known by her scientific designation BCY-0324, jump started the return of the population to the Salish Sea in the early 2000s. She and her calves still return season after season.

“She’s had a bunch of babes,” laughed Sarah McCullagh, lead naturalist vessel coordinator and captain for whale watch company San Juan Safaris.

McCullagh said even in the last few years humpbacks have been much more reliable in the Salish Sea. In 2014, McCullagh recalled spotting only a handful of humpback whales.

“Last year we saw an incredible uptick. One day we had over 20 humpbacks, that was just south of Victoria, which was mind blowing,” said McCullagh. “I hadn’t seen anything like that out here.”

Calambokidis said the whales are likely returning due to an overall increase in their population throughout the oceans. This is causing the whales to expand back into areas they historically inhabited in order to avoid competition for food.

The populations that travel through the Salish Sea on their migration route come from warm, equatorial waters in Hawaii, Mexico and Central America where they breed in the winter. In the spring and summer, they head to cold, northern waters where they feed by filtering shrimp, krill, plankton and small fish through the bristly plates in their mouths.

In the Salish Sea, the whales primarily live around the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, which lies between the Olympic Peninsula and Vancouver Island.

The strait, as well as serving as a primary feeding location for humpback whales, is a main lane for ships headed for the ports of Seattle and Vancouver. Vessels are constantly moving through the strait, at a rate often compared to busy highway traffic.

The vessels using the strait pose threats to marine life, including humpback whales, in a multitude of ways including direct ship strikes, noise and risk of ecosystem contamination. Research has found that these dangers are likely to degrade critical humpback whale habitat.

Noise from vessel traffic can interfere with whales’ communication patterns and their ability to find food, said McCullagh. Whales can get tangled in fishing gear or other equipment, such as ropes, lines or chains and if unable to escape the gear, can be left with intense scarring. This is the most common form of scarring on humpbacks in the Salish Sea and can often be seen around their tail flukes. McCullagh said on some whales the entire base of their tail fluke is scar tissue from entanglements.

Ship strikes, however, are one of the leading sources of human-caused mortality of humpback whales on the West Coast, according to a 2020 study published in Frontiers in Marine Science. Ship strikes occur when a vessel hits a whale as it is surfacing for air. Live humpbacks can show signs of ship strike in the form of gashes from propellers on their backs, which vary in size and severity depending on the size of the vessel. Many whales, though, don’t live to bear these scars.

“We did actually see the whale pop up right next to the boat when it was moving,” said Rulon, recounting the ferry strike. “We were all worried that the whale got hit, and sure enough, it was pretty obvious afterwards that it did.”

Ship strikes are typically documented by ferries with a large number of passengers onboard to witness the incident, while cargo ships are much less likely to even be aware they’ve hit a whale. Because of this, Calambokidis said the vast majority of ship strikes go undocumented.

If a whale is killed from a ship strike, its body can fill with gas and float on the surface. The whale can then be towed to shore for further examination. Their bodies sometimes sink instead, which is likely the case for the ferry strike Rulon witnessed. The body of the whale was never found, and it was never seen again.

“Humpback whales seem to be more susceptible to ship strikes, definitely more so than Southern resident whales and other killer whales,” said Lovel Pratt, the marine protection and policy director for Friends of the San Juans, a non-profit dedicated to protecting and restoring the San Juan Islands and the Salish Sea.

In order to protect the humpback whale population in the Salish Sea, numerous mitigation programs are being implemented to help vessel captains steer clear of the animals.

One program is the Whale Warning Flag. Ship captains put up the flag when they encounter or see a whale in their vicinity to alert other boats of whales in the area. McCullagh said they utilize the whale warning flag often at San Juan Safaris. Rulon said Puget Sound Express also uses the whale warning flag, but he believes it needs to be revamped to be more effective. Rulon suggested including verbiage on the flag so it is more clear and adding an educational aspect to the program so people actually know what the flag means.

“We’re out there because we love the whales and want to make sure that other people get a chance to love those animals as well,” said McCullagh. She said San Juan Safaris sees their role as sentinels of the waters, and she sees participating in the flag program as just doing the right thing.

The Whale Reporting Alert System is another tool used for real-time reporting of whales by commercial mariners, Washington State Ferries and British Columbia Ferries to alert one another of whales in an area. Both of these programs are in place to slow down vessels with the hope of reducing ship strikes.

According to Calambokidis, however, reevaluating shipping routes can better protect humpback whales. He believes the routes that cargo ships take and the speeds they travel at are the most important factors to consider.

“Knowing whales are in the area can be helpful, but whales move constantly and they surface unpredictably. I think knowing whales are in the area is only going to make a small difference,” Calambodkidis said.

According to the environmental advocacy group Friends of the San Juans, shipping traffic in the Salish Sea is set to increase. While attempts to reduce the effects of traffic are helpful in protecting marine life, Pratt explained that these efforts only go so far.

“There’s never a way to completely mitigate a project expansion that would increase vessel traffic,” Pratt said.

The expansion of the Trans Mountain oil pipeline is one project expected to increase traffic in the Salish Sea. According to Trans Mountain, its tankers are currently making 106 trips in and out of its Vancouver terminal yearly, which will increase to 816 at the completion of the company’s expansion. In comparison, British Columbia and Washington State Ferries account for 316,388 yearly trips throughout the Salish Sea.

Humpback whales were used as an indicator species for Trans Mountain’s expansion application to show the potential impacts on the population and their habitat. One study commissioned by the company found that slowing ships from 15 knots to between 10 and 12 knots could partially offset the effects of the additional vessels in the water.

However, Trans Mountain wrote that it has little control over the operating practices of the tankers once they leave the terminal, because they are owned and operated by a third party. In its proposal Trans Mountain announced that it would not pursue any direct mitigation of effects caused by increased traffic.

Trans Mountain went through a permitting process which did not adequately address the significant increase in tanker traffic, according to Pratt.

Allison Penton with Media Relations for Trans Mountain stated in an email that the effects of shipping are best dealt with outside of the project, and need to happen at an industry-wide level. Trans Mountain has contributed to various programs such as the Enhancing Cetacean Habitat and Observation program in 2015.

Studies are continually being done to learn more about the threat of vessel traffic to humpback whales. McCullagh said that humpbacks are one of the few success stories in conservation, but it’s important to keep watch on their still-vulnerable population.

“They’re doing a great job and coming back, and we’re seeing incredible strides forward,” she said. “But we need to continue to emphasize the fact that they still need protection, and that we still do need to work together for their conservation.”

Humpback populations are recovering, but the Mexican and Central American breeding populations are still listed as endangered. McCullagh believes that while programs like the Whale Warning Flag are important, an overall culture shift is needed to instill a sense of empathy in all vessels in the Salish Sea.

“How do we create the most sustainable world without making enemies?” said McCullagh. “The only way to move forward is to still work together and actually form some kind of understanding between each other.”

Nathalie Wagler is a junior environmental science student passionate about marine conservation.