1 00:00:00,533 --> 00:00:14,114 (tranquil music) 2 00:00:14,114 --> 00:00:15,515 - [narrator] They are one of the oceans' 3 00:00:15,515 --> 00:00:18,818 long-distance travelers. 4 00:00:18,818 --> 00:00:21,955 undertaking some of the longest seasonal migrations 5 00:00:21,955 --> 00:00:27,027 in the animal kingdom. 6 00:00:27,027 --> 00:00:28,194 - [adam] Humpback whales are found 7 00:00:28,194 --> 00:00:32,932 in all the major oceans on the planet. 8 00:00:32,932 --> 00:00:34,968 - [lars] There are 14 different distinct population segments 9 00:00:34,968 --> 00:00:37,170 of humpback whales in the world. 10 00:00:37,170 --> 00:00:38,438 (camera shudder clicking) 11 00:00:38,438 --> 00:00:40,407 - [adam] The focus of our work 12 00:00:40,407 --> 00:00:44,010 is on the Hawai i distinct population segment. 13 00:00:44,010 --> 00:00:46,913 - [stephanie] They breed in the Hawaiian Islands, 14 00:00:46,913 --> 00:00:54,487 and they feed in Alaska, British Columbia. 15 00:00:54,487 --> 00:00:59,392 - [adam] They are migrating some 2,500, 3,000 miles 16 00:00:59,392 --> 00:01:00,627 up to their feeding grounds 17 00:01:00,627 --> 00:01:05,965 and then back down to their breeding grounds. 18 00:01:05,965 --> 00:01:07,400 - [lars] The humpback whales get to Alaska 19 00:01:07,400 --> 00:01:09,169 usually around early April, 20 00:01:09,169 --> 00:01:12,338 and then they stay up there until about late November 21 00:01:12,338 --> 00:01:14,040 while they're feeding all the time up there. 22 00:01:14,040 --> 00:01:15,308 And then they turn around again 23 00:01:15,308 --> 00:01:18,211 and usually start coming back in Hawaiian waters 24 00:01:18,211 --> 00:01:20,447 even in December, and peak in February. 25 00:01:20,447 --> 00:01:21,648 And then by end of March, 26 00:01:21,648 --> 00:01:24,651 it's slim pickings down here in Hawai i. 27 00:01:24,651 --> 00:01:25,985 - [jens] It's called a trickle migration 28 00:01:25,985 --> 00:01:28,321 because we don't have the entire population 29 00:01:28,321 --> 00:01:30,924 coming down at once. 30 00:01:30,924 --> 00:01:32,358 - [stephanie] And while they're in the breeding grounds, 31 00:01:32,358 --> 00:01:33,660 they are not eating at all. 32 00:01:33,660 --> 00:01:36,496 They're just surviving off of their blubber. 33 00:01:36,496 --> 00:01:38,631 So it's very energetically costly 34 00:01:38,631 --> 00:01:42,569 to undergo that migration each year. 35 00:01:42,569 --> 00:01:45,772 - [narrator] Now scientists in Hawai i and Alaska 36 00:01:45,772 --> 00:01:48,441 have teamed up to better understand 37 00:01:48,441 --> 00:01:51,377 how this prolonged period of fasting 38 00:01:51,377 --> 00:01:57,117 is impacting the whales' body condition and overall health. 39 00:01:57,117 --> 00:01:59,586 - [andy] We now have these very nuanced tools 40 00:01:59,586 --> 00:02:02,689 that we can look not just at the health of the population, 41 00:02:02,689 --> 00:02:04,591 but of individuals. 42 00:02:04,591 --> 00:02:07,460 It's allowing us to see things we never did before. 43 00:02:07,460 --> 00:02:08,995 - [lars] One of the main questions 44 00:02:08,995 --> 00:02:11,531 that we're trying to address is pretty simple. 45 00:02:11,531 --> 00:02:13,733 What does it cost to be a humpback whale? 46 00:02:13,733 --> 00:02:18,705 How much energy do these animals spend migrating, breeding, 47 00:02:18,705 --> 00:02:21,708 and those are the costs which then they need to replenish 48 00:02:21,708 --> 00:02:24,844 while they're up in Alaska. 49 00:02:24,844 --> 00:02:26,679 - [martin] Unfortunately, we still don't really understand 50 00:02:26,679 --> 00:02:28,948 what a healthy humpback whale looks like. 51 00:02:28,948 --> 00:02:31,184 So for us to be able to figure out 52 00:02:31,184 --> 00:02:33,153 when a population is impacted, 53 00:02:33,153 --> 00:02:35,788 we need to know what the baseline is. 54 00:02:35,788 --> 00:02:36,923 - [stephanie] Which is quite important 55 00:02:36,923 --> 00:02:39,025 because this whale population 56 00:02:39,025 --> 00:02:41,394 is particularly vulnerable right now. 57 00:02:41,394 --> 00:02:45,565 In the last few years we've seen changes happening 58 00:02:45,565 --> 00:02:48,735 to the sighting rates here in Hawai i 59 00:02:48,735 --> 00:02:50,770 and our colleagues in Southeast Alaska 60 00:02:50,770 --> 00:02:53,940 reported the same thing. 61 00:02:53,940 --> 00:02:58,144 - [kristi] They are certainly sentinels of ocean health. 62 00:02:58,144 --> 00:03:02,849 - [shannon] They can be good bellwethers for change. 63 00:03:02,849 --> 00:03:06,352 - [adam] Scientists have studied humpback whales, 64 00:03:06,352 --> 00:03:09,055 since the 1970s, behaviorally. 65 00:03:09,055 --> 00:03:13,259 And so over the past almost 50 years now, 66 00:03:13,259 --> 00:03:14,761 we've learned a ton, 67 00:03:14,761 --> 00:03:20,600 but these types of questions that we are now trying to ask 68 00:03:20,600 --> 00:03:24,003 are showing us how much more we have to go. 69 00:03:24,003 --> 00:03:29,275 - [lars] This is a really exciting time to do research. 70 00:03:29,275 --> 00:03:30,543 - [narrator] How do scientists 71 00:03:30,543 --> 00:03:32,879 measure the whales' natural fluctuations 72 00:03:32,879 --> 00:03:35,982 in body size and overall health? 73 00:03:35,982 --> 00:03:39,819 And what might that tell us about their ability to cope 74 00:03:39,819 --> 00:03:42,956 with future environmental stressors? 75 00:03:42,956 --> 00:04:04,844 (dramatic music) 76 00:04:04,844 --> 00:04:06,679 - [announcer] Major funding for this program 77 00:04:06,679 --> 00:04:09,649 was provided by the Batchelor Foundation, 78 00:04:09,649 --> 00:04:11,718 encouraging people to preserve 79 00:04:11,718 --> 00:04:16,422 and protect America's underwater resources. 80 00:04:16,422 --> 00:04:18,691 Additional funding was provided 81 00:04:18,691 --> 00:04:25,665 by the Parrot Family Endowment for Environmental Education. 82 00:04:25,665 --> 00:04:28,601 (majestic music) 83 00:04:28,601 --> 00:04:32,472 - [narrator] Southeast Alaska. 84 00:04:32,472 --> 00:04:37,110 Remote islands covered in dense temperate rainforest 85 00:04:37,110 --> 00:04:41,648 give way to scenic glacier-cut fjords, 86 00:04:41,648 --> 00:04:48,721 that are bountiful feeding grounds for 87 00:04:48,721 --> 00:04:50,890 One group studying humpback whales 88 00:04:50,890 --> 00:04:55,695 in this rugged wilderness is the Alaska Whale Foundation. 89 00:04:55,695 --> 00:04:57,297 Its remote field station 90 00:04:57,297 --> 00:05:03,703 is located in the small community of 91 00:05:03,703 --> 00:05:05,171 - Most of our work 92 00:05:05,171 --> 00:05:09,042 has focused on humpback whale populations here in Alaska 93 00:05:09,042 --> 00:05:11,644 by studying both the actual animals themselves 94 00:05:11,644 --> 00:05:13,680 and the underlying prey. 95 00:05:13,680 --> 00:05:15,682 - [narrator] From April through October, 96 00:05:15,682 --> 00:05:19,819 a small but dedicated team of scientists and interns 97 00:05:19,819 --> 00:05:22,121 use the field station as their base 98 00:05:22,121 --> 00:05:29,395 to conduct research in the surrounding waters. 99 00:05:29,395 --> 00:05:33,299 - [andy] Our study area is a large portion 100 00:05:33,299 --> 00:05:36,836 of Northern Southeast Alaska; Frederick Sound, 101 00:05:36,836 --> 00:05:39,272 Chatham Strait, Icy Strait, 102 00:05:39,272 --> 00:05:41,174 and the nearest towns would be 103 00:05:41,174 --> 00:05:43,643 Petersburg, Sitka, and Juneau. 104 00:05:43,643 --> 00:05:48,514 We probably cover about 50% of that area at this point, 105 00:05:48,514 --> 00:05:50,183 and we're still expanding. 106 00:05:50,183 --> 00:05:54,487 We have colleagues who are working in various other spots. 107 00:05:54,487 --> 00:05:55,722 - And this is one of the key areas 108 00:05:55,722 --> 00:05:57,190 that the humpback whales come up to feed 109 00:05:57,190 --> 00:05:59,125 throughout the summer and fall months. 110 00:05:59,125 --> 00:06:00,927 It's a very productive area. 111 00:06:00,927 --> 00:06:03,796 - [andy] The diet of these animals is about 80% krill. 112 00:06:03,796 --> 00:06:05,531 - [martin] They're also feeding on different forage fish 113 00:06:05,531 --> 00:06:07,033 that are quite important to the area. 114 00:06:07,033 --> 00:06:08,501 Things like Pacific herring. 115 00:06:08,501 --> 00:06:12,338 - Juvenile salmon, increasingly at least in recent years, 116 00:06:12,338 --> 00:06:16,609 capelin, sand lance, all things that are small 117 00:06:16,609 --> 00:06:19,979 and schooling or swarming that occur in abundance. 118 00:06:19,979 --> 00:06:22,682 - It does vary a little bit throughout the season. 119 00:06:22,682 --> 00:06:25,385 - [narrator] Over the course of the summer whale season, 120 00:06:25,385 --> 00:06:29,055 the team conducts four to five multi-week surveys 121 00:06:29,055 --> 00:06:30,590 as part of the organization's 122 00:06:30,590 --> 00:06:34,427 comprehensive whale health and abundance program. 123 00:06:34,427 --> 00:06:36,195 - We're using these point count surveys 124 00:06:36,195 --> 00:06:38,498 to systematically sample. 125 00:06:38,498 --> 00:06:40,700 This means sitting on different designated points 126 00:06:40,700 --> 00:06:42,869 for 15 minutes, looking for whales, 127 00:06:42,869 --> 00:06:44,404 counting every animal we see. 128 00:06:44,404 --> 00:06:46,739 How far away is it, what bearing is it? 129 00:06:46,739 --> 00:06:48,875 And from that, we can calculate, A, how many animals, 130 00:06:48,875 --> 00:06:51,177 but B, where they're situated as well. 131 00:06:51,177 --> 00:06:52,779 Once these point counts are finished, 132 00:06:52,779 --> 00:06:54,514 we can then head over to the whales, 133 00:06:54,514 --> 00:06:58,017 and we try and get a photo ID image of their flukes. 134 00:06:58,017 --> 00:06:59,986 This will then tell us who the animal is. 135 00:06:59,986 --> 00:07:02,688 Is it a new animal to the catalog that we have, 136 00:07:02,688 --> 00:07:04,757 or do we know who it is already? 137 00:07:04,757 --> 00:07:08,094 This tells us who is around at what periods of time. 138 00:07:08,094 --> 00:07:11,264 - [narrator] Scientists can identify individual whales 139 00:07:11,264 --> 00:07:13,800 by looking at their tail flukes. 140 00:07:13,800 --> 00:07:16,769 Each fluke has a distinct trailing edge 141 00:07:16,769 --> 00:07:18,404 as well as a unique pattern 142 00:07:18,404 --> 00:07:21,874 of black and white pigmentation on its underside 143 00:07:21,874 --> 00:07:27,647 that, like a human fingerprint, is unique to that animal. 144 00:07:27,647 --> 00:07:29,816 - We also want to get some environmental information 145 00:07:29,816 --> 00:07:32,084 on the ecosystem around them. 146 00:07:32,084 --> 00:07:33,753 - [narrator] During their surveys, 147 00:07:33,753 --> 00:07:36,389 the scientists are collecting water samples 148 00:07:36,389 --> 00:07:38,324 so they can analyze the nutrients 149 00:07:38,324 --> 00:07:39,759 that are fueling the bottom 150 00:07:39,759 --> 00:07:43,830 of this very productive food chain. 151 00:07:43,830 --> 00:07:48,534 They also deploy devices known as CTDs. 152 00:07:48,534 --> 00:07:50,169 - Which allow us to profile the temperature 153 00:07:50,169 --> 00:07:52,405 and salinity of the water column. 154 00:07:52,405 --> 00:07:53,806 So we're tracking some of the sort of 155 00:07:53,806 --> 00:07:57,944 physical and chemical properties of the underlying ocean. 156 00:07:57,944 --> 00:07:59,412 - [narrator] Knowing the physical properties 157 00:07:59,412 --> 00:08:02,849 of the water column enables biologists to understand 158 00:08:02,849 --> 00:08:04,784 the base of the food chain, 159 00:08:04,784 --> 00:08:07,620 which can switch to less nutritious plankton 160 00:08:07,620 --> 00:08:13,226 as water temperatures rise. 161 00:08:13,226 --> 00:08:16,395 In recent years, a severe marine heatwave 162 00:08:16,395 --> 00:08:19,632 in the north Pacific had devastating impacts 163 00:08:19,632 --> 00:08:22,435 on animals up and down the food chain, 164 00:08:22,435 --> 00:08:26,305 including the humpback whales. 165 00:08:26,305 --> 00:08:29,041 Now the scientists' goal is to link 166 00:08:29,041 --> 00:08:31,878 what they see in the underlying ecosystem 167 00:08:31,878 --> 00:08:34,313 to the humpback's health. 168 00:08:34,313 --> 00:08:36,048 - [martin] Takeoff. 169 00:08:36,048 --> 00:08:37,450 - [narrator] As part of a partnership 170 00:08:37,450 --> 00:08:39,585 between the Alaska Whale Foundation 171 00:08:39,585 --> 00:08:42,355 and the University of Hawai i at Manoa, 172 00:08:42,355 --> 00:08:45,424 Ph.D. student Martin van Aswegen 173 00:08:45,424 --> 00:08:47,360 collects body condition measurements 174 00:08:47,360 --> 00:08:50,496 of the humpbacks from the air. 175 00:08:50,496 --> 00:08:52,031 - We try and sample any and every whale 176 00:08:52,031 --> 00:08:53,866 that we come across up here. 177 00:08:53,866 --> 00:08:55,501 So we're using these drones 178 00:08:55,501 --> 00:08:58,204 to noninvasively get over the top of the whales 179 00:08:58,204 --> 00:08:59,705 as they're surfacing. 180 00:08:59,705 --> 00:09:01,741 And as they surface, we can get a video, 181 00:09:01,741 --> 00:09:04,911 a high-resolution image of their body contours. 182 00:09:04,911 --> 00:09:06,445 So we can see how long the whale is, 183 00:09:06,445 --> 00:09:09,849 but also how wide the animal is. 184 00:09:09,849 --> 00:09:12,752 - [narrator] The drones are equipped with flat lenses 185 00:09:12,752 --> 00:09:15,388 and very precise height estimators, 186 00:09:15,388 --> 00:09:18,024 which make it possible to translate the pixels 187 00:09:18,024 --> 00:09:21,460 in an image into exact measurements. 188 00:09:21,460 --> 00:09:23,629 - And using some software that we have, 189 00:09:23,629 --> 00:09:25,831 we can measure the total length of the animal, 190 00:09:25,831 --> 00:09:27,099 as well as the width, 191 00:09:27,099 --> 00:09:30,169 across 20 different points on the body. 192 00:09:30,169 --> 00:09:31,704 We can do this again and again and again, 193 00:09:31,704 --> 00:09:33,973 with the same animals and different animals. 194 00:09:33,973 --> 00:09:35,641 And this allows us to see how quickly 195 00:09:35,641 --> 00:09:38,477 these whales are gaining mass throughout the summertime 196 00:09:38,477 --> 00:09:40,746 while they're up here feeding. 197 00:09:40,746 --> 00:09:42,248 Their job up here is essentially 198 00:09:42,248 --> 00:09:46,118 just to gain as much mass and weight as they can. 199 00:09:46,118 --> 00:09:47,353 It tells us a little bit 200 00:09:47,353 --> 00:09:50,189 about how productive the system is for one. 201 00:09:50,189 --> 00:09:51,591 And this is important 202 00:09:51,591 --> 00:09:53,559 because we can look at the variation on this 203 00:09:53,559 --> 00:09:55,261 across different years, 204 00:09:55,261 --> 00:09:57,863 but also looking at different environmental variables 205 00:09:57,863 --> 00:10:00,766 that may result in this variation. 206 00:10:00,766 --> 00:10:02,335 And that can be an indicator 207 00:10:02,335 --> 00:10:05,504 of how the population is fairing both within a season, 208 00:10:05,504 --> 00:10:07,807 but also across multiple years. 209 00:10:07,807 --> 00:10:09,275 Beautiful. 210 00:10:09,275 --> 00:10:12,511 - And so, by incorporating all this physical, 211 00:10:12,511 --> 00:10:16,282 chemical, and biological oceanographic data 212 00:10:16,282 --> 00:10:18,618 and simultaneously looking at 213 00:10:18,618 --> 00:10:21,687 how the population are responding in 214 00:10:21,687 --> 00:10:23,522 month to month, year to year, 215 00:10:23,522 --> 00:10:25,324 we're hoping we will be able to make those links 216 00:10:25,324 --> 00:10:34,600 between whale health and ocean health. 217 00:10:34,600 --> 00:10:36,335 - [narrator] As the whales migrate south 218 00:10:36,335 --> 00:10:39,805 in the winter months, so does the research. 219 00:10:39,805 --> 00:10:42,375 - [martin] 3-2-1 takeoff. 220 00:10:42,375 --> 00:10:44,744 - [narrator] Hawai i's warm, shallow waters 221 00:10:44,744 --> 00:10:47,046 make for an ideal place to breed 222 00:10:47,046 --> 00:10:50,182 and give birth to vulnerable calves. 223 00:10:50,182 --> 00:10:57,156 (majestic music) 224 00:10:57,156 --> 00:11:00,693 While in Hawai i, Martin teams up with collaborators 225 00:11:00,693 --> 00:11:02,828 with the Pacific Whale Foundation 226 00:11:02,828 --> 00:11:05,164 and the Marine Mammal Research Laboratory 227 00:11:05,164 --> 00:11:08,267 at the University of Hawai i at Hilo. 228 00:11:08,267 --> 00:11:11,037 - Pacific Whale Foundation was founded in the 1980s 229 00:11:11,037 --> 00:11:13,773 with the focus of learning more about the humpback whales 230 00:11:13,773 --> 00:11:16,242 that come to Hawai i each year. 231 00:11:16,242 --> 00:11:18,944 - [narrator] Each January, February and March, 232 00:11:18,944 --> 00:11:21,580 the scientists conduct regular whale surveys 233 00:11:21,580 --> 00:11:24,016 in the leeward waters off Maui, 234 00:11:24,016 --> 00:11:26,352 where most of the whales tend to congregate 235 00:11:26,352 --> 00:11:29,221 during the breeding season. 236 00:11:29,221 --> 00:11:30,489 - The females are coming to give birth. 237 00:11:30,489 --> 00:11:32,291 The males are coming to compete and breed 238 00:11:32,291 --> 00:11:34,126 with those females. 239 00:11:34,126 --> 00:11:37,496 The project is focusing specifically on mother calf pods 240 00:11:37,496 --> 00:11:39,498 as well as competition pods. 241 00:11:39,498 --> 00:11:41,467 And so the first thing we always wanna try and get 242 00:11:41,467 --> 00:11:45,171 are those fluke identifications. 243 00:11:45,171 --> 00:11:47,206 Once we know who the individual is, 244 00:11:47,206 --> 00:11:49,208 we can link that back to archives 245 00:11:49,208 --> 00:11:51,711 and begin to understand a bit more about that individual. 246 00:11:51,711 --> 00:11:53,412 Is it a male, is it a female? 247 00:11:53,412 --> 00:11:55,147 How reproductive was that female 248 00:11:55,147 --> 00:11:57,750 throughout its life history? 249 00:11:57,750 --> 00:12:01,187 - We might know it's age or it's minimum age. 250 00:12:01,187 --> 00:12:03,189 If we have seen a whale as a calf, 251 00:12:03,189 --> 00:12:05,791 for example, and then watched it grow. 252 00:12:05,791 --> 00:12:07,960 - When it comes to photo identification in Hawai i, 253 00:12:07,960 --> 00:12:11,130 there's two really long-term robust catalogs. 254 00:12:11,130 --> 00:12:13,099 There's the one that Adam Pack curates, 255 00:12:13,099 --> 00:12:16,001 and there's the one that Pacific Whale Foundation curates. 256 00:12:16,001 --> 00:12:17,603 And if you put those two together, 257 00:12:17,603 --> 00:12:18,904 we have a really good understanding 258 00:12:18,904 --> 00:12:22,108 of the individuals that come here to Hawai i. 259 00:12:22,108 --> 00:12:24,009 And then Alaska Whale Foundation of course 260 00:12:24,009 --> 00:12:29,115 has its own Alaska humpback whale catalog. 261 00:12:29,115 --> 00:12:30,316 - [narrator] To further supplement 262 00:12:30,316 --> 00:12:32,551 the sighting history of the whales, 263 00:12:32,551 --> 00:12:34,787 the team uploads the fluke shots 264 00:12:34,787 --> 00:12:38,758 to a unique online database called Happy Whale, 265 00:12:38,758 --> 00:12:41,727 which logs sightings worldwide. 266 00:12:41,727 --> 00:12:45,097 - Happy Whale is a website 267 00:12:45,097 --> 00:12:48,667 that has an automated fluke matching algorithm 268 00:12:48,667 --> 00:12:50,169 built into it. 269 00:12:50,169 --> 00:12:52,671 So when you upload your photograph to Happy Whale, 270 00:12:52,671 --> 00:12:55,674 it compares against every other photograph 271 00:12:55,674 --> 00:13:00,212 on the Happy Whale system and returns results for you. 272 00:13:00,212 --> 00:13:03,182 - A lot of people are now starting to use 273 00:13:03,182 --> 00:13:04,917 which now allows us to track animals 274 00:13:04,917 --> 00:13:10,055 across these large areas. 275 00:13:10,055 --> 00:13:11,724 - [narrator] Once photo ID images 276 00:13:11,724 --> 00:13:14,593 of all the animals in the pod have been collected... 277 00:13:14,593 --> 00:13:17,663 - [martin] 3-2-1 takeoff. 278 00:13:17,663 --> 00:13:19,331 - [narrator] Martin launches his drone 279 00:13:19,331 --> 00:13:22,935 to take videos of all the animals from the air. 280 00:13:22,935 --> 00:13:25,604 - And our focus with mother and calf groups 281 00:13:25,604 --> 00:13:27,606 is looking at that energy exchange 282 00:13:27,606 --> 00:13:29,408 between mothers and calves. 283 00:13:29,408 --> 00:13:32,545 And so we know that mom is providing the energy 284 00:13:32,545 --> 00:13:35,481 for that calf solely. 285 00:13:35,481 --> 00:13:38,484 - These mothers are under extreme, energetic stress. 286 00:13:38,484 --> 00:13:40,152 - So we expect mother's body condition 287 00:13:40,152 --> 00:13:43,589 to decrease and the calf's body condition to increase. 288 00:13:43,589 --> 00:13:45,825 What we're trying to answer with the drone work 289 00:13:45,825 --> 00:13:48,627 is how fast that energy exchange happens 290 00:13:48,627 --> 00:13:51,530 and how much of it happens while they're here in Hawai i 291 00:13:51,530 --> 00:13:53,032 and then how much is still going on 292 00:13:53,032 --> 00:13:55,167 when they're up in Alaska. 293 00:13:55,167 --> 00:13:57,169 And so if we're able to determine 294 00:13:57,169 --> 00:14:00,439 exactly how energetically costly that is 295 00:14:00,439 --> 00:14:02,474 and how much time they need here to do that, 296 00:14:02,474 --> 00:14:06,545 we can begin to model or predict impacts of climate change, 297 00:14:06,545 --> 00:14:09,315 for example, on humpback whales' ability 298 00:14:09,315 --> 00:14:11,584 to complete important life history cycles, 299 00:14:11,584 --> 00:14:15,788 such as birthing and calving. 300 00:14:15,788 --> 00:14:17,423 - [narrator] The scientists also study 301 00:14:17,423 --> 00:14:21,427 what are known as competitive groups. 302 00:14:21,427 --> 00:14:24,129 - These are, you know, my favorite groups to encounter. 303 00:14:24,129 --> 00:14:27,132 You have a lot more whales in close proximity 304 00:14:27,132 --> 00:14:30,102 and you have a female that is ready to mate. 305 00:14:30,102 --> 00:14:33,873 And so you have males fighting or competing 306 00:14:33,873 --> 00:14:36,609 for the position next to the female. 307 00:14:36,609 --> 00:14:40,379 And so you have a male that's called the principal escort, 308 00:14:40,379 --> 00:14:43,115 meaning he has the primary position next to a female, 309 00:14:43,115 --> 00:14:46,051 that's defending that position against secondary escorts 310 00:14:46,051 --> 00:14:48,787 that are coming in to try and take 311 00:14:48,787 --> 00:14:50,389 that primary position away 312 00:14:50,389 --> 00:14:53,626 from the current animal that holds it. 313 00:14:53,626 --> 00:14:56,028 - The competition pods are very dynamic 314 00:14:56,028 --> 00:14:58,631 and the composition is always changing 315 00:14:58,631 --> 00:15:00,466 where whales will come and join the group, 316 00:15:00,466 --> 00:15:04,603 whales will leave the group. 317 00:15:04,603 --> 00:15:08,507 - That was a calf, fluke up dive. 318 00:15:08,507 --> 00:15:11,143 - [narrator] Also part of the team is Dr. Adam Pack, 319 00:15:11,143 --> 00:15:12,878 a longtime whale researcher 320 00:15:12,878 --> 00:15:15,915 from the University of Hawai i at Hilo. 321 00:15:15,915 --> 00:15:19,685 - Since 1976, when my mentor, Lou Herman, 322 00:15:19,685 --> 00:15:21,186 pioneered the scientific study 323 00:15:21,186 --> 00:15:23,088 of humpback whales in Hawaiian waters, 324 00:15:23,088 --> 00:15:25,758 he and his students, which include myself, 325 00:15:25,758 --> 00:15:28,961 have studied the Humpbacks and the behavioral ecology 326 00:15:28,961 --> 00:15:37,236 both in Hawaiian waters and in Southeast Alaska. 327 00:15:37,236 --> 00:15:39,605 - [narrator] Once the team has gathered the photo ID 328 00:15:39,605 --> 00:15:41,106 and drone data, 329 00:15:41,106 --> 00:15:44,009 Adam collects a small skin and blubber biopsy 330 00:15:44,009 --> 00:15:46,345 of each whale in the group. 331 00:15:46,345 --> 00:15:50,516 - We do this using a technique which is well established, 332 00:15:50,516 --> 00:15:54,153 a cross bow, which fires an arrow 333 00:15:54,153 --> 00:15:56,388 with a little stainless-steel tip, 334 00:15:56,388 --> 00:15:59,458 that's sterile on the end of it. 335 00:15:59,458 --> 00:16:00,960 Let her commit. 336 00:16:00,960 --> 00:16:04,096 We will start paralleling each whale 337 00:16:04,096 --> 00:16:08,000 and waiting patiently for that whale to come up 338 00:16:08,000 --> 00:16:09,802 in a high arch dive. 339 00:16:09,802 --> 00:16:12,905 We want to have the biggest profile we can 340 00:16:12,905 --> 00:16:14,139 of the whale's body. 341 00:16:14,139 --> 00:16:18,377 And my goal is I want to go about a foot below 342 00:16:18,377 --> 00:16:21,947 the dorsal fin, plus or minus. 343 00:16:21,947 --> 00:16:24,516 It basically bounces off the whale 344 00:16:24,516 --> 00:16:28,087 and extracts a small sample of skin and blubber. 345 00:16:28,087 --> 00:16:31,623 In most cases, the whale just continues with its dive. 346 00:16:31,623 --> 00:16:35,094 Occasionally a whale might do it a little tail flick, 347 00:16:35,094 --> 00:16:36,328 in those situations, 348 00:16:36,328 --> 00:16:39,465 it might be like a little mosquito bite. 349 00:16:39,465 --> 00:16:41,033 - [narrator] To date, Adam has collected 350 00:16:41,033 --> 00:16:45,037 nearly 500 biopsy samples as part of this project, 351 00:16:45,037 --> 00:16:47,873 which are sent to Dr. Shannon Atkinson's lab 352 00:16:47,873 --> 00:16:51,577 at the University of Alaska Fairbanks for analysis. 353 00:16:51,577 --> 00:16:55,080 - One of the big areas that we tend to focus on 354 00:16:55,080 --> 00:16:56,915 is the endocrine system, 355 00:16:56,915 --> 00:17:00,019 and what that really is, is hormones. 356 00:17:00,019 --> 00:17:03,188 Hormones are what drives behavior. 357 00:17:03,188 --> 00:17:06,291 And so these hormones, we extract from the blubber 358 00:17:06,291 --> 00:17:09,628 and then we run them through tests in our lab. 359 00:17:09,628 --> 00:17:11,463 They're really in two different categories. 360 00:17:11,463 --> 00:17:14,133 Some of them, we call them the sex steroids 361 00:17:14,133 --> 00:17:16,902 and they're related to sexual activity, 362 00:17:16,902 --> 00:17:20,239 sexual reproduction, everything that has to do with sex. 363 00:17:20,239 --> 00:17:23,876 We can start to look at things like pregnancy rates 364 00:17:23,876 --> 00:17:26,979 and whether the pregnancy rate of animals 365 00:17:26,979 --> 00:17:30,883 is going up or going down, or is very stable. 366 00:17:30,883 --> 00:17:32,951 - We look at testosterone in males, 367 00:17:32,951 --> 00:17:35,287 how does that naturally fluctuate 368 00:17:35,287 --> 00:17:37,956 over the course of the reproductive season, 369 00:17:37,956 --> 00:17:41,593 but also in conjunction with the various behavioral 370 00:17:41,593 --> 00:17:44,163 and social roles these animals take. 371 00:17:44,163 --> 00:17:45,831 - And so is there a relationship 372 00:17:45,831 --> 00:17:47,766 in the testosterone level of the males 373 00:17:47,766 --> 00:17:50,035 that are at the principal escort position 374 00:17:50,035 --> 00:17:52,471 and those that are further back that are just hanging out, 375 00:17:52,471 --> 00:17:53,739 is there a relationship 376 00:17:53,739 --> 00:17:56,041 with the amount of aggression we see? 377 00:17:56,041 --> 00:17:58,077 - [narrator] Shannon's lab also analyzes 378 00:17:58,077 --> 00:18:00,746 the whales' metabolic hormones. 379 00:18:00,746 --> 00:18:02,247 - They tend to have more to do 380 00:18:02,247 --> 00:18:04,783 with the body condition of the animal, 381 00:18:04,783 --> 00:18:06,518 the health of the animal, 382 00:18:06,518 --> 00:18:10,589 in terms of its wellbeing or its state of stress. 383 00:18:10,589 --> 00:18:13,058 - As they are using up these energy reserves, 384 00:18:13,058 --> 00:18:16,562 including mothers that are not only metabolizing their fat 385 00:18:16,562 --> 00:18:18,230 for their own needs, 386 00:18:18,230 --> 00:18:21,233 but also for the needs of their newborn calf, 387 00:18:21,233 --> 00:18:25,737 how is that being translated into stress? 388 00:18:25,737 --> 00:18:28,507 We really don't have a baseline 389 00:18:28,507 --> 00:18:34,680 of understanding the physical health characteristics 390 00:18:34,680 --> 00:18:36,448 and the reproductive health characteristics 391 00:18:36,448 --> 00:18:38,484 of humpback whales, 392 00:18:38,484 --> 00:18:43,388 so that we have something to compare chronic stress to. 393 00:18:43,388 --> 00:18:45,057 Once we establish that baseline, 394 00:18:45,057 --> 00:18:47,226 then we're better equipped to understand 395 00:18:47,226 --> 00:18:51,330 what happens when these animals experience 396 00:18:51,330 --> 00:18:54,266 non-natural stressors, or natural stressors 397 00:18:54,266 --> 00:18:57,369 that have to do with climate, like a warming ocean 398 00:18:57,369 --> 00:19:01,340 that may negatively impact food resources. 399 00:19:01,340 --> 00:19:04,943 - [shannon] 1-9-6 400 00:19:04,943 --> 00:19:07,012 - [narrator] A sub-sample of the biopsies 401 00:19:07,012 --> 00:19:09,715 goes to Dr. Kristi West and her team 402 00:19:09,715 --> 00:19:14,586 at the University of Hawai i Health and Stranding Lab. 403 00:19:14,586 --> 00:19:17,122 - We're specifically looking at stable isotopes 404 00:19:17,122 --> 00:19:18,924 in effort to better understand 405 00:19:18,924 --> 00:19:22,094 the foraging of each individual. 406 00:19:22,094 --> 00:19:24,096 - [narrator] Stable isotope analysis 407 00:19:24,096 --> 00:19:25,998 lets scientists trace elements 408 00:19:25,998 --> 00:19:28,500 as they move up the food chain. 409 00:19:28,500 --> 00:19:31,937 - [kristi] And we focus on nitrogen as well as carbon. 410 00:19:31,937 --> 00:19:35,440 And ultimately this is a signal in the whales' tissue. 411 00:19:35,440 --> 00:19:37,442 So in the skin samples that are collected 412 00:19:37,442 --> 00:19:39,311 from these live whales, 413 00:19:39,311 --> 00:19:41,780 and we can match that signal to prey sources 414 00:19:41,780 --> 00:19:43,982 that these whales may have foraged upon 415 00:19:43,982 --> 00:19:46,285 prior to the collection of the sample. 416 00:19:46,285 --> 00:19:49,321 And we think that this gives us the timeframe 417 00:19:49,321 --> 00:19:53,725 of a month or more. 418 00:19:53,725 --> 00:19:56,361 - [narrator] Knowing what the whales have preyed upon 419 00:19:56,361 --> 00:20:00,966 gives scientists an idea about the health of the food chain. 420 00:20:00,966 --> 00:20:03,001 - So it certainly has the power 421 00:20:03,001 --> 00:20:07,973 to help us tease apart what changes have happened, 422 00:20:07,973 --> 00:20:09,808 in terms of looking at their foraging. 423 00:20:09,808 --> 00:20:11,510 And then of course, that next question is 424 00:20:11,510 --> 00:20:14,346 what drove that foraging change in the first place 425 00:20:14,346 --> 00:20:19,851 that may be negatively impacting the health of the whales. 426 00:20:19,851 --> 00:20:22,521 - [narrator] Kristi's team is also developing a new method 427 00:20:22,521 --> 00:20:25,824 of analyzing the fat cells in a whale's blubber 428 00:20:25,824 --> 00:20:27,559 to correlate their size 429 00:20:27,559 --> 00:20:31,363 with the animal's body measurements from the drone. 430 00:20:31,363 --> 00:20:33,799 - This is an analytical tool 431 00:20:33,799 --> 00:20:37,803 to try and really quantify how much fat storage 432 00:20:37,803 --> 00:20:40,172 does each individual have on them. 433 00:20:40,172 --> 00:20:42,174 We're looking for those fat cells 434 00:20:42,174 --> 00:20:45,811 so that we can identify them and measure their size. 435 00:20:45,811 --> 00:20:47,746 And then we ultimately are measuring 436 00:20:47,746 --> 00:20:50,182 maybe 100 of those in any individual slide 437 00:20:50,182 --> 00:20:53,552 to get a really strong average of that fat cell size. 438 00:20:53,552 --> 00:20:58,390 And then we are also using software to calculate for us 439 00:20:58,390 --> 00:21:01,126 the degree of connective tissue in any given image, 440 00:21:01,126 --> 00:21:03,629 as opposed to those fat cells. 441 00:21:03,629 --> 00:21:07,966 So that we have an idea of how much of that area 442 00:21:07,966 --> 00:21:12,938 that we are examining is represented by 443 00:21:12,938 --> 00:21:16,208 which is probably only gonna have really small fat cells, 444 00:21:16,208 --> 00:21:19,978 versus a large number of nice, robust fat cells 445 00:21:19,978 --> 00:21:21,847 and just a little bit of connective tissue 446 00:21:21,847 --> 00:21:26,018 serving the purpose of holding that tissue altogether. 447 00:21:26,018 --> 00:21:28,287 - [narrator] Data from stranded humpbacks 448 00:21:28,287 --> 00:21:30,255 has shown that emaciated whales 449 00:21:30,255 --> 00:21:32,791 tend to have much smaller fat cells 450 00:21:32,791 --> 00:21:36,728 than animals that have a robust body size. 451 00:21:36,728 --> 00:21:38,463 - So really exciting to have a chance 452 00:21:38,463 --> 00:21:40,666 to put the whole story together, 453 00:21:40,666 --> 00:21:43,302 through working with such a large and collaborative team 454 00:21:43,302 --> 00:21:46,505 across the ocean basin. 455 00:21:46,505 --> 00:21:47,739 - We certainly rely on each other 456 00:21:47,739 --> 00:21:50,042 to be able to provide different datasets 457 00:21:50,042 --> 00:21:51,943 to fill in gaps where we can, 458 00:21:51,943 --> 00:21:56,615 in order to just keep working on this puzzle piece by piece. 459 00:21:56,615 --> 00:21:58,216 We're starting to get a diverse, 460 00:21:58,216 --> 00:22:00,952 but long data set that encompasses 461 00:22:00,952 --> 00:22:02,688 And the idea is to keep this going 462 00:22:02,688 --> 00:22:05,724 so we can have a multi-decadal dataset over time, 463 00:22:05,724 --> 00:22:12,397 which is going to be a lot more powerful. 464 00:22:12,397 --> 00:22:14,199 - [narrator] Between 2018 465 00:22:14,199 --> 00:22:17,703 and the end of the 2022 breeding season... 466 00:22:17,703 --> 00:22:19,237 - Two more coming up. 467 00:22:19,237 --> 00:22:20,972 - [narrator] Martin captured approximately 468 00:22:20,972 --> 00:22:23,608 6,300 drone measurements 469 00:22:23,608 --> 00:22:28,113 of over 5,000 humpbacks in Hawai i and Alaska. 470 00:22:28,113 --> 00:22:30,248 This includes repeat sightings 471 00:22:30,248 --> 00:22:35,187 of more than 120 individual animals, in both locations, 472 00:22:35,187 --> 00:22:39,057 within six months of each other. 473 00:22:39,057 --> 00:22:40,625 - Some of the measurements 474 00:22:40,625 --> 00:22:42,094 that we're getting are quite surprising, 475 00:22:42,094 --> 00:22:44,096 things like adults losing up to 476 00:22:44,096 --> 00:22:47,532 28 inches of their body width while on the breeding grounds, 477 00:22:47,532 --> 00:22:49,167 for example, and that's without a calf, 478 00:22:49,167 --> 00:22:51,636 that's just a regular mature adult. 479 00:22:51,636 --> 00:22:54,239 But also the calves have been really interesting, 480 00:22:54,239 --> 00:22:55,540 because we can sample calves in Hawai i 481 00:22:55,540 --> 00:22:56,975 throughout the season. 482 00:22:56,975 --> 00:22:59,044 They're typically there for 60 days. 483 00:22:59,044 --> 00:23:01,213 To be able to do it a few months later, 484 00:23:01,213 --> 00:23:03,048 once they get back to Alaska, 485 00:23:03,048 --> 00:23:05,050 that's incredibly rare and difficult to do 486 00:23:05,050 --> 00:23:06,985 so those data points are really valuable. 487 00:23:06,985 --> 00:23:08,954 So for example, some of the calves 488 00:23:08,954 --> 00:23:10,889 that we sampled in Hawai i initially 489 00:23:10,889 --> 00:23:13,725 were 11 to 13 feet in length. 490 00:23:13,725 --> 00:23:15,160 And about four months later, 491 00:23:15,160 --> 00:23:18,263 they were about 28 feet in length. 492 00:23:18,263 --> 00:23:21,500 And some of them were about 900% heavier 493 00:23:21,500 --> 00:23:24,336 in terms of the body volume, which is incredible. 494 00:23:24,336 --> 00:23:26,271 The amount of stress that must put on the female 495 00:23:26,271 --> 00:23:28,440 who at that point is 35% lighter 496 00:23:28,440 --> 00:23:31,376 than she was a few months earlier. 497 00:23:31,376 --> 00:23:34,813 - Some of Martin's results are showing that on average, 498 00:23:34,813 --> 00:23:37,616 when a female is here in Hawai i and lactating, 499 00:23:37,616 --> 00:23:41,119 she loses about 100 kilograms per day. 500 00:23:41,119 --> 00:23:42,454 So I weigh 80 kilograms, 501 00:23:42,454 --> 00:23:45,957 so it's more than my weight every single day. 502 00:23:45,957 --> 00:23:50,695 - [martin] Mothers are the rock stars of this population. 503 00:23:50,695 --> 00:23:53,098 - [narrator] Martin's drone measurements also reveal 504 00:23:53,098 --> 00:23:55,801 that humpback mothers with nursing calves 505 00:23:55,801 --> 00:23:58,103 don't regain all their lost weight 506 00:23:58,103 --> 00:24:00,539 once they return to the feeding grounds, 507 00:24:00,539 --> 00:24:03,809 but instead they are plateauing at best. 508 00:24:03,809 --> 00:24:06,645 - In other words, all that food she's been eating, 509 00:24:06,645 --> 00:24:12,284 she's offloaded it to that calf as it's becoming a yearling. 510 00:24:12,284 --> 00:24:14,152 Now, when we look preliminarily 511 00:24:14,152 --> 00:24:16,488 at the steroid hormone analysis, 512 00:24:16,488 --> 00:24:19,925 what we see is mothers of yearlings 513 00:24:19,925 --> 00:24:23,161 have significantly greater 514 00:24:23,161 --> 00:24:26,364 cortisol stress hormone concentrations 515 00:24:26,364 --> 00:24:28,366 than mothers of newborn calves. 516 00:24:28,366 --> 00:24:32,938 That's exciting because that piece of the puzzle 517 00:24:32,938 --> 00:24:35,907 is marrying very well with what we're finding 518 00:24:35,907 --> 00:24:37,275 with the body condition 519 00:24:37,275 --> 00:24:42,247 and what we see behaviorally from these whales. 520 00:24:42,247 --> 00:24:43,515 - [narrator] The scientists say 521 00:24:43,515 --> 00:24:45,550 understanding the natural changes 522 00:24:45,550 --> 00:24:48,653 in the humpbacks' body condition and stress levels 523 00:24:48,653 --> 00:24:52,057 is critical in the face of future climate change 524 00:24:52,057 --> 00:24:54,960 and shifting prey availability. 525 00:24:54,960 --> 00:24:57,496 - We're a lot more well equipped to identify 526 00:24:57,496 --> 00:25:00,832 when whales are under stress in the future. 527 00:25:00,832 --> 00:25:02,334 - These long-term monitoring programs 528 00:25:02,334 --> 00:25:04,636 and science projects are really, really important, 529 00:25:04,636 --> 00:25:07,506 particularly when it comes to management. 530 00:25:07,506 --> 00:25:10,809 - If we're able to monitor the health of individuals, 531 00:25:10,809 --> 00:25:14,446 we're very quickly able to say if the population is healthy 532 00:25:14,446 --> 00:25:15,847 and our oceans are healthy, 533 00:25:15,847 --> 00:25:18,016 or if humpback whales are unhealthy, 534 00:25:18,016 --> 00:25:19,618 the oceans are unhealthy, 535 00:25:19,618 --> 00:25:21,486 and we need to look at what we can do 536 00:25:21,486 --> 00:25:25,490 to reduce any potential impacts that we're seeing. 537 00:25:25,490 --> 00:25:28,059 - We know that the ocean is going to warm. 538 00:25:28,059 --> 00:25:30,896 And so we are positioning ourselves 539 00:25:30,896 --> 00:25:35,066 to be able to respond more quickly. 540 00:25:35,066 --> 00:25:36,501 - And in that way, 541 00:25:36,501 --> 00:25:38,470 I think our work can really make a difference. 542 00:25:38,470 --> 00:25:48,413 (majestic music) 543 00:25:48,413 --> 00:26:19,177 (tranquil music) 544 00:26:19,177 --> 00:26:21,012 - [announcer] Major funding for this program 545 00:26:21,012 --> 00:26:23,982 was provided by the Batchelor Foundation, 546 00:26:23,982 --> 00:26:26,051 encouraging people to preserve 547 00:26:26,051 --> 00:26:30,789 and protect America's underwater resources. 548 00:26:30,789 --> 00:26:32,824 Additional funding was provided 549 00:26:32,824 --> 00:26:36,824 by the Parrot Family Endowment for Environmental Education.