Happy New Year!While we are still dealing with the data from 2012, we have also started to prepare the 2013 season. 2012 was an over- average season in the long-term, but we have seen less animals in Mingan compared to the last 7 -8 years. The good news is that there were more blue whales, we even saw 5 in...
In a cloud of flour, Sue Smith, singer-songwriter, and longtime friend and supporter of MICS from Guelph, Ontario, can bake 20-30 delicious apple pies in support of blue whale research in rapid rhythmic time. An avid blue whale observer, Sue has on several occasions, in recent years used her culinary skills to raise funds for blue whale research. Sue...
Fin whales usually arrive in good numbers during the second half of June, peak between mid-July and mid-August, and decrease progressively thereafter, however 2012 was an unusual season. The early field season offered few sightings, but picked up in September, and between 2-5 September alone, 35 fin whales were photo-identified. A total of 110 fin whales were photo-IDed (most from...
All along the saint-Lawrence, MICS is lucky to have allies and friends who help a lot for covering as much ground as possible during the summer months. In Gasésie for example, we work for several years with the Croisières Baie de Gaspé organisation which each summer, offers whale-watching tours on their boat, the Narval III. This collaboration is very valuable...
August 30th the day started off with promises both from the marine weather office and the sea, and we were inclined to believe the calm conditions would remain as predicted. However, we soon learned that the weatherman had missed by a long shot once again. We left the house in Gaspé early in the morning and drove to the harbor at...
August 29, 2012 Gaspé Peninsula, Quebec News from the 2012 blue whale satellite tagging expedition in Gaspé! Most of the exciting work so far has been accomplished on land, as we wait patiently (or try to) for good weather to get out on the water. There have been strong winds and considerable swell just offshore ever since we arrived late last...
In 2013, WhaleNet will celebrate its twentieth anniversary! WhaleNet began as an element of an educational program (Wheelock College, Boston, Massachusetts), but when Professor J. Michael Williamson (VP of the US board of MICS; see picture below) began directing the project in 1993, WhaleNet spun off to become a major innovative educational web site. ...
Clémentine and Adrien with their Project Wings For Science have been with us for a week. Helping us finds animals with aerial surveys! Traveling the world for a year with their two-seater plane, helping research institutes on their way.A great link to their project: WingsForScienceTheir facebook page: WingsForScience facebook pagePress article from LaPresse Canada: WingsForScience Lapresse
Hilton Brighton Metropole, near London, UK. Week of 22-28 October 2012 Sat 27-Sun 28 Oct WhaleFest 2012 Join the world’s biggest celebration of wild whales and dolphins! After the huge success of WhaleFest 2011, this year’s event is being held at the Hilton Brighton Metropole the very place where the world voted 30 years ago to stop hunting...
Though a couple of blues had been sighted in Gaspé Bay earlier, blue whale sightings jumped on 14th June, when long term MICS collaborator Rene Roy and Thomas Doniol Valcroze (DFO) combined to photo-identify seven blue whales 7 miles off Port Neuf in the Estuary. A week later, on the June 21, (DFO) observed an eighth blue, a solitary male...
In 1983, Richard Sears was heading for the Silver Bank, a specific aim in mind: photo-identifying the greatest number of different individual humpback whales on their breeding ground. He had three months to achieve this. Located North of the Dominican Republic, in the Caribbean Sea, this 20-meter deep bank is one of the main breeding ground for the northwest Atlantic...
Pose de balises satellites sur des rorquals bleus
