||| FROM CENTER FOR WHALE RESEARCH |||
Excerpt from Dave Ellifrit’s new BLOG Blow by Blow / A step-by-step account of a CWR orca encounter:
“CWR’s photo-ID encounters usually start with us being notified in one way or the other about a group of whales in the area that we would be interested in going out on. In years past, we would often go out to look for and find our own whales or see them from shore before going out. In more recent times, we rely more often on sightings coming in through various sighting networks or listening to the radio. We have a number of friends and colleagues who will call or contact us if they hear or see anything they think we might be interested in.
Weather is often a factor in whether we go out or not. Unless we have extremely rare whales in the area (like Northern Resident orcas or Offshore orcas), there is really no reason to go out on the boat in a steady rain—it will only kill the cameras, and everybody will risk getting pneumonia. There is not much point in going out in rough weather either since you just get beat up and bounce the whales out of the frame. Once we make a decision to go out, we will collect our gear and head down to the boat at Snug Harbor.”
Read all of Dave Ellifrit’s new BLOG Blow by Blow / A step-by-step account of a CWR orca encounter.
