They're stinky, they're slinky… seen one?
Posted June 18, 2009 at 4:07 am by Ian Byington
Frankie reports: "This is a photo (taken under permit) of a young whale we call "Ellie" in memory of Ellie Dorsey, the instigator of minke whale research in the San Juans back in the 1980s."
My friend Frankie Robertson was wondering if you see (or photograph!) a minke whale, if you wouldn’t mind letting her & her team know.
By the way, I’m not being mean by saying they’re stinky…ever left boccoli in the fridge for a week too long, and sniffed it? Probably said to yourself, “Is that broccoli, or has a minke been in here?” It’s like that.
The Northeast Pacific Minke Project is explained here, and you can help…here’s more from Frankie:
Not that big for a whale: Minke whales grow to a maximum length of 30ft and weight of 10 tons. Photo by Jon Stern.
This year we are sad to report that the minke project will not be in the San Juan Islands for the annual photo-id and foraging study. Jon is tied up in sunny California while I have embarked on a PhD and will find myself deployed off on various marine mammal observer trips this summer.
However, we are very keen to receive your minke whale sightings and especially any photos that you may be lucky enough to get while out on the water this summer. It would be great to know that some of the “regulars” (Jonny Rotten, Joan, Nick Jagger, Bubbleback) are still returning to feed around the islands and the banks. Also it would be great to know if the two young whales we identified last summer have returned and also if there are any new young animals around.
So please please do send in your minke reports! We do receive the ORCANETWORK reports and the Whale Museum reports. Aldo we still have sightings forms that we can send out and sightings can also be submitted online at www.northeastpacificminke.org
We hope that the 2009 season has begun well for you all, and we look forward to continued collaboration., and don’t forget about those busy little baleen whales… they may be slinky and often rather stinky but they are also pretty darn fascinating creatures that we are privileged to observe out here.
Cheers,
Jon, Rus and Frankie…
The Minke project
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One comment...
From one minke nut to another….hope you get lots of sighting reports!
To everyone out there on the water… stop looking at all the orca and chill out with a minke!
Have fun
Ali (you know who I am!)
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