Humpback Whales & Bubble Rings: An Invitation from a Watery World?
Event is by donation with all collected proceeds going to the Longhouse for the People project.
When: Thursday, 8 February 2024, 6:00 to 7:30pm. Arrive early for food and drink from the Finnriver Kitchen and Taproom.
Where: Finnriver Farm & Cidery, 124 Center Road, Chimacum WA 98325
What: Humpbacks are recovering over most of the world’s oceans, including the Salish Sea. These 30-ton colossi grace our waters with song, social chatter, and aerial behavior (breaching & flippering). Humpback whales also release bubbles to catch fish and signal among their kin and kilth. However, this mode of communication is poorly understood, as bubbles are not wielded by terrestrial animals. Bubble rings are especially beautiful, appearing as halo-like constructions, which are playfully released during whale-human interactions. Not to be confused with a bubble net (a spiral-shaped trap for prey capture), a ring is a poloidally-spinning, air-infused vortex (like a smoke ring). Are they given as gifts, play prompts, or are they signals with deeper meaning? Animal behavior studies such as these inform our search for life in the universe as they provide first contact analogues from a water world.
Who: Dr. Fred Sharpe, Co-Investigator, Templeton WhaleSETI Team, and founder of the Alaska Whale Foundation. Fred Sharpe Ph.D. (Simon Fraser University) has been investigating the behavior of humpback whales for over a quarter century. He specializes on the bubble-netting of Alaskan humpbacks that exhibit enduring bonds, task specialization, team hunting and communal tool use. Following the whales south to their wintering haunts in the Hawaiian Islands, Sharpe and his colleagues have been investigating historical ecology of north Polynesian cetaceans. He has been awarded the Fairfield Award for Innovative Marine Mammal Research and the Society for Marine Mammology’s Award for Excellence in Scientific Communication. Fred (Botany B. Sci., U of Washington) is a naturalist in the classical tradition; he is co-author and illustrator of Wild Plants of the San Juan Islands, Birding in the San Juan Islands and Voyaging with the Whales. Fred is currently a director for the Alaska Whale Foundation where he serves as a Large Whale Disentanglement Specialist. He was also the primary scientific advisor for the IMAX film HUMPBACK WHALES. When Fred takes a break from whale research, he serves as a Wilderness First Responder and can be found wandering the hills and forests of the Pacific Northwest collecting plant specimens and recording bird calls.
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