mbowers
Well-Known Member
A mere 7 whale watching boats jammed into Sooke Basin today all at one time. Wonder if they affected the orcas' behaviour at all 
Whale watcher parade video
Whale watcher parade video
Whale watchers cramming in to Sooke Basin
- Thread starter mbowers
- Start date
mbowers
Well-Known Member
So the reports say. I can't imagine anything else but a whale would start a swarming, paparazzi parade like that. The whales are smart enough to show as little as possible when being chased by boats so they become very hard to see.
T011A has been around several days in the past months. IMHO the seals in the Basin seem extremely habituated to begging for discarded crab bait at the surface which I'm guessing makes them easy targets for a transient.
Got a video of him following a crabber boat and surfacing frequently two weeks ago when he wasn't chased by even 1 boat never mind 7. Maybe hyper ventilating to get ready for chasing dinner?
Basin Orca
I observed last year the whale horassing boats were very good at leapfrogging diving humpbacks. Always keeping there distance but amazingly being right there when they come up. Must play havoc on the whales senses and their ability to find food and each other, but I'm only a non expert observer.
mayday
Active Member
humpbacks don't echo-locate
mbowers
Well-Known Member
True but @eroyd only mentioned their senses and communication generally. Humpbacks can still hear and communicate with each other at least as far as I've read. General boat noise would mess with that.
Wonder if maybe the whale chasers were using side scan sonar to follow the humpbacks.
ziggy
Well-Known Member
Sounds like they are rethinking the echolocation theory as it pertains to Humpbacks.
Do humpback whales echolocate? – Dolphin Communication Project
www.dolphincommunicationproject.org
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