CONTACT: Dr. Jonathan Stern(850) 645-5788; [email protected]
By Jill ElishMarch 2001
FSU RESEARCHER: MINKE WHALES ABOUT TO GET ATTENTION THEY DESERVE
TALLAHASSEE, Fla.--As whales go, the minke is not as popular as, say, the humpback, the blue or even the killer whale.
Jonathan Stern, a marine biologist at Florida State University, thinks that may change with the publication of an article on the minke whale in the April issue of National Geographic magazine.
Stern, who is featured in the article, has studied the minke whale since 1980 when he began observing and photographing a population of about 30 minkes living off San Juan Island in Washington's Puget Sound. Since then, he has studied minke whales off the coast of California and British Columbia, Canada.
"I'm excited about the article because I think at last the general public is going to get an introduction to these whales, what they're about and the issues surrounding them," Stern said.
One of those issues is a question of whether the International Whaling Commission (IWC) should lift its worldwide moratorium on commercial whaling and legalize commercial hunting of minkes. Norway and Japan have petitioned the IWC to make the changes, a move supported by Iceland, Greenland and others.
Probably the most abundant of all whales, minkes are found in coastal waters and oceans all over the world. They reproduce quickly and are not really in danger of extinction. Without the threat of extinction, the debate over whether to hunt them moves from a biological one to a moral or ethical one, Stern said.
"It's an issue that's different from the 'Save the Whales' movement of the '70s, which focused on whales that were highly hunted and nearly extinct," he said. "The argument was that they are becoming extinct; you can't kill them. Now the argument is if whales are so abundant and the Japanese want to take a small number of them, why shouldn't they be allowed to do that?"
It's a question that seems to center on the human relationship with all whales. For Stern, it is a relationship he has had with some whales for more than two decades. Just last year, he spotted two whales in the Puget Sound that he first identified in 1980. Minke whales have an average life span of about 40 years.
"It's kind of like visiting old friends. For the most part they couldn't care less, but sometimes you get some who are just really curious," he said, adding that their interest usually is focused on the boat rather than the humans in it.
The whales can be identified by their dorsal fins, which are like fingerprints in that no two are exactly alike. Scars and color variations also help to tell the minkes apart.
At about 30 feet long and weighing about 4 to 5 tons, the minke whale is among the smallest of all whales and also the fastest. Its speed and unpredictable pattern of surfacing provide the biggest challenge in tracking it, Stern said. His goal is to gain insight into the population structure, ecology and behavior of the minke.
An adjunct professor in FSU's department of biological science, Stern earned his doctorate at Texas A&M University in Galveston. He is the co-author of a book on minke whales published in 2000 as part of the Voyageur Press WorldLife Library series. He and his co-author, Rus Hoelzel, along with Ellie Dorsey, were the first to apply the field observational techniques pioneered on humpback and killer whales to the minke whale.
# # # Jill ElishResearch/News WriterFlorida State UniversityMedia Relations Office114 Westcott BuildingTallahassee, FL 32306-1430850-644-8345FAX 850-644-9643
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