NSW: Humans could be to blame for stranded baby humpback

AAP General News (Australia)
08-21-2008
NSW: Humans could be to blame for stranded baby humpback

By Carrie Berdon

SYDNEY, Aug 21 AAP - A female humpback whale abandoning her three-week-old calf? Not likely.

Experts say a baby whale alone in Sydney's Pittwater was probably separated from its
mother by force.

And humans could even be to blame.

The baby humpback, believed to be about two or three weeks old, was first spotted on
Sunday, nuzzling up to a yacht in an apparent search for its mother.

Authorities have suggested that the calf, nicknamed Colin, may have a biological problem,
which led its mother to abandon it.

Experts have disagreed, saying a humpback female is very unlikely to abandon her calf,
and would nurture it if it was sick.

Wally Franklin, Hervey Bay-based marine biologist with research group the Oceania Project,
says ships in the waters off Sydney could be to blame, because they can break up sonic
communication lines between whales.

"Heavy marine traffic in the Sydney area could interfere with the mother's ability
to hear and locate her calf, that's a possibility," he told AAP.

"A boat could have physically come between the mother and her calf and cause the separation
as well, a recreational vessel for example."

Catriona Rafael, who takes tourists out with Sydney Whale Watching tours and has been
studying whales for over 10 years, says it's not uncommon for whales to wash up onshore
but a mother would never abandon her sick baby.

"Calves could have been separated (from their mother) in a storm, they could have been
separated by the mother being attacked by orca (killer) whales or sharks, it could be
sonar destruction through vessels, it could have just been bad luck," she said. "It does
happen, unfortunately that's life."

Mr Franklin said he had been watching mothers and calves in Hervey Bay for 20 years
and humpback mothers had an incredible instinct for looking after their calves.

He had never once seen a mother abandon her sick calf.

"Calves generally stay within two or three body lengths of their mother, and if a calf
strays beyond that we frequently watch mothers immediately respond to get them back,"

he said.

"The bond between the mother and the calf is so intense that you'd have to imagine
that something has occurred that forced the separation other than abandonment, even if
the calf is sick," he said.

If Colin's mother was still alive, she would likely be very distressed without her
calf, Mr Franklin said.

Humpback females only have one calf at a time because the calves need many gallons
of whale milk each day, which causes the female to lose half her body weight.

"When calves do get separated, the mothers do get stressed and they go searching for
them," Mr Franklin said.

Every year humpback whales make the 10,000 km journey north from their feeding grounds
in the Antarctic to the tropical waters off Queensland, where they breed and give birth.

Humpback females will often stay in the warm waters around the Great Barrier Reef with
their young until they are three or four months old before braving the journey back to
the Antarctic.

Mr Franklin said he believed Colin was probably born on the journey north to the reef,
which makes the 4.5 metre baby more likely to get lost from his mother.

"If the calf is born while travelling north - and this is not uncommon - this adds
to the risk of potential separation because the mother is not likely to stop out in the
open ocean because there are things that could hurt her such as the orca whales," he said.

"She'd be trying to get that calf up to the sheltered waters of the reef."

Different wildlife authorities are debating whether to euthanase Colin, raise him in
captivity or float him back into the ocean.

Mr Franklin said it was impossible to raise Colin in captivity, partly because humpback
whales needed to learn social skills from other whales.

"We spoke to NSW National Parks and Wildlife and recommended that they try and take
Colin back out into the ocean," he said.

"At least that gives him the chance of connecting with other humpbacks. At least it
would give him some chance of survival."

AAP cjb/wjf/cjh/bwl

KEYWORD: CALF (AAP NEWSFEATURE)

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