The Whalewatcher B&B is located only a few hundred yards from the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve  one of the best places in the world for viewing photographing and meeting whales close up. Your tour boat the MV Atlantic Iceberg was built by Captain Jerry Colbert from local wood and on traditional Newfoundland fishing boat lines. For whale watching it offers an ideal platform for close  encounters with whales, porpoises and dolphins.  22 species of whales frequent Newfoundland waters.

There is a growing interest in spending a whalewatching vacation studying and learning about whales and taking photographs of individual whales for scientific identification purposes.

The Whalewatcher B&B is an ideal location for such a whalewatching learning vacation because we can provide you with a whalewatching package where you spend your entire vacation on the water from dawn until dark every day of your trip.  Contact us to arrange a custom made whale watching learning vacation.

A standard text for a whalewatching learning vacation is Lien and Kantona's A Guide to the Photographic Identification of Individual Whales Based on their Natural and Acquired Markings

Dr. Kantona has been involved with College of the Atlantic's marine mammal research group for many years.

The WhaleNet database catalogues the Humpback Whale Population of the Gulf of Maine.

Wild Whales a project of the Vancouver Aquarium collects whale data for the  B.C. Cetacean Sightings Network.

Whales and other mammals in Canadian waters are regulated by the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans under the Marine Mammal Regulations of the Fisheries Act. These regulations are presently being reviewed in Marine Mammal Regulations Consultation

Whales are sometimes caught up in fishing gear. To solve this problem a professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador, Dr. Jon Lien pioneered the development of practical techniques to free whales from fishing gear.
 
During the early years of his work a lot of Dr. Lien's work involved whale entanglement with cod traps. Since the closing of the Northern Cod fishery in 1992 the use of cod traps has dropped almost to zero. Cod traps were widely used in and around the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve and it was not unusual for a trap crew to land a million pounds in a few weeks during a good season. Dr. Lien wrote a very informative  review of whales for the Canadian Government in 2001 available as a pdf file as part of the Canadian Technical Report of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 2363,THE CONSERVATION BASIS FOR THE REGULATION OF WHALE WATCHING IN CANADA BY THE DEPARTMENT OF FISHERIES AND OCEANS: A PRECAUTIONARY APPROACH.

When whales get tangled in fishing gear  today the Whale  Release and Stranding Group have experts to assist fishers to untangle these giant mammals and send them safely on their way. They also have a very good identification guide on their site.
The principal person at the Whale Release and Strandings Group is Wayne Ledwell from Calvert near Ferryland. He has been involved in releasing whales and other marine animals from fishing gear since 1988 and has written a very good book: Whales and Dolphins of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Here are some other interesting links for whales we commonly see in Newfoundland waters divided on physiological lines into baleen, toothed whales and other whales.

BALEEN WHALES
Blue Whale
Sei Whale
Right Whale
Humpback Whale
Minke Whale
Fin Whale

TOOTHED WHALES
Killer Whale Also see NOAA paper on Killer Whales below
Sperm Whale
Pygmy Sperm Whale
Pilot Whale
Narwhal and a link on their extraordinary tusk
Another link on tusks
Beluga
Northern Bottlenose Whale
Sowerby's beaked Whale
White Beaked Dolphin
White-sided Dolphin
Common Dolphin
Harbour Porpoise


The Official Tourism Guide for Newfoundland and Labrador contains an online whale guide.

An interesting application available online is an expert whale identification system. You follow a series of identification questions through and at the end the program identifies your whale!

Christopher Clark, Cornell's I.P. Johnson Director of the Bioacoustics Research Program has shown that whales in Newfoundland can hear whales in Bermuda!

The  Whale watching web contains a tremendous amount of information on whales and whalewatching around the world.

A real wilderness tour we can recommend is Newfoundland Coastal Safari who feature whale watching, sea kayaking, coastal hiking and fishing at their remote wilderness camp in Fortune Bay, Newfoundland.

Whale watching boat tours are available around Newfoundland and we have provided a list of Newfoundland Boat Tour operators. There are some other companies offering whale watching tours but who don't have their own boat. They would only be using one of the operators listed below which you can do as easily yourself:
Northland Discovery Tours
Atlantic Adventures
Twillingate Island Boat Tours
Ocean Watch Tours
Dildo Island Adventure Tours
Ocean Contact
Twillingate Adventure Tours
Oceans Treasures Adventures
Gatheralls
Coastal Connections
Williamsport Tours
Bon Tours
O'Briens
The Scademia
Mullowneys
Shipmates

The subject of whale behaviour and identification has been studied extensively and has subsequently generated a signficant body of scientific studies and literature.

Lien, J. and S. Katona 1990    A Guide to the Photographic Identification of Individual Whales Based on Their Natural and Acquired Markings.  Breakwater, St. Johns, Newfoundland.  77 pp

Katona, S., P. Harcourt, J. S. Perkins, and S.D. Kraus (Editors) l980     Humpback Whales. A Catalogue of Individuals Identified by Fluke Photographs. College of the Atlantic, Bar Harbour, ME. l69 pp.  

Katona, S. K., V. Rough, and D. T. Richardson 1993    A Field Guide to Whales, Porpoises and Seals from Cape Cod to Newfoundland.  Fourth edition, revised. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC. 316 pp. 

Melville, H. l85l Moby Dick. Click the link for a free downloadable version  of this out of copyright book from Project Gutenberg.

Pryor, K. and K. S. Norris (Editors) 1991 Dolphin Societies.  Discoveries and Puzzles.  University of California Press, Berkeley.  397 pp. (Field studies and captive studies of dolphins and killer whale behavior.) 

Slijper, E. J. l979     Whales. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY. 5ll pp. Reprint of l962 edition with new forward, final chapter, and updated bibliography by R. J. Harrison. (A good basic book, technical but readable by the layman.  Includes chapters on the history of whales and whaling, evolution, physiology, behavior, sound production, migration, and distribution. Conservation problems and efforts reviewed in final chapter.) 

Sugarman, P. 1987    Field Guide to the Orca Whales. The Whale Museum, Friday Harbor, Washington. 26 pp. (Identification by fins and markings.)

Baird, R. 2002    Killer Whales of the World. Voyageur Press, MN. 132 pp. 

Beland, P.   1996    Beluga: a Farewell to Whales.  Lyons & Burford, New York.  224 pp. (Belugas in the St. Lawrence River and why they are dying.) 

Bruemmer, F. 1993    The Narwhal: Unicorn of the Sea.  Key Porter Books, Toronto, Ontario. 144 pp. 

Newfoundland Coastal Safari 2007: Newfoundland Whales

Carwardine, M. (editor) 2002    Whales Dolphins and Porpoises. 2^nd edition. Smithsonian Handbooks.  Dorling Kindersley Books, New York.  256 pp. (Guidebook: identifications, how to deal with strandings.) 

Conner, R. C. and D. M. Peterson
            1994    The Lives of Whales and Dolphins.  Henry Holt & Co., New York.  233 pp.  

Corrigan, P. 1994    The Whale Watcher's Guide: whale-watching trips in North America (forward by Roger Payne). Northword Press, Manocqua, Wisconsin. 327 pp.  

Cousteau, J. Y. and P. Diole l972     The Whale. Undersea Discoveries of Jacques Yves Cousteau. Doubleday & Co., Garden City, NY. 304pp., photographs.  l977 paper edition titled, Whale: Mighty Monarch of the Sea.  

l975     Dolphins. Doubleday & Co. Inc., Garden City, NY. 304 pp., photographs, illus. (This series, The Undersea Discoveries of Jacques‑Yves Cousteau, provides excellent photos; however, many errors occur in the text.)  

Cousteau, J. Y. and Y. Paccalet 1988    Whales. Harry N Abrams, Inc., New York. 280 pp. (Beautiful photographs. Topics include evolution, behavior, communication, history of whaling.)

The Killer Whale is of great interest to whalewatchers worldwide. Reproduced below is a NOAA paper on the subject of Killer Whales that is relevant for Newfoundland waters. STOCK DEFINITION AND GEOGRAPHIC RANGE
Killer whales are characterized as uncommon or rare in waters of the U.S. Atlantic Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) (Katona et al. 1988). The 12 killer whale sightings constituted 0.1% of the 11,156 cetacean sightings in the 1978-81 CETAP surveys (CETAP 1982). The same is true for eastern Canadian waters, where the species has been described as relatively uncommon and numerically few (Mitchell and Reeves 1988). Their distribution, however, extends from the Arctic ice-edge to the West Indies. They are normally found in small groups, although 40 animals were reported from the southern Gulf of Maine in September 1979, and 29 animals in Massachusetts Bay inAugust 1986 (Katona et al. 1988). In the U.S. Atlantic EEZ, while their occurrence is unpredictable, they do occur
in fishing areas, perhaps coincident with tuna, in warm seasons (Katona et al. 1988; NMFS unpublished data). In an extensive analysis of historical whaling records, Reeves and Mitchell (1988) plotted the distribution of killer whales in offshore and mid-ocean areas. Their results suggest that the offshore areas need to be considered in present-day distribution, movements, and stock relationships.
Stock definition is unknown. Results from other areas (e.g., the Pacific Northwest and Norway) suggest that social structure and territoriality may be important.
POPULATION SIZE
The total number of killer whales off the eastern U.S. coast is unknown.
Minimum Population Estimate
Present data are insufficient to calculate a minimum population estimate.
Current Population Trend
There are insufficient data to determine the population trends for this species.
CURRENT AND MAXIMUM NET PRODUCTIVITY RATES
Current and maximum net productivity rates are not known for this stock. The maximum net productivity rate was assumed to be 0.04 for purposes of this assessment. This value is based on theoretical calculations showing that cetacean populations may not generally grow at rates much greater than 4% given the constraints of their reproductive life history (Barlow et al. 1995).
POTENTIAL BIOLOGICAL REMOVAL
Potential Biological Removal (PBR) is the product of minimum population size, one-half the maximum productivity rate, and a “recovery” factor (Wade and Angliss 1997). The minimum population size is unknown.
The maximum productivity rate is 0.04, the default value for cetaceans. The “recovery” factor, which accounts for endangered, depleted, threatened stocks, or stocks of unknown status relative to optimum sustainable population (OSP) is assumed to be 0.5 because this stock is of unknown. PBR for the western North Atlantic killer whale is unknown because the minimum population size cannot be determined.
ANNUAL HUMAN-CAUSED MORTALITY
In 1994, one killer whale was caught in the New England multispecies sink gillnet fishery but released alive. No takes were documented in a review of Canadian gillnet and trap fisheries (Read 1994).
Fishery Information Data on current incidental takes in U.S. fisheries are available from several sources. In 1986, NMFS established a mandatory self-reported fishery information system for large pelagic fisheries. Data files are maintained at the Southeast Fisheries Science Center (SEFSC). The Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) Fisheries Observer Observer Program was initiated in 1989, and since that year several fisheries have been covered by the program. In late 1992 and in 1993, the SEFSC provided observer coverage of pelagic longline vessels fishing off the Grand Banks (Tail of the Banks) and provides observer coverage of vessels fishing south of Cape Hatteras.
There have been no observed mortalities or serious injuries by NMFS Sea Samplers in the pelagic drift gillnet, pelagic longline, pelagic pair trawl, New England multispecies sink gillnet, mid-Atlantic coastal sink gillnet,
and North Atlantic bottom trawl fisheries.
STATUS OF STOCK
The status of killer whales relative to OSP in U.S. Atlantic EEZ is unknown. Because there are no observed mortalities or serious injury between 1990 and 1995, the total fishery-related mortality and serious injury for this stock is considered insignificant and approaching zero mortality and serious injury rate. The species is not listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act. In Canada, the Cetacean Protection Regulations of 1982, promulgated under the standing Fisheries Act, prohibit the catching or harassment of all cetacean species. There are insufficient data to determine the population trends for this species. This is not a strategic stock because, although PBR could not be calculated, there is no evidence of human-induced mortality.
REFERENCES
Barlow, J., S.L. Swartz, T.C. Eagle, and P.R. Wade. 1995. U.S. Marine Mammal Stock Assessments: Guidelines for Preparation, Background, and a Summary of the 1995 Assessments. U.S. Dep. Commer., NOAA Tech.Memo. NMFS-OPR-6, 73 pp.
CETAP. 1982. A characterization of marine mammals and turtles in the mid- and north Atlantic areas of the U.S.outer continental shelf. Cetacean and Turtle Assessment Program, University of Rhode Island. Final Report #AA551-CT8-48 to the Bureau of Land Management, Washington, DC, 538 pp.
Katona, S. K., J. A. Beard, P. E. Girton, and F. Wenzel. 1988. Killer whales (Orcinus orca) from the Bay of Fundy to the Equator, including the Gulf of Mexico. Rit. Fiskideild. 9: 205-224.
Mitchell, E. and R. R. Reeves. 1988. Records of killer whales in the western North Atlantic, with emphasis on eastern Canadian waters. Rit. Fiskideild. 9: 161-193.
Read, A. J. 1994. Interactions between cetaceans and gillnet and trap fisheries in the Northwest Atlantic. Rep. int.Whal. Commn. Special Issue 15: 133-147.
Reeves, R. R. and E. Mitchell. 1988. Killer whale sightings and takes by American pelagic whalers in the North
Atlantic. Rit. Fiskideild. 9: 7-23
Wade P.R., and R.P. Angliss. 1997. Guidelines for assessing marine mammal stocks: Report of the GAMMS
Workshop April 3-5, 1996, Seattle, Washington. U.S. Dep. Commer., NOAA Tech. Memo. NMFS-OPR-
12, 93 pp