WDCS Humpback Research in the Turks and Caicos Islands

A rowdy group - rowdy groups consist of males trying to get next to the female in hopes of being the male that she chooses to mate with.

Following your heart and doing what you love for work is truly a blessing. For scientists studying whales, the job description gets even better - there is sill much we do not know about whales because they spend the majority of their time out of our sight.

So imagine the high that we are on right now, just returning from the Turks and Caicos Islands(TCI) where for the second year in a row we sighted one of our Gulf of Maine whales, Pinball, in TCI waters. Not only have we seen Pinball in the same general location two years in a row, but this year we first saw her with a new calf (her fifth since she was born in 1989)!  Eleven and twelve days later – we saw them again. This hints at the fact that Pinball might be using this area as a breeding and calving ground. Up until now it was thought that humpbacks travel past these waters on their way to the Dominican Republic breeding grounds.

In the months and years to come we will be doing more research and data analyses hoping to get a clearer picture of the residency and distribution habits of cetaceans around TCI. What we have witnessed so far points to the fact that they are not just “passing through”. We witnessed rowdy group behavior that occurs when males compete for females and saw many mother and calf pairs, all backing up the thought that TCI waters are an important area for humpback whales.

At WDCS, we believe that the health of the oceans and human actives on land and at sea are inextricably linked so our time in TCI involved more than just research. We participated in outreach, education and community building activities, working very closely with the Department of Environmental and Coastal Resources (DECR) in developing educational programming for schools and the community. We jointly gave school talks to about 130 school children on two different islands with DECR and are in the process of developing further community educational and outreach events.

In fact, DECR is a critical partner in our work in the TCI and they are doing amazing work in keeping their beautiful beaches and crystal clear waters healthy. The DECR has a system of National Parks and Marine Protected areas around the islands (http://www.environment.tc/protected/index.htm) and is in the process of saving the stressed corals around the islands by creating artificial reefs. However, in a country that receives approximately 200,000 tourist a year and is under constant pressure to develop more and more of its land, the DECR has their hands full. So far the TCI government has been able find a balance between development and conservation and we are looking forward to working with them to ensure this balance continues.

Our project would not have been possible without the generous collaboration and efforts from the DECR, Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies, National Marine Fisheries Service, Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, Change Happens Foundation and your support.  Thank you.

To view the WDCS Field Blog with more details of the research project, please click here.