Whales, Canada, Whale Research: Save the Whales: Whale Migration: Orca: Humpback.
Canada's Whale Researcher: Dr. Volker Deecke
In an Article entitled: Queensland, The Sunshine State, published both in the USA Magic City Morning Star News and at Kingscalendar, I presented some photographs from the South East portion of Queensland and North Eastern New South Wales.
Amongst those photographs were some of Whales, which I saw on a Whale Sightseeing tour off Moreton Island, which lies east of my home town Brisbane. I was looking through my photos today, and realised that I had not presented the best shot of the whale swimming under the boat.
While I was thinking about the photos, I began to think about the whaling problem, especially the furore that the Japanese sometimes cause in their fondness for whale meat.
As I was doing this, I was reminded that about 10 years ago, I did an internet search to find Volker Deecke, a German living in Canada, and doing his research on Whales.
Although I have never personally met Dr. Deecke, (nor his renowned father Dr. Luder Deecke - Vienna) I was for many years in contact with his Grandfather, (listed 30 years ago himself in the Oxford - Cambridge's Men and Women of Distinction) and on two occasions met family members from both sides of his grandparents families, when they separately visited Australia.
At any rate, at the time I did the internet search, Volker Deecke had an underwater video camera set up somewhere along the Canadian (?) coastline, and you could link into it and see whales underwater in real time. Not correct: See comment section below:
Since many of the Magic City Morning Star readers are Canadians, and I needed an excuse to show you this one good photo of the whale under the boat, I thought I would just bring Dr. Deecke to your attention. His work is quite interesting. You can find him online at North Pacific Universities Marine Mammal Research Consortium and on his own homepage. He has a fantastic photo of an Orca jumping out of the water.
The humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) is a baleen whale and is the fifth largest of the great whales. They reach an average size of 15 metres and can weigh up to 48 tonnes. Humpback whales can be found in all oceans of the world. They are highly migratory and tend to move in small groups of three to four animals.
Australian humpbacks spend three to four months feeding in Antarctic waters before they migrate to the warmer waters of the tropics in the winter where they mate. Eleven to twelve months after mating, females return to the same tropical waters where they give birth to a single calf. This yearly migration takes the humpbacks past Cape Moreton where we are able to see them.
Humpback whales are perhaps best known for the strange sounds they make under the water. These sounds actually form complex and ordered patterns and, therefore, have become known as 'whale songs'. Although the song of each whale appears to have individual characteristics, all whales in a region sing what appears to be the same song. It appears that only solitary males in the coastal breeding grounds of the tropics sing these eerie songs. Researchers believe this may be part of a courtship ritual as the male humpback attempts to attract a mate.
From: Tangalooma Dolphin Education Centre. Written by Mark Orams.
R.P.BenDedek is from Brisbane Australia and is the author of 'The King's Calendar: The Secret of Qumran' at http://www.kingscalendar.com His academic articles set forth Apologetics for and results of his discovery of an "artificial chronological scheme" running through the Bible, Josephus, the Damascus Documents of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Seder Olam Rabbah.
He writes photographic 'Stories from China' and social editorial commentaries, both at KingsCalendar, and as a contributing newspaper columnist. He currently teaches Conversational English in China and in addition to his English Lessons at KingsCalendar, he has created specific sites for Students of English.
I received an email on November 14th 2005 and forgot where it was. So I do apologise for not making this correction earlier. The advice was received from osmia-on-line@excite.com
Subject : underwater cams BC, Canada coast
Loved your photos of the whales. Volker's work with orca acoustics is very interesting. I think the cams you are thinking of are OrcaLab's OrcaLIVE cams (which are only LIVE during the season the orcas are there): http://www.orca-live.net
