To: Journey North
From: Anne Smrcina
Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary
David Mattila is profiled in this interesting article from the Provincetown (Cape Cod, Mass.) Banner newspaper. He and other researchers from the Coastal Research Center have done a lot of work on whales on the east coast -- especially humpbacks of the Gulf of Maine (and Stellwagen Bank) population. The Banner has given us permission to include this article with my humpback whale report for Journey North.
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Center Scientist Goes Hawaiian by Sue Harrison, Banner Staff
Copyright 1996. Provincetown Banner. All rights reserved. The following news article may not be republished or distributed, in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of the Provincetown Banner newspaper.
It's February and cold. Who wouldn't want a month in Hawaii? But Center for Coastal Studies David Mattila said his upcoming trip is all for research.
"You might ask", Mattila said, "why a little organization like the Center is being asked by the federal government to come to Hawaii for a humpback whale research project." The answer, Mattila said, goes back to earlier research the Center did.
Humpbacks in both the Atlantic and Pacific migrate north to feed in the summer and south to breed in the winter. Though their numbers may be 10, 000 or more worldwide, they remain on the endangered species list.
Since 1978 the Center has studied humpbacks in their breeding grounds in the Caribbean. One of the primary areas of study, Silver Bank, lies off the coast of the Dominican Republic.
In 1992-93 the Center collaborated with scientists from seven other nations on a three-pronged project. The humpbacks in the Atlantic were photographed for identification through distinctive markings on their tails. Their behavior while in their breeding grounds was studied and skin samples were taken from 3,000 animals for genetic studies and for matching against other humpback populations. The skin samples were obtained with specially designed hollow-tipped arrows which are shot from a crossbow. The arrows strike the animal, pick up an eraser-sized piece of skin and bounce off. The sample gathering is harmless and most of the animals never even notice that it has happened.
Mattila said humpbacks have been around for several million years and have developed migrating patterns that are particular to individual population groups and which rarely overlap, but scientists feel that dramatic global climate changes, glaciation, and rise and fall of sea levels may have caused overlapping in the past. By studying their DNA, scientists can tell to what extent these groups may have previously intermingled.
Another benefit of the genetic studies is that breeding behavior in selecting mates can now be cross-checked against parenting success.
Humpbacks display two behavior patterns during breeding, they fight or they sing. Males will choose one behavior as their primary way of winning females, and females will choose males by a preference for one behavior or the other. Now that large numbers of whales have been identified both visually and genetically, the research teams can compare observed behavior (fighting or singing) with numbers of offspring (through the genetic evidence).
From the viewpoint of managing the species to a full recovery, Mattila said the information could be crucial. "If it were to turn out", he said, "that 95-percent of the offspring were fathered by the singing males, then we would know that noise pollution in the breeding grounds would be an important concern."
All of this leads back to Mattila's Hawaiian sojourn. The federal government now wants the Center to share its information and expertise with scientist studying the Pacific populations. The same types of studies will be done with Pacific researchers making comparisons of whales migrating to Hawaii from as diverse locations as Japan and Mexico.
Another plus for the Center researchers is their experience in rough seas. Most of the Hawaiian research has been done in shallow, clear, calm waters sheltered on the downwind side of volcanoes. However, a large number of whales are found in the more unprotected waters of the Penguin Bank, west of the Hawaiian Island of Molokai. Mattila, used to New England and Caribbean seas, said the twelve foot seas don't bother him.
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