Conny's 30th Birthday

By William Rossiter

Conny's grand 30th birthday splash in July is our cover photo, taken by Paul Digangi, a member of CSI's board of directors. Conny, the ferro-concrete replica of a 60 foot male sperm whale, was built in 1976 with donated materials and hundreds of hours of labor by over 100 volunteers of the Connecticut Cetacean Society (which became CSI a decade later). He celebrated his party with a large crowd of children of all ages. In the photo, under Conny's head, CSI's Director Emeritus Robbins Barstow's wife Meg was telling the crowd: "Imagine me, climbing all over this whale, putting in 15 tons of cement with hundreds of volunteers".

For three decades Conny has shown visitors to the Children's Museum in West Hartford, Connecticut, just how big and magical a sperm whale really is, and prompted many to seek ways to help all whales. Recently refurbished by CSI, he will continue to be a famous landmark working for whales for many more decades. Also in 1976, led by Robbins, was CCS's successful campaign to have the sperm whale officially designated the Connecticut state mammal. Conny represents all living whales, as well as the region's significant whaling period of centuries ago.

And Let's Celebrate Salt! Thirty years ago, at the dawn of whale watching on the East coast, Salt became the first named humpback whale. Since then she has taught us a great deal about humpbacks and their environment, including the then-revolutionary ideas that whales looked different and had personalities. It didn't take long to realize that Salt was a "regular" summer resident to Stellwagen Bank, north of Cape Cod. For a few seasons she associated with another large female, who was of course named Pepper.

Aaron Avellar, son of famed Dolphin Fleet owner Al Avellar, named her for her distinctive white dorsal fin. In beginning the tradition of naming humpbacks Aaron gave us all many gifts. Today's whales' names are linked to recognizable marks on the flukes or dorsal fins, and many naturalists today literally grew up knowing Salt's distinctive flukes. Because we can visually tell the whales apart we can follow their movements and associations with other whales, their feeding and interactive behaviors, and so much more, but benignly. Tissue samples, data tags, and underwater photographs and sonars also have added much about the population, their habitat, and how they're doing in spite of humans, but some are invasive. Having names associated with so many North Atlantic humpbacks has helped immeasurably, both for science and for the public and political interest that they need to survive.

Aaron also was one of the most gifted, knowledgeable and astute whale watch captains in the world; it was a pleasure to watch him work. His techniques included maneuvering his big vessel so respectfully and gently that the whales approached him yet, anticipating everything, he was usually positioned so his whale watchers had the best views and camera light. His record of eight species in one trip still stands. Salt became one of the earliest interactive whales with Aaron. As she became more experienced, she approached certain other boats as well, but she had clear preferences. Salt may have been one of the mentors that fostered the culture of curious, playful and interactive humpbacks that made so many Northeast whale watching trips so mind-blowing and unique. To have such a gentle giant slowly approach, slosh around, blow spray over cameras, and obviously play with the boat, so close the boat couldn't move, was everyone's highlight. On Aaron's trips people would scream and stamp their feet, and believe it or not, the whales responded to that applause. To this day the Avellar family carries on the tradition of naming Salt's calves, while all others new-to-the-year are named in a unique whale naming party of scientists and naturalists that focus on linking names with special marks. There are so many new whales that many are getting some obscure names!

In 2006 Salt returned with Soya, her tenth calf. He's playfully throwing himself around in this photo. Fluke ID photos for new calves are often hard to get as they usually don't raise their tails much. They don't need to dive deeply as they stay near the surface while their mothers feed. But it is very important to know if calves survive their first year, so everyone will be looking for Soya in 2007. Let's hope someone has a better fluke ID than this!

Thanks to Dr. Jooke Robbins, Director of the Humpback Whale Studies Program of the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies, we can list Salt's calves' birth years as: Crystal, 1980; Halos, 1983; Thalassa, 1985; Brine,1987; Bittern, 1989; Salsa, 1991; Tabasco, 1998; Mostaza, 2000; Wasabi, 2003; and Soya, 2006.

Beyond all the scientific stuff Salt has given us about mother-calf behaviors, birth intervals and survival rates of calves (note the gap from '91-'98), and more, this whale is a superb example of motherly experience, wisdom and skill. On several whale watches this year people could have compared the way Salt and other mothers related to their calves, other whales and boats. Salt seemed to show that special confidence very experienced mothers have, managing every situation comfortably. If it works for humpbacks as it does for everyone else, her calves may have a definite advantage. That she approaches certain boats, and even entices her calves closer, suggests that she feels in control of the situation and has more than her share of curiosity and tolerance. She bears few marks from nets or boats, which the majority of humpbacks have suffered, suggesting she is more aware than most when boats are dangerous. She's swum many thousands of miles without being scarred by sharks or orcas, so she must be one "tough momma". Have her calves fared better than others, and was that from her teaching? What has she witnessed and learned? If the magic many people dream of could happen, and you could talk with a whale, Salt should be your first choice.