The Whale Research Group was organized in 1978 in response to
the problem of Newfoundland's inshore fishermen who were
incidentally catching whales in increasing numbers. It is a
research unit affiliated with the Biopsychology Programme, the
Psychology and Biology Departments, the Naval Architectural
Engineering Department and the Ocean Sciences Centre in Memorial
University of Newfoundland. Programs and personnel in the unit also
come from the Fishing Technology Unit of the Marine Institute, the
Department of Fisheries and oceans and the Nfld. /Lab. Department of
Fisheries and the Department of Environment.

The Whale Research Group operates along the 17, 000 km of
coastline in Newfoundland and Labrador. In cooperation with the
Department of Fisheries and Oceans - Ships Branch and the Canadian
Coast Guard, work is also conducted throughout the Grand Banks.

Service

Service to the Newfoundland and Labrador fishing
community has been an important part of the group's work. A
principal focus has been the development of the Entrapment
Assistance Program. The program is offered to the 27,000 inshore
fishermen throughout the province who incidentally catch large
whales and sharks. A total of 11 species of cetaceans are caught in
fishing gear. The humpback whale is the principal large whale
incidentally caught; in some years over 150 individuals are
reported to the program. Basking sharks are the most common large
shark by-catch.

When a fisherman calls with an entrapped animal, an expert
team is dispatched to assist in releasing the animal and retrieving
the fishing gear in good condition. Because the program saves
fishermen money (over $1,000/entrapment), and is successful in
releasing troubled whales alive, it has gained wide acceptance and
excellent cooperation. Mortality of entrapped humpbacks before the
program was about 50%; for the past 18 years of the Entrapment
Assistance Program mortality has been about 10%.

Acoustic alarm devices have been developed to prevent
collisions of large whales with fixed gear. These devices assist
the animals in avoiding gear by enhancing detectability and
defining the nature of the barrier. When such devices are placed on
codtraps, a 70% reduction in collisions is achieved. Fishermen like
the devices and have readily adopted them.

Work with acoustic alarms has been extended to other problem
fisheries and species including several species of dolphins
(Australia, Uruguay), dugongs (Indonesia) and harbour porpoise
(U.S., Canada, Holland, Denmark). The alarms have proven effective
in reducing harbour porpoise by-catch; conclusions cannot not yet
be made regarding effectiveness in other fisheries.

Additional service work is performed during ice entrapments of
cetaceans. During spring, pack ice invades the Newfoundland
coastline. This results in cetaceans frequently becoming caught in
the ice. From three to five hundred individuals are temporally
caught in this way. Mortality is minimized by establishing
assistance programs for the animals through mobilizing nearby
communities. Education regarding the impacts of nearby skidoos or
touching of the animals is done. Ice-captive whales temporally
provide outport communities with their own aquariums which
stimulate much good education.

Education

For programs which deal with incidental catch of
cetaceans to be effective, the fishing community must know not only
how to minimizethem but why it is important to conserve such non-
commercial animals. Thus, public education has been an important
aspect of the group's work. To date, we have published over one-half
million educational posters and produced dozens of television
programs within Newfoundland and Labrador. Some thirty thousand
"fisheries calendars" are distributed each year. Education kits
containing information on cetaceans and the ocean ecosystem have
been produced for every school board in the province. Additionally,
a complete humpback whale skeleton ("Humpty") and a dolphin
skeleton ("Squirt") visit schools throughout the province. School
programs are regularly given by most researchers within the group
but also by a designated educator whose only responsibility is to
present such programs.

Graduate Education

The Whale Research Group conducts graduate
training at the M.Sc. and Ph.D. levels through the Biopsychology
Programme. At present there are 12 students in the program.
Research topics include: assessment of industrial activity on
cetacean distribution, carbon isotope studies of feeding in
Nfld./Lab. cetaceans, a mark-recapture census of humpback whales,
investigations of temporal and spatial scales for biological and
oceanographic factors which predict whale distribution, ice
entrapment of blue whales, conservation values of marine protected
areas for pelagic species, behaviour of harbour porpoise,
development of a clinical EKG for cetaceans, propulsion mechanics
of cetaceans and evaluations of modifications of fishing technology
to minimize incidental catches of cetaceans.

Research

Research conducted within the group has largely
concentrated on management and conservation problems in
Newfoundland and Labrador and the behaviour of cetaceans. On-going
projects include: (1) evaluation of the impact of underwater
explosions on individually identified whales; (2) examination of
marine protected areas in achieving conservation of fish and mammal
species; (3) monitoring by-catch of seals and harbour porpoise in
Nfld./Lab.; (4) evaluating effectiveness of acoustic alarms and
gear modifications in reducing cetacean by-catch.

While a central focus of the group's past work has been
research, service and educational programs to alleviate management
and conservation problems in waters off Newfoundland and Labrador,
work at present is underway on the world-wide phenomena of
incidental catches of cetaceans in fishing gear.

For more information, please send e-mail.