Another citizen science project that we conduct onboard Bark Europa is called Happy Whale. Happy Whale is a platform collecting photos of marine mammals taken by citizen scientists from all over the world for photo-ID purposes to provide valuable information on whale migration patterns and population status. Photo ID has been used for decades by scientists, where unique individually identifiable markings on animals allow them to be tracked through time and space. So far Happy Whale has recorded over 220,000 whale encounters from over 9,000 participants worldwide, with over 5,300 individual cetaceans identified in the Antarctic and 1,400 in the Arctic.
As we continued south to the Antarctic Peninsula, the Humpback whales were spotted by the look out now and then, which made a good opportunity for photo identification for Happy Whale. As soon as a whale in sight was reported though the ships intercom the voyage crew gathered on deck with their cameras and big lenses to get the best shoot of the whales.
Photo by Richard Simko
Humpback Whales are easily identified by the markings on their fluke (underside and trailing edge of their tail). Each fluke has a unique shape and pigment pattern that is as distinct as a human fingerprint. Some flukes are mostly white, others black, and others have nearly equal mix of black and white. This colour pattern is used to categorise them into 5 categories.
The first Humpback whale spotted and caught for photo identification showed a large injury on its tail, missing half of its fluke, probably after a bad encounter with a large ship and its propeller.
Happy Whale also shows statistics e.g. of distances that Humpback whales travel between breeding and feeding grounds. From the Antarctic Peninsula, at least 95% of Humpback whales migrate annually to the west coast of Central and South America to breed. A small percentage migrates to Oceania – in one case as far west as Australia – and less than 1% migrates to Brazil. The record longest distance migration in Happy Whale belongs to a whale from Antarctica. One of the longest Humpback migrations ever recorded – 10922 km one way – between Antarctic Peninsula and Tonga.
As we continued our journey a pod of Orcas are suddenly spotted along the way, they were swimming by at the distance heading north at a fast pace. As soon as they were spotted they were gone again, probably on their way out hunting, but luckily one of the voyage crew was on the spot with her camera and caught the whales as they briefly merged to the surface to take a breath. Orcas have large, differently sized and shaped dorsal fins. The size and shape of the fins as well as the unique saddle patch of light pigmentation on their backs and their eye patch can indicate a whales sex, age and the sub-group to which they belong.
On our way south to the Antarctic Peninsula we stopped by the South Shetland Islands and made our first landing at Fort Point. The spectacular 85 m high rocky outcrop that forms the Southeast extremity of Greenwich Island. A rough scenery combining sheer cliffs resembling a fortress, boulder beaches, calving glacier fronts, and a Nunatak sticking out of them. Home for both Gentoo and Chinstrap penguin rookeries and at the shoreline some Weddell seals where taking an afternoon nap in the sun. In addition to whales Happy Whale is also interested in Weddell seals. The Weddel seals spots on belly are unique to each individual and the photos are used to study Weddel seal movement along the Antarctic Peninsula.
Photo by Jordi Plana Morales