Rebounding
humpbacks may
be targeted by
hunters again
Protective efforts have paid
off, but the whales may be removed
from the endangered species listMales sing louder in Maui waters
By Lori Tighe
Star-BulletinThe good news: There are more humpback whales than previously thought.
The bad news: They may be taken off the endangered species list and hunted once again.
Several scientists at last week's Maui whale conference sponsored by the Society for Marine Mammalogists, which drew 1,800 people, revealed data showing the endangered humpback whale population is indeed recovering.
The new data, yet to be published, were released just as the humpbacks began trickling into the Hawaiian Islands for their annual mating season. As recently as last year, scientists estimated their numbers at around 3,000 here in Hawaii, and 6,000 total in the North Pacific.
But three new major studies showed at least 4,300 whales here with a total population as high as 10,000.
"It's important for people to know they are coming back," said Allen Tom, manager of the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary. "It's great news. It means our protective efforts are paying off."
But in the coming year, it is believed countries such as Japan will ask for the humpbacks to be stripped of their endangered status so they can be hunted, said Bruce Mate, Ph.D., an oceanographer with Oregon State University.
"There is an interest in resuming the hunt for these animals. The data will probably encourage people to reconsider moving them off the endangered species list," Mate said. "I wouldn't be surprised if Japan offers that suggestion at the next International Trade in Endangered Species conference."
Controversy surrounded native Americans in Washington state who recently began hunting the gray whale when it was taken off the endangered species list a few years ago.
Native Hawaiians have shown no interest in hunting the humpback whales, said Naomi McIntosh, Oahu Humpback Sanctuary liaison.
"The humpback is not known to be a cultural preference among native Hawaiians," she said. "There's no immediate interest in Hawaii to hunt them."
But the Japanese used to routinely come close to the Hawaiian Islands to hunt humpbacks.
"We're still assessing the needs of the species," McIntosh said. "We're optimistic about their recovery, but we still feel the species is not out of the woods yet."
The humpbacks are encountering new threats to their survival, including overfishing, marine debris, pollution from development and human population growth, McIntosh said.
Mate's study, which tagged whales and then tracked them by satellite, showed the humpbacks typically stay in Hawaii for less than a month, coming and going through the winter season.
"Even though we see them for five or six months, they are not the same whales. There's a lot of turnover," Mate said. "They are much more mobile than we thought."
Mate has tracked humpbacks in Hawaii since 1995. The data showed, for example, one whale visiting five Hawaiian islands in 10 days.
The whales fan out from Alaska to Russia during the summer to feed but return mainly to the Hawaiian Islands in the winter to mate.
"This is the central breeding and calving area for whales in much of the North Pacific," Mate said.
People were excited about his and the other research supporting the humpback recovery because, Mate said, "It gives us a better sense there are more animals than we thought."
Joe Mobley, Ph.D., a whale researcher with the University of Hawaii-West Oahu, said that based on his six-year aerial study, the humpback whale population is growing by 7 percent a year.
He flew over the Hawaiian Islands and counted whales in 1993, 1995 and 1998. Then using formula calculations, he deduced the total population here.
"It's good news. All indications indicate the whale population is recovering," he said.
A much larger collaborative study involving 6,000 photograph identifications of humpback whales taken in four countries -- the United States, Japan, Mexico and Canada -- calculated the total humpback whale population in the North Pacific between 8,000 and 10,000.
"It was the first attempt to count the whales since whaling," said John Calambokidis, the study's project director and a research biologist with Cascadia Research in Olympia, Wash.
Commercial whaling of humpbacks ended in 1966, when fewer than 1,200 to 1,400 remained, he said. Historical estimates placed the whales at 15,000 before hunting, but scientists say that figure may be skewed because whale catches were dramatically underreported.
"This new information is critical because this is a species that was driven to the brink of extinction by our acts. It's still on the endangered species list because of a century of a flourishing commercial industry," he said. "Without these population estimates, we have no knowledge of their recovery."
In Maui waters at night,
By Gary Kubota
the guys belt it out
Star-BulletinWAILUKU -- Male humpback whales migrating from Alaska to Hawaii waters sing anytime.
But their singing becomes louder in Maui waters after midnight during the peak of whale migration season, according to researchers.
"It's noticeably louder. They all sing about the same song, but they're not synchronized ... so when you listen to it, it's like a cacophony of sounds," said Whitlow Au, chief scientist at the University of Hawaii's marine mammal research program.
Researcher Paul Nachtigall speculates the increase is due to more whales being in Maui waters at the time. But Nachtigall said scientists remain uncertain about the reason for the louder singing.
Scientists speculate the male singing may be connected to calling a female or declaring their territory and warning other suitors to stay away.
The discovery about the louder singing at night arose from a study off Lahaina.
Scientists and volunteers deposited a microphone and disk recorder in about 40 feet of water and set the machine to record sounds at six-minute intervals from Jan. 18 through April 16, 1998.
Au said the ambient sounds began to increase after sunset and reached a peak from midnight to 3 a.m. from mid-February to mid-March.
Au said the scientists may eventually be able to use the sound of whales singing to obtain a more accurate estimate of their numbers.
