Tagging Whales in Stellwagen Bank this July!

Do you remember the first story in Ocean Frontiers—Saving Whales at Stellwagen Bank? Not sure anyone could forget the amazing whale footage and the funny little suction cup things called DTAGs that the scientists were sticking onto the whales. But in case you did, you can always watch the clip from that story here. We are also excited to give an update on how the whale-tagging is going this summer.

Dave Wiley, research coordinator for Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary in Massachusetts, might have one of the coolest jobs ever. Since 2002, each summer, Dr. Wiley and his colleagues head out on a 187-foot research vessel to tag whales—to collect data, such as how whales move around, what their feeding patterns are, what they do at different depths and when they vocalize. Watch them in action here in a short 3-minute video.

In those two weeks this summer, Dr. Wiley and his crew successfully tagged 21 humpback whales and identified around 160 individuals. Dr. Wiley proclaims, “We probably have one of the largest databases for fine-scale foraging behavior of anywhere in the world at this point.” Wiley added however, “The most striking insight is that each humpback has its own set of behaviors, often confounding efforts to generalize about the species. It’s frustrating and complicated and fascinating all at the same time.”

Ultimately, Dr. Wiley and his colleagues’ goal is to use the collected data to influence fishing and shipping rules that make sense for the whales and will help protect them. Read more about this summer’s tagging here in the New York Times.