Welcome to Whale Tales and Glitter’s very first issue!

I’ve been fascinated by whales and all things aquatic for as long as I can remember. My friends know that I will happily talk their ears off about whales anytime they let me. A number of folks have been kind enough to tell me to keep talking, and that a regular newsletter of whale information would be welcome… so here we are.

While I’ve been a water baby since the first time I met a pool and an ocean, I can’t tell you exactly when I fell in love with whales, though it’s a good bet though that it was related to the publication of “Songs of the Humpback Whale” in 1970 by Dr. Roger Payne.

Roger Payne was studying animal echolocation in the 1960s, when he was introduced to engineer Frank Watlington. Watlington had been doing hydrophone recordings for the navy and discovered up some unusual sounds. Payne was able to identify the sounds as belonging to humpback whales. Roger’s wife, Katy, who’s background was in music and biology, created spectrograms of the sounds so that they could see the patterns, leading to the realization that they were more than simple calls, they were in fact songs. A selection of those early recordings were published by Columbia records and later re-released by National Geographic Magazine and the world went a little whale happy. As the Payne’s and Watlington hoped, the wonder of those songs would help Save the Whales.

It might seem obvious in 2024 that we would want to save the whales, but it wasn’t an easy sell 60 years ago. Commercial whaling, ie on whale hunting on a large, industrial, scale vs smaller, traditional, indigenous practices, is now thought to be responsible for the death of at least three million whales from 1900 to 1999. Up until the founding of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in 1946, there was no world wide organization governing whaling. But the IWC’s focus has never been on protecting whales as a whole. It was created to "provide for the proper conservation of whale stocks and thus make possible the orderly development of the whaling industry". As the whale stocks declined efforts were made to try to limit the number of whales caught. A mostly successful moratorium on commercial whaling was finally agreed to in 1982.

The first time I saw a whale with my own eyes was in 1987. That summer my father took me whale watching in Provincetown. Given that commercial whaling of the North Atlantic stocks had only been on hold for five years, and the eco tourism industry was barely a twinkle in anyone’s eye, our host: the Dolphin Fleet couldn’t promise we’d see whales, only that we might see a Humpback and / or a Fin whale.

I know from the photos I took that we saw two Humpbacks. I have a pretty clear photo of the underside of the tail fluke of one whale. Because these markings are distinct from whale to whale they are used to identify individual whales. There are now catalogs of Humpback whale tail IDs for many of the world’s oceans. I recently uploaded this one to the North Atlantic Humpback Whale Catalog for review. In collaboration with the Gulf of Maine Humpback Whale Catalog we now have a number and name[1] for this whale: #na0251, name: ‘Mirror’. They also said that “Mirror’s sightings date back to the early 1980s and she’s regularly seen on feeding grounds of the Gulf of Maine.”

The Humpbacks were amazing to see, but the surprise of the trip was a Blue whale. At that time, the few North Atlantic Blues that we knew of were generally found closer to the Arctic circle, so this was a very rare sighting. I can remember the wonder in the captain’s voice as he explained how amazing it was to see a Blue so far south. Being very smooth skinned, and yes, blue, Blue whales are hard to photograph even with a long camera lens, which I didn’t have at the time.

This trip started me down the whale watching road and a few years later I not only got to see more Humpbacks, but was able to get in the water with one – more on that next month.

After moving from New York to California in the early 1990’s I took a break from whale watching to get an MA in Philosophy and Religion, start a ritual theater company, get married and acquired (with the marriage) two children, and do the ‘day job’ thing. Once life calmed down, my husband joined me in the fun and we have since been whale watching in San Francisco Bay, Monterey Bay, off the Farallon Islands, and Juneau, Alaska. Each trip has been amazing in different ways. Some whales are boat averse, others are full on clowns who like to “mug” for the cameras. As most of the boat companies like to say “You never know what you will see on a whale watching trip”.

Whale Facts:

There are about 90 species of whales, dolphins, and porpoises worldwide. They all share characteristics that allow them to live and thrive in salt water. They come in many colors, even pale pink, though mostly white, pale to dark gray, black, and shades of blue with stripes of white, gray or yellow, and even spots. We find them in every size from the under 5 foot long, 120 pound Vaquita, to the 98 foot long, 330,000 pound Blue whale. Some travel in vast groups that can be over a thousand individuals strong, others tend toward a solitary life only meeting up with friends once in a while. Some, like Harbor porpoises, aren’t very social and prefer shallow coastal areas no deeper than 650 feet. Others, like Sperm whales, gather in large, gender specific groups, and hunt for squid in waters as deep as 10,000 feet.

While it is difficult to count every whale, dolphin and porpoise in the world, a conservative estimate suggests there ere are about two million cetaceans alive today. These amazing animals can be found in all of the world’s oceans. Some, like the Gray whales and Humpbacks migrate thousands of miles a season, feasting in cold waters for months at a time and then following their instincts to mate and give birth in warmer waters. Others like the Vaquita spend all of their time in a single area of the Gulf of California. Some whales do both. Orcas, also known as Killer whales, live in every ocean and also have one group, called the Southern Residents, that live year round in Salish Sea around Vancouver Island, while Blue whales can be found in every ocean but the Arctic, and have a recently identified resident group in the waters off of Sri Lanka.

Recommendations:

I have two recommendations to start the newsletter off. The first is an absolutely beautiful book: “Among Giants, a life with whales” by Charles “Flip” Nicklin. This is a photo album of some of the most amazing images of whales I have ever seen. It’s also about Flip’s life with whales and his father, also a renowned underwater cinematographer, Chuck Nicklin who took a photo that changed a lot of people’s perceptions about whales.

My second recommendation is the docu-series: “Secrets of the Whales”. This is a four part show on Disney+ and Hulu, focusing on four of the most well known types of whales: Orcas, Humpbacks, Belugas, and Sperm whales. You can watch a preview of the film on Youtube.

And Glitter

If you’ve met me in real life, you’ve probably noticed that I like shiny, sparkly things. This has been true since I was a child. My first memory of glitter is from when I was about three years old. I was in a show called “the Angles of Light” at Theater for the New City (TNC) in NY, which is a whole story of its own. It was the seventies and glitter was almost always part of the show(s) for TNC. There was a bucket of glitter beside the stage that I very much wanted to play with because SHINY and toddler. Naturally the grownups all said no. I can imagine my towheaded tiny self being quite loud in my annoyance as I was redirected in my entertainments. But you know what they say… “why did the children put beans in their ears? Because we told them not to!” And I’ve been playing with the stuff ever since!

Of course “glitter” doesn’t just mean glitter, it means all the things that light up our lives and make us smile.

About this Newsletter

My dream for this monthly newsletter is to share my love of whales, who they are, what they do, and why I think they are so very cool. (It is also a little bit about my love of research, but what newsletter isn’t really?) My hope is that through these words and images you will also fall in love with whales and want to help keep them alive and healthy. Because the truth is, the health of our oceans depends, in part, on the health of the whales. What they eat (and poop), the distances they travel, and who they interact with have a direct impact on the health of the oceans, the health of our atmosphere, and our lives.

Of course a newsletter from an author is also going to be about what they author is writing. At the moment, I don’t have published work to share with you, but I do have a number of stories in process and most of those deal with whales in one way or another (space whales!). I’ll share more about them as they find homes in the universe.

Also, a huge thank you to everyone who encouraged me to start this newsletter and continue sharing stories about whales.

What questions do you have, or topics you would like like to know more about? Let me know and I’ll be happy to dig into them for you.

Kate

[1] Names are given to whales by researchers in the areas they most often frequent. Once a whale has a confirmed photo ID, they are given a catalog number in the area that photo was taken. Because the whales travel thousands of miles every year, they can, and often do, get multiple catalog ID's and names. I've seen ID numbers for a whale in one area with notes about names and numbers in other databases. Now that most catalogs are digital, they are able sync up data about a whales with multiple names and ID photos.