So, where are the whales?

I've only had a couple people ask me that as I'm heading to the boat.  It's a unique perspective that we deal with.  We belong to a network of commercial whale watch operators, and real time information is important to the success of our business.  The company we work for has a better than 90% success rate on getting our guests to the whales.  Coming in as the new guy, I was surprised at what all it takes to get and disseminate the information (and, no, I'm not going into detail).

I was even more surprised at the number of people who come into our office and ask the question that is the title to this post.  No, the office staff does not have that information.  It reminds me of back when we were still in the studio, and people would call and ask, "How do you photograph __________?"  Fill in the blank; we were asked about all manner of things.  What it came down to was: they were wanting us to give away the knowledge that we paid to acquire and needed to make a living.

As we were getting off the boat yesterday, one of the guests asked me, "How far did we go today?"  I had to think about it before I gave her an estimate of "about 48 miles round trip."  If you are in a sailboat, you can't cover that amount of miles in that time.  If you are in a powerboat, you will likely use 20 to 30 gallons of fuel to get there and back (at $4-5/gallon)... it would be cheaper to buy a ticket on one of our boats. ;-)  And you can relax and take in everything while underway.

And all this doesn't take into account that the whales are constantly moving.  They can swim up to 30 mph when they are truckin'.  It is like an on-going chess game everyday.  We get a report that they are at a certain location, moving at an estimated speed... and there are a lot of islands around here, so there is never a direct route.  Not to mention that the whales don't get any of these reports - they go where they please, always in search of their food source.  And a pod may be scattered out over dozens of miles.

We do see private boats when we're in the vicinity of the whales.  We see the flagrant violations of federal and state law, as people run up too close, and sometimes right over, where the whales are foraging.  SoundWatch and StraitWatch (the Canadian equivalence) sees them, too.  And photographs them, taking down registration numbers.  Law Enforcement (federal and state) is often on the scene, as well.

I haven't seen any US commercial operators intentionally violate the mandated distances.  This is their livelihood, and no one wants to cause stress to the animals or potentially expose themselves for HUGE fines.  Oh, and those same fines apply to pleasure craft operators, too... even if you are out paddling a kayak.

Even so, the whales didn't get the memo.  If they are down for a few minutes and deviate from the path they were traveling (and they do that all the time), and come up inside the federal and state distance laws... you are in violation of the law.  Potential knock on your license and that fine I mentioned previously (when I said HUGE: up to $50,000).  In that chess game parlance above: checkmate, you lose.

While viewing, we log which whales were are seeing (yes, we are able to ID them by their dorsel fins and markings), specify locations (lat/lon), and forward that information to an Orca network that does research.  Our naturalists on the boats are trained; most have degrees in marine biology.  The captains plan intercept courses, based on location info we have and tide/current/weather.  We are trained in federal and state regs and have guidelines within our network that were the basis for the regulations.

At the helm, I am managing the boat, monitoring up to 4 different radios and comm devices, scanning for traffic, avoiding debris in the water, and looking for wildlife... whales (all different types), other porpoise, seals, sea lions, eagles and other birds, and any animals on land.  Unlike captain jobs I've had in the past, I am separated from the guests.  I communicate with the naturalist to point out what I see and position the boat for the best viewing.  Sometimes while running, I get the chance to look all around and take in the spectacular beauty of this area, too.  It is a new adventure each day.

When we are cruising on our own in the area and come across whales, it is a very special treat.

So, where are the whales?  About 1/4 of the way through our work commitment here, they haven't been in the same place twice.  That's part of the challenge.