Whale Watching 1223 Leung , Y. M. ( 1970 ). First record of the whale-louse Genus Syncyamus (Cyamidae: Amphipoda) from the western Mediterranean, with notes on the biology of odontocete cyamids. Invest. Cetacea 2 , 243 – 247 . Leung , Y. M. ( 1976 ). Life cycle of Cyamus scammoni (Amphipoda: Cyamidae), ectoparasite of gray whale, with a remark on the associ- ated species . Sci. Rep .Whales Res. Inst. 28 , 153 – 160 . Levin , M. J. , and Pfeiffer, C. J. ( 1999 ). Photoreceptor ultrastructure of the amphipod, Cyamus ceti (Linn, 1758), an ectoparasite of bowhead, right and gray whales . J. Submicroscop. Cytol. Pathol. 31 , 397 – 405 . Lincoln , R. J. , and Hurley , D. E. ( 1974 ). Scutocyamus parvus , a new genus and species of whale-louse (Amphipoda: Cyamidae) ectopara- sitic on the North Atlantic white-beaked dolphin . Bull. Br. Mus. (Nat. Hist.) Zool. 27 , 5 9 – 6 4 . Margolis , L. ( 1955 ). Notes on the morphology, taxonomy and synonymy of several species of whale-lice (Cyamidae: Amphipoda) . J. Fish. Res. Bd. Canada 123 , 121 – 133 . Pfeiffer, C. J. , and Viers , V. ( 1998 ). Microanatomy of the marsupium, juveniles, eggs and cuticle of cyamid ectoparasites (Crustacea: Amphipoda) of whales . Aquat. Mamm. 24 , 8 3 – 9 1 . Pfeiffer , C. J. , and Lowe , K. J. ( 1989 ). Cirral structure of the peduncu- Figure 4 Sperm whale cyamid with its marsupium full of young. lated marine barnacle Lepas anatifera L. (Crustacea: Cirripedia). I: The marsupium is a pouch that is an important adaptation for ani- Ultrastructure of the neuromuscular apparatus. Acta Zool. 70 , 243 – 252 . mals living in a fl owing world. Photo by Jon Seger. Rice, D.L., and Wolman, A.A. (1971). Parasites and epizooites, In “ The Life History and Ecology of the Gray Whale (Eschrichtius robus- tus )” (J. N. Lanyne, ed.), Spec. Publ. No. 3, pp. 100–108. Am. Soc. Mammalogists , Provo. Rowntree , V. ( 1983 ). Cyamids: The louse that moored . Whalewatcher habits of whales, detailed data are not yet available on potential sea- 17 , 1 4 – 1 7 . sonal changes. Rowntree , V. ( 1996 ). Feeding, distribution, and reproductive behavior of cyamids (Crustacea: Amphipoda) living on humpback and right whales . Can. J. Zool. 74 , 103 – 109 . V. Genetic Diversity in Relation to Host Populations Schell , D. M. , Rowntree , V. J. , and Pfeiffer , C. J. ( 2000 ). Isotopic evi- Whale-louse populations are closely coupled to those of their dence that cyamids (Crustacea: Amphipoda) feed on whale skin . Can. hosts, especially in species that live on only one whale species. The J. Zool. 78 , 721 – 727 . three named species of Cyamus found on right whales ( Eubalaena Waller , G. N. H. ( 1989 ). Two new species of whale lice (Cyamidae) from spp.) occur regularly on no other cetaceans. Their mitochondrial the ziphioid whale Berardius bairdii . Invest. Cetacea 22 , 292 – 297 . DNA sequence variation shows clearly that the North Atlantic, North Pacifi c, and southern ocean populations separated roughly 5 mya, near the Miocene–Pliocene boundary (Kaliszewska et al. , 2005 ). This fi nd- ing supports previous evidence (from the whales ’ own genes) that right whales themselves speciated at about that time. Because whale lice have been riding on whales for millions of years, have no alternative hosts or free-living life stages, and usually have population sizes that Whale Watching are orders of magnitude larger than those of their hosts, they may be RICH OYT able to teach us about some aspects of whale population history that E H could not be discerned using other sources of information. hale watching is the human activity of encountering ceta- ceans in their natural habitat. It can be for scientifi c, educa- See Also the Following Articles Wtional, and/or recreational purposes (sometimes all three). Baleen Whales ■ Callosities ■ Parasites Mostly, whale watching refers to a commercial enterprise, although it is sometimes undertaken privately. The wide variety of whale watch- References ing activities includes tours lasting from 1 h to 2 weeks, using plat- forms ranging from kayaks to cruise ships, from land points including Balbuena , J. A. , and Raga , J. A. ( 1991 ). Ecology and host relationships cliffs and beaches, from sea planes and helicopters in the air, as well of the whale-louse Isocyamus delphini (Amphipoda: Cyamidae) para- as swimming and diving activities in which the whale watcher enters sitizing long-fi nned pilot whales ( Globecephala melas ) off the Faroe the water with cetaceans. Whale watching grew out of the traditions of Islands (Northeast Atlantic) . Can. J. Zool. 69 , 141 – 145 . Berzin , A. A. , and Vlasova , L. P. ( 1982 ). Fauna of the Cetacea Cyamidae bird watching and, to a lesser extent, other forms of land-based wild- (Amphipoda) of the world ocean . Invest. Cetacea 13 , 149 – 164 . life watching. To this day, the better whale and dolphin trips include Kaliszewska , Z. A. , et al . (18 authors) ( 2005 ). Population histories of right sea birds, seals, turtles, and other marine fauna to appeal to more peo- whales (Cetacea: Eubalaena ) inferred from mitochondrial sequence ple as well as to give a well-rounded ecological interpretation. diversities and divergences of their whale lice (Amphipoda: Cyamus ) . Mol. Ecol. 14 , 3439 – 3456 . Leung , Y. M. ( 1967 ). An illustrated key to the species of whale-lice I. The Birth of Whale Watching W (Amphipoda: Cyamidae), ectoparasites of Cetacea, with a guide to The species originally responsible for the development of whale the literature . Crustaceana 12 , 279 – 291 . watching was the gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus ). Beginning in 1224 Whale Watching the mid-1940s, students from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, II . Scientifi c Whale Watching led by Carl L. Hubbs, began participating in annual gray whale Whale watching for the purposes of research can be traced back counts from university buildings such as Ritter Hall and from to Aristotle, who spent time on boats and with fi shermen in the coastal headlands and lighthouses. In 1950, the Cabrillo National Aegean Sea. In “ Historia Animalium, ” Aristotle noted that the fi sher- Monument in San Diego was converted into a public land-based men would nick the tails of the dolphins and that they could tell them whale watch lookout, attracting 10,000 people the fi rst winter. Year apart. This practice foreshadows the studying of animals by watching after year, more and more people came to watch whales. them, a key feature of the ethology approach for studying birds and In 1955, the fi rst commercial whale watch operation charged land animals pioneered by Konrad Lorenz, Niko Tinbergen, and oth- $1 US to see gray whales on their winter migration off San Diego. ers ( Hoyt, 1984 ). It took longer to attempt such research with ceta- Although the gray whales passed close to shore, the boat tours some- ceans because of the greater diffi culties of approaching close and times allowed a closer look. By 1959, Raymond M. Gilmore, a US conducting research at sea. The photographic identifi cation (photo- Fish and Wildlife Service biologist who had taken over the gray ID) research of cetaceans began in the early 1970s with humpback whale counting chores from Carl Hubbs, began serving as the fi rst whales in the North Pacifi c and North Atlantic, gray whales and naturalist on whale watch trips out of San Diego. Through the 1960s killer whales in the eastern North Pacifi c, and southern right whales and early 1970s, boat tours and land-based whale watching spread (E. australis ) and bottlenose dolphins off Argentina. slowly up the coast of California to Oregon and Washington, and the A successful partnership between science and commercial whale fi rst long-range commercial whale watch trip to the Mexican calving watching began in Provincetown, Massachusetts, in 1975, when Al lagoons was organized out of San Diego. Avellar of the Dolphin fl eet asked Charles “Stormy” Mayo to be his In 1971, the Montreal Zoological Society began offering whale naturalist. Mayo soon saw the possibilities for using the boat as watch tours to go down the St. Lawrence River in Canada to see a platform for studying whales. He set up the Center for Coastal mainly fi n ( Balaenoptera physalus ) and minke whales ( Balaenoptera Studies as a research and educational institution, and the close ties acutorostrata ), and belugas ( Delphinapterus leucas ). This was the with commercial whale watching have been maintained ever since. fi rst commercial trip on the east coast of North America. These trips The arrangement works as follows: The Center provides natu- became an annual event. ralist guides for the Dolphin fl eet. They are paid to help direct the It was the humpback whale ( Megaptera novaeangliae ), how- boat to the whales, presenting an informal educational lecture, and ever, that turned commercial whale watching into a big industry. answering questions. The Center sells T-shirts and other merchan- Humpback whales tend to be more active at the surface than gray dise on board. Most important, Center researchers can conduct their or other whales, frequently breaching clear of the water—ideal own photo-ID research, and often collect other data. Sometimes for whale watchers wanting photographs. Added to this is the phe- more than one researcher will come aboard to ensure the maximum nomenon of “ friendly ” behavior—the tendency of certain individ- use of boat time. ual humpback whales to habituate to the presence of whale watch This key partnership between science and commerce has deter- boats and to approach them regularly. This behavior, fi rst observed mined the course of whale watching, as well as the practice of whale commonly in humpback whales, has now also been found in gray research, throughout southern New England. As of 1995, 18 of whales, particularly in the mating and calving lagoons of Baja the 21 whale watching operators that mainly go to the Stellwagen California, Mexico; in certain minke whales; and in killer whales, or Bank area had naturalists guiding boats and lecturing whale watch- orcas ( Orcinus orca ), and bottlenose dolphins ( Tursiops truncatus ), ers, while 10 operations were taking and contributing ID photos.