Tag Archives: Whales

Our Far South: a tale of two huts

27 February 2012 – 8.16am

Not Lower and Upper Hutt, but instead the story of two attempts at the pole. That of Sir Ernest Shackleton and the voyage of the Nimrod, and Captain Robert Falcon Scott and the Terra Nova expedition.

Sunset on Mt. Erebus. Photo Anton van Helden, copyright Te Papa.

We awoke to another extraordinary day at anchor off Cape Royds. The lunar landscape, derived from the explosive outpourings of Mt Erebus and the glacial action of some 20,000 years, producing remarkable scenery to walk through from Black sand beach to the Nimrod hut, or Shackelton’s hut as it is also known. This hut was a delight to look inside.

Shackleton's Nimrod hut. Photo Anton van Helden, copyright Te Papa.

There is something about Shackleton that inspires, although he came some 90 miles short of getting to the pole on this expedition he did say on his return “better to be a live donkey, than a dead lion”. The hut situated in a great sheltered location adjacent to an Adelie penguin colony was sturdy and brilliantly maintained.

We had the great fortune of seeinga pod of about nearly a dozen Type-C killer whales just off shore . Three Killer Whale types have recently been documented in the Antarctic. Type A looks like a “typical” Killer Whale, living in open water and feeding mostly on Minke Whales. Type B is smaller than Type A. It has a large white eyepatch and a patch of grey colouring on its back, called a “dorsal cape”. It feeds mostly on seals. Type C is the smallest type and lives in larger groups than any other type of Killer Whale. Its eyepatch is distinctively slanted forwards, rather than parallel to the body axis. Like Type B, it has a dorsal cape. Its only prey observed so far is the Antarctic Cod. DNA work is currently being carried out to determine if these different types represent separate species.

Type C killer whale. Photo Anton van Helden, copyright Te Papa.

After regrouping we moved again South to Cape Evans and the Terra Nova hut, the base from which Scott and his men left from on their ill fated attempt on the pole.

It was great to be able to get out and really stretch our legs.

Terra Nova hut. Photo Anton van Helden, copyright Te Papa.

 

 

It was extraordinary to stand in the very places where these extraordinary characters from history once stood and to see the beds they slept in.

Even with all our modern gear on a very calm and pleasant day it was still bightingly cold.

Scott's bunk. Photo Anton van helden, copyright Te Papa.

Whatever anyone could ever say about them, they were people of remarakable bravery and courage.

By antonvanhelden | Posted in Biodiversity, Birds, Field trips, Penguins, Whales | Also tagged , , | Comments (1)

Our Far South: McMurdo Sound

27 February 2012 – 8.00am

 

Scott Base, as South as we go:

McMurdo Sound, Mt. Discovery. Photo Anton van Helden, copyright Te Papa

In a place where the sun sets at 12.30 and rises at 2.30 sights just get more and more incredible. At 1am the sea around the boat started to freeze, the water became grainy and and looked like grease, slowing as the ship carved through it, the ripples and wake of the boat like just flowing golden syrup in the setting sun light.

When I awoke we were anchored off McMurdo Station with Scott’s Discovery hut to our left and Observation hill to our right. We were surrounded by ice. As the first of the crews made their way by zodiacs, carving a fine channel to the shore, I watched for whales off the stern of the boat. What a sight, whale after whale apearing and blowing in the distant channels in the ice.

McMurdo Station. Photo Anton van Helden, copyright Te Papa.

They appeared to be Minke whales and Sei whales. The minke whales, the smallest of the rorquals at about 8m were dwarfed by their biger cousins the Sei whales that are about double the size.

Soon it was my turn to go ashore. The outboard churned through the icy water making a giant slushy. We were greeted by two of the over wintering team from Scott Base, and transported on the right hand side of the road to Scott Base. They drive on the right because the Americans at McMurdo Station maintain the roads.

Scott base is contrastingly petite compared to McMurdo Station, which is like a small town. Scott base with it’s uniformly green buildings, is supplied with energy from the nearby wind turbines, that produce enough power to not only run the base but contribute to the running of McMurdo Station as well.

We visited the conservation lab where they are working on the objects and materials removed (and to be replaced back in) the huts from the heroic age of exploration.

Made me think about Robert Clendon, Te Papa’s object conservator who had done this work in the past.

Scott Base. Photo Anton van Helden, copyright Te Papa.

We climbed to the top of Observation hill, where there stands a memorial to Scott and his team who perished in their ill fated trip to claim the South Pole.

It also afforded the crew a good vantage point to watch minke whales in the waters of McMurdo sound.

Discovery Hut was remarkable, as the conservation teams had obviously worked hard to maintain it as much as possible as it was. The environment down here being cold and dry providing the conditions to keep 100 year old mutton!!

On returning to the boat I spent some time whale watching and saw to my absolute amazement a large pod of Arnoux’s beaked whales in the free water on the far side of ice channel, breaching and porpoising. I estimate that there would have been between 20 and 30 animals. I tried to take photos, but sadly they are not the best, but still a record. Watching them through the binoculars was a spectacular sight.

The decision was made to spend the evening cruising the sound and looking for animals on our trip upt to Cape Royds where we would spend the night. Well that was some trip, perfect still conditions and animals at every turn. Weddell seals and a couple of Crabeater seals, appearing as if from nowhere in the channels in the ice created by the ship. as we broke the ice we got very close to a very confused lot of Emperor penguins.

Ross Sea at midnight. Photo Anton van Helden, copyright Te Papa.

On the trip up the sound we saw minke whales spy hopping through holes in the ice, killer whales in small pods, adelie penguins running like mad across ice flows. It was an incredible night.

By antonvanhelden | Posted in Biodiversity, Birds, Field trips, Penguins, Whales | Also tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Our Far South: Ross Sea adventure playground for Petrel heads.

22 February 2012 – 7.49am
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Tabular berg amidst pack ice. Photo Anton van Helden, copyright Te Papa.

As we entered the Ross Sea we lef the band of large ice bergs behind us, and entered a fairly calm Ross sea. I kept a morning vigil on the bridge looking for whales. it was not until mid afternoon that we saw our first, a small and rapid antarctic Minke whale Balaenoptera bonarensis. These animals are still hunted by the Japanese as part of their “research” programme. They are also hunted by Killer whales! Later in the day we caught asight of a small pod of Type A killer whales. The different types of antarctic Killer whales have been ascribed the letters A, B and C. they are not only distinguishable by their looks but also by their feeding strategies.

Snow Petrel. Photo Anton van Helden, copyright Te Papa

Type A specialise in the hunting of Antarctic Minke whales, Type B seals on Pack ice, and type C that are the most southerly form that feed primarily on fish near the continental ice edge.

So many whales were taken out of this region, it is scary to think that so few species have made any kind of recovery. In a matter of a few decades the population of Blue whales had been reduced from about 250,000 animals to probably less than a hundred, they are now estimated to number about 2000.
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Antarctic petrel and snow petrel. Photo Anton van Helden, copyright Te Papa.

The boat has had a few constant companions since coming into the Ross Sea, which by the way is an enormous body of water. The Antarctic Petrel with their brown and white markings have been flocking around the boat, and along with the white snow petrels have been feeding in the disturbed waters of our wake.

We are heading down to Cape Crozier where we will rendez-vous with a Sanfords fishing vessel, as one of their crew is joining the Our Far South trip.

We still have a few hundred Nautical miles to run. Currently we are just over 73 degrees south.

By antonvanhelden | Posted in Biodiversity, Birds, Field trips, Mammals, Whales | Also tagged , , | Comments (3)

Our Far South: Roaring Forties, furious fifties and Screaming sixties…

20 February 2012 – 3.14pm

Heading south from Macquarie Island we have had some relatively calm seas, pretty remarkable for this part of the world.

Furious fifties. Photo Anton van Helden, copyright Te Papa

Leaving the Roaring Forties which gave us a pretty slow rolling sea the fifties gave us a small taste of what it had to offer with some mild five-metre seas. Passing past 60 degrees south was significant as that is the line of latitude that marks the start of the Antarctic Treaty, the international piece of legislation that New Zealand is a signatory to.

The treaty was established in 1959 to dedicate Antarctica to peace and science.

What passing into the sixties has also provided us with our first icebergs. I guess I had imagined that the first ones we would see would be small….I could not have been more wrong. The first ones I saw were enormous, like large land masses that completely dwarfed the ship.

Iceberg. Photo Anton van Helden, copyright Te Papa.

I was awoken this morning by the call of “Whale”, I did not get to see this animal but a photo revealed the dorsal fin of a Sei whale, a rorqual that can get up to 20m in length. This species has very fine baleen, and is thought to feed on very small crustaceans called copepods, but probably also the smaller krill species.

As we head now for the Antarctic circle at 66.33 degrees south ( ETA 5.20pm), the line where on the longest day the sun does not set. We have been keeping a vigil on the bridge looking our for whales and icebergs. We have so far seen about six humpbacks, none at terribly close range, but still visible with the naked eye and confirmed by looking at them with binoculars and some rather spectacular camera shots.

Tabular iceberg probably broken off from the Ross Ice Shelf. Photo Anton van Helden, copyright Te Papa.

Seeing humpbacks down here is pleasing, as they were once hunted so fiercely as to nearly wipe them out. In the 1961-62 whaling season the Russian whaling fleet took nearly 28000 humpbacks out of the population south of New Zealand, which spelled the end to the whaling industry in New Zealand.

This species seems to be recovering well of the East coast of Australia, sadly very few are still passing by New Zealand, let’s hope that improves. The Japanese still have them on their list of species to take in their “scientific whaling” programme, which is a concern.

A single humpback whale represents US$1,000,000 to the whale watching industry in Tonga over it’s lifetime.

Iceberg. Photo Anton van Helden, copyright Te Papa

This afternoon we have been passing more and more icebergs, each shape as extraordinary as the next. From small little floaters that they call “growlers”, which get their name from the sound they make if the collide with the ship, to great monuments like this one that looks like the Arche Du Triomphe.

Ok I am heading back to the bridge to keep looking out for whales!

By antonvanhelden | Posted in Biodiversity, Birds, Field trips, Mammals, Penguins, Whales | Also tagged , , | Comments (3)

Our Far South: from shipwrecks to high seas

16 February 2012 – 8.06am

Becalmed in Carnley Harbour. Photo Anton van Helden, copyright Te Papa

I awoke to find that the boat had moved over night to the bottom end of the Auckland Islands, into Carnley harbour, with Adams island to our south. Adams island is home to Gibson’s wandering albatross – DNA research is currently being carried out to determine if Gibson’s Albatross is distinct from other wandering albatross species.

We had incredibly calm weather and took a zodiac ride up one of the arms of the misty harbour to visit what was left of the wreck of the Grafton. One of the great tales of survival of early sailing in the our sub-Antarctic seas. The five men aboard set about extending one of their life dingies, they had to even make their own nails! they made a sturdy little craft to take three of them back to New Zealand in search of help for the two men left behind.

Wreck of the Grafton. Photo Anton van Helden, copyright Te Papa.

Now what is left of the Grafton is used primarily as a sealion hangout.

Our investigations on the rocky shore revealed something that surprised me, a spider living in the intertidal zone! I hope that when I get back to Te Papa that my photo will be enough to help Phil Sirvid identify it.

We spent the morning looking at areas within Carnley Harbour, including an area where rata trees were once cut down by the crew of a German merchant vessel at the start of World War Two. They used the wood as fuel to enable their vessel to reach Chile.

Adams Island in fog, Carnley Harbour. Photo Anton van Helden, copyright Te Papa

“Figure of Eight” Island is home to the most southern breeding site for NZ sealions in the Auckland group. Unlike sealions at Sandy Bay on Enderby Island these sealions breed  in the bush on this small flat islet.

It has been a calm sailing so far, and so there has been a chance to give lectures and have debates. The primary one today being about the NZ sealion and their interactions with the commercial fishery for arrow squid. Lots of things may be influencing the decline of the this sealion population, however it seems clear that fisheries are unlikely to be completely blameless in this. Female NZ sealions, have to work very hard to get the food they need to be able to keep themselves in good condition and to pass that on to their dependent pups. The squid fishery coincides with the exact time when female sealions are foraging hardest to meet the demands of supplying milk to their pups. NZ sealion is the only sealion in the world where the survival of females is less than that of males: it is mostly female sealions that historicaly have been caught as by-catch in the squid fishery. Which surely can not help when a population like this is affected by other influences like disease outbreaks and even normal levels of predation.

Sealion Exclusion Devices (SLEDs) have been put in the trawl nets of the fishery. There is much debate about the chances of a sealion surviving being thrown out of a net at 200m depth. the fishing industry claims that they are now not catching any sealions, but perhaps these SLEDs are just removing the evidence of mortality from their catch.

I have been keeping a look out for Whales…you can only see them if you look!

Heading south. Image WWF.

After lunch we set sail out in to the wilds of the Southern Ocean on our way further south to Macquarie Island. I am greatly looking forward to seeing the elephant seals at Macquarie.

By antonvanhelden | Posted in Birds, Bugs, insects and spiders, Field trips, History, Mammals, Plants, Whales | Also tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

Tū Hononga the sperm whale’s Canadian adventure

14 February 2012 – 12.14pm

We have been touring our Whales Tohorā  exhibition internationally since October 2008, taking our unique whale stories to the world. 

Whales Tōhora exhibition at Te Papa, with Tū Hononga the male sperm whale skeleton.

Whales Tōhora exhibition at Te Papa, with Tū Hononga the male sperm whale skeleton.© Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, 2008

It opens at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa on 2 March, and has recently been on show at the Field Museum of Natural History, in Chicago.

When you take such a big exhibition on tour and have to move things as big as a couple of sperm whale skeletons there are bound to be some great stories… and some hairy moments.

Tū Hononga (meaning “the connection”) is the male sperm whale skeleton at the heart of the exhibition. He is about 17 metres long and the large skull and jaw weighs about 795 kilos. That’s quite a challenge to move safely through the doors of some museum buildings and then up several floors into the galleries - as the staff and Te Papa install team at the Canadian Museum of Nature found out.

Read the Canadian Museum of Nature’s blog and watch the video about Tū Hononga’s latest adventure. 

Be warned! – make sure you read right through to the end :)

By pamelalovis | Posted in Uncategorized, Whales | Tohorā | Also tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

Our Far South: The Snares

13 February 2012 – 9.04am

After leaving the port of Bluff, we took our sunset cruise down past Stewart Island on towards the Snares, our first port of call in Our Far South.

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Snares Island. Photo Antonvan Helden, copyright Te Papa.

The first marine mammal spotting of the trip was a small pod of Southern right whale dolphins, these spectacularly sleek animals have no dorsal fin and gave the imprssion of being giant penguins porpoising along. They are just one of the many species of marine mammal which inhabit our rich southern waters.

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Snares crested penguins. Photo Anton van Helden, copyright Te Papa.

Into the zodiacs we went to explore the rugged coastline of these islands.  Devoid of any introduced predators they are remarkable for the abundance of bird, from the tiny black tomtits and fern birds to the soaring Buller’s Mollymawks. The islands with their tree daisy and leatherwood shrub coverings are home to a massive number of Sooty Shear waters whose burrows festoon the island. Groups of Snares crested penguins could be seen gathered along the rocky coastal cliffs, while the exposed coastline is covered with massive clumps of bull kelp.

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Sea lion, Snares Is. Photo Anton van Helden, copyright Te Papa.

The islands are also home to New Zealand Fur seals, hunted in vast numbers in the late 1790′s to about 1830 when it was no longer economic for sealers to hunt them.

A few sub adult male New Zealand Sealions also call it home and swam around with inquistive looks.

Next target the Auckland Islands, we should reach there in the early hours of Sunday morning. I am looking forward to this as I spent the summer of 1995 there as part of the Department of Conservation Sealion Recovery project.

By antonvanhelden | Posted in Birds, Field trips, Mammals, Penguins, Uncategorized, Whales | Also tagged , , | Comments (1)

Squid goes postal! NZPost’s Squid Stamp and Coin

12 March 2009 – 4.57pm
Giants of New Zealand stamp series

Giants of New Zealand stamp series

Not content with getting an exhibition, the Colossal Squid now has her own stamp and coin! The dollar stamp and coin no less. Cool. Thanks NZ Post!

Giants of New Zealand coins

Giants of New Zealand coins

 

The other giants are the Giant Moa (extinct), Giant Eagle (extinct), Southern Right Whale, Giant Weta.

I’m going to chase down a curator tomorrow and find out a) what the scientific names of these creatures are and b) whether New Zealand has more Giant species than most places.

By lucyhoffman | Posted in Colossal squid, Exhibitions, Whales | Also tagged , , , , , , , | Comments (6)

We had a whale of a time…

2 May 2008 – 3.15pm
Dolphin Detectives at Te Papa

Dolphin Detectives at Te Papa

On Monday evening 40 or so children had a blast in the Whales|Tohorā exhibition being “Dolphin Detectives”, all thanks to the Friends of Te Papa.

Dolphin Detective

Anton van Helden, Te Papa’s marine mammal scientist, was assisted by the kids and his four specially equipped assistants (complete with dolphin dorsal fins). We divided everyone up into four teams – the sperm whales, humpback whales, killer whales, and the blue whales.

The kids found out what to do if they ever come across a whale stranded on a beach. We used “Philippa”- Anton’s special dolphin model -to practise on.

Each whale team also had to discover what their whale sounds like and then sing their whale song. The blue whales made low, rumbly noises and the sperm whales made heaps of clicks. The killer whales gave a lot of high pitched squeaks, and the humpbacks sounded just like Dory, when she sings “whale” in the movie Finding Nemo….

At the end of the evening we all got together to give a whale concert, conducted by Anton.

We’re thinking of posting the video of our whale song on YouTube! Well, thinking about it …

If you’d like to be part of special events like this at Te Papa, then join Friends of Te Papa.

By pamelalovis | Posted in Whales | Tohorā | Also tagged , | Comments (0)

Rawiri Paratene – advocate for whales

18 April 2008 – 3.02pm

Rawiri Paratene is well known to New Zealand audiences – as an actor, student activist, and more recently as one of the stars of the movie Whale Rider.

You can see Rawiri playing Koro in the film Whale Rider in this video clip on Te Ara:

http://www.teara.govt.nz/EarthSeaAndSky/SeaLife/TeWhanauPuhaWhales/3/ENZ-Resources/Standard/4/en

Following the success of Whale Rider, Rawiri has found himself more and more involved with whales. He and Witi Ihimaera, the author of the book Whale Rider on which the film was based, are now both trustees of the South Pacific Whales Research Consortium.

Rawiri recently had the chance to see for himself the work of whale researchers, such as Nan Hauser and her team in Rarotonga, Cook Islands. He also took time to attend presentations from researchers at the SPWRC meeting held at Auckland University earlier this year. That’s where we caught up with him.

Listen to Rawiri talk about being a trustee for SPWRC, and his first encounter with a whale “eye to eye”.

http://www.tepapa.govt.nz/podcasts/whales/Rawiri-Paratene05Feb.mp3

By pamelalovis | Posted in Whales, Whales | Tohorā | Also tagged , , , , | Comments (1)
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