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Our boat is in danger and we need 30 000 Euros to keep it!
We had our zodiac boat now for 5 years and it served us wonderfully. Some of you may have had the pleasure to join a trip out at sea and know how important it is for our work, without the boat Ocean Sounds will not be able to continue…
We bought the boat in 2006 and financed it mostly through tourism, but this year the regulations have changed and we were not allowed to take tourists with us any longer. That means no direct income for our boat and 30 000 Euros are still open to pay it off from the bank.
We hoped to survive this year without our tourist tours by focusing more towards research and art projects, but unfortunately it hasn’t been enough and we need your help.

Please help us and search for any Euro you can find (check your old sofa for coins!) and put it on our donation bank account

However, since the boat is owned by Ocean Sounds you will not be able to get tax refunded from the donations. But we do work on starting a charity where donations can be tax refunded. There will be more projects coming up that will need your help, for example the next field work in summer 2012 to study and protect orcas and other whales in the Vestfjord.

BUT NOW THE BOAT NEEDS YOUR HELP!

Thank you for your support and help!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays,

Heike Vester

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7.12.2011 as of today the sun will disappear and not be able to peak over the horison until 7 th of January. the frost came and everything looks magical white with icy colours of blue and pink..only northern lights show the powerful light of green and red.
However, since this summer was the best season I ever had, I have a lot of data to go through (more than 600 GB of photos and sounds of whales) during the next 2 months. but whales are here, a bit further north both humpback whales and orcas have been observed feeding on herring, just outisde the Andenes harbour. I will go out on a friend’s sailboat and hopefully gather more data during the next weeks. it is a newly observed behaviour that these species hunt side by side for herring so close to the Norwegian shoreline. we never cease to learn about the whales behaviour!

once i have some time, I will write a summary with lots of pictures of the summer of 2011, until then enjoy the holidays!

heike

Morga was sent to the amusement park “Loro Parque” in Tenerife. even after delivering every evidence there was to proof that she can be released in the wild in northern Norway, with having found a suitable place in Stø, supported by the local people and the major and with the support of Arctic Whale Tours, still the judge in Holland ruled this chance for Morgan out. it seems to “risky” and her chances of survival too low. well now she will face a certain shortening of her life, instead of having natural 80 years of life, it may be no more than nine years. Orcas, or any other dolphin should never be kept in captivity, they are highly social and acoustical animals that use a huge range in their natural habitat. kept in a concrete tank with other unrelated dolphins, none of this is given, the echoes from the walls are loud and the range is tiny, eventually they suffer.

I ask all of you, please do not support aquariums that keep dolphins (this includes orcas, belugas or pilot whales) in captivity, please do not support this inhumane business.

you can read more on the FreeMorgan website

in Norwegian on the Norsk dyrebeskyttelsen website

you can find a nice letter with a picture of the sea pen place in Stø and the comparison picture of Loro Parque…

Today we heard the sad news from the dutch minsitry that they have decided to send the captive orca Morgan to Loro parque in Tenerife. despite all the evidence and professional planning to release her in the wild in northern Norway, where she blongs to, the Minister decided it to be too risky and instead will never give her a chance to find her family or relatives again.
Filipa and I worked hard to match more calls to Morgan’s vocal repertorie and we found a group that shared 7 out of 9 call times, which means this group may be here family group, or at least close relatives. we compiled our report and made it available to the ministry to show that when given more effort and time, we will be able to find her relatives and her chances of a successful release is feasable.

However, this and the professional release plan has not convinced the dutch minister to give that little orca a chance to live a life in the wild again, instead she will be sent to an aquarium in Tenerife, where she will have to entertain humans that pay money for it.

our report can be Report_on_further_comparisons_of_Morgan_acoustic_repertoire_Vester_Samarra_2011

For over a year a young female killer whale has been raised and hold in a small tank at the Dolphinarium Harderwijk. She is now back to health and a controversal debate and court case started about her future. We believe that she has a fair chance to find a family group of wild killer whales up here in Northern Norway that will adopt her. She belongs to the Norwegian herring feeding killer whales population We therefore support the Free Morgan Foundation in their efforts to win the court case, please go to their website to find more information: Free Morgan Foundation.

The place that wants to keep her in captivity is known for their bad husbandry, have a look at this article:

Together with other scientists we are still looking for her natal family group and hope we wil be able to match her calls to those recorded from Killer Whales in the wild soon. All summer there were killer whales in the Vestfjord and outside Vesteralen, which we studied closely.

Help us by making a donation and stay informed on petitions etc, you find more information on that on the FMF website!

We will update you on our progress as good sa we can…stay tuned

Thank you!

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Hello,

here are some of the pictures we took from the whale festival in Henningsvaer from 29.7-6.8.2011, enjoy! The festival was a success, we managed to find killer whales and Atlantic white sided dolphins, did playbacks with the killer whales, we had a great opening concert on Wednesday night in the harbour of Henningsvaer, when we let the humpback whale and David and Agnes roar the village! …and we even improvised with a power cut the next day!
Unfortunately not many people from the village came, many were on vacation, especially the kids. For next year we plan to set it for the second week in July, so we can arrange some fun activities for the children as well.
We will make more presentations during the following weeks, so check again…

Check the dance video!

I would like to thank everybody that participated and visited us during this event, it was a pleasure to have you here and I hope I will meet you again next year!

Heike

Whale Festival Program 3.-6.8.2011 talks & music

@ Ocean Sounds in Henningsvær:

3.8.2011 opening at the Ocean Sounds Center 17 o clock: welcoming talk by Heike Vester, David Rothenberg, Lasse-Marc Riek, Rauno Lauhakangas and Tuula  Nikulainen

30min Ocean Sounds slide show about the different whale species in Henningsvær

Afterwards: music with David and others in the center of Ocean Sounds

4.8.2011 whale & marine bio-acoustic research:

16:00 – Prof. D. Rothenberg (NJIT) and R. Lauhakangas (CERN) will tell you something about your field work in Russia (and other places) with some examples on how difficult it can get…

16:45 – talk by H.Vester: communication in matrilineal whales – killer and pilot whales

17:30 – talk by Prof. M. Timme & Dr. Jan Nagler (MPI): New methods for whale-sound-analysis

18:00 – talk by Prof. J. T. Nordeide (UiN) Bodø: Sex and sound of cod off Henningsvær

18:30 – “shark” talk by Claudia Junge (NIVA) Oslo

20:00 concert/music (David and others…) on the peer in front of Bryggehotel (weather permitting)

5.8.2011 human activities & whales:

16:00 WWF Norway – talk about whaling in northern countries (not confirmed yet)

16:45 Daniel Opitz film about whaling

18:15 History and whale stories: Tuula, Hanni, Rauno…

19:00 film

21:00 open for performances of guests!! On the peer in front of Bryggehotel (weather permitting)

6.8.2011 our contribution:

16:00 music with whales: David Rothenberg will say something about his work and experiences and show a French documentary about his work in Hawaii with Humpback whales.

16:45 Heike Vester will round up the festivals’ activities and discuss further wishes for the future

Open end live performance: Lasse-Marc Riek: soundscapes with orcas and pilot whales calls

Bring your own instrument, play with us and the whales, COME AND JOIN US FOR A BIT OF FUN!

www.ocean-sounds.com +47-91842012, Hjellskjæret, 8312 Henningsvær

The summer is here, the Vestfjord is full of plankton, you can see schools of mackerell everywhere! on a beautiful day i found 7 different whale species in the fjord: first there were 2 fin whales, a mother with calf, then 3 harbour porpoises swam by and i met 2 minke whales on my way into the fjord. a friend was with the group of orcas deeper in the fjord and he received a call that pilot whales were there as well. I moved on, it was a far trip but worth it! halfway in the fjord I saw a lonely humpback whale feeding, he was not interested in boats and was difficult to take a pitcure of, but i got his fluke for ID! then I moved towards the pilot whales and just when I arrived at the small group, more and more pilot whales appeared and in the end i was surrounded by more than 100 individuals!! what an amazing sight and sounds, they communicated a lot when meeting..they did not mind my presence, some animals even came very close to have a closer look at me. i could take excellent Photo-ID and some good sound recordings. but unfortunately a large ship circled us for the whole time and I got a lot of boat noise on the recordings…
then all of sudden the pilot whales started lifting their heads out of the water, something we call spy hopping. they can see well above water, but I had no clue what they were looking for, until I saw a small fin turning around my boat, then another one, then jumps…a group of Atlantic white sided dolphins came to say hi! there was a lot of communication and then 5 minutes later all was quiet again, the dolphins had left!

it was truly an amazing day!! one of the best days in my life. after 13 hrs out at sea I cam home, very tired but happy! the field work is going very well this year…

pictures will follow later in the gallery…i need some sleep first…

heike

This season so far has been fantastic, several groups of killer and pilot whales have been in the Vestfjord and the weather was good, so I could collect good research data. I don’t know what the killer whales were feeding on, it was not carousel feeding and the only fish available at the moment is small saithe. they have been giving birth to 2 babies, of which on disappeared 2 days after birth.

The pilot whales were feeding at night when squid, their main prey becomes active. I did not have the time yet to go through all the pictures and match them yet to our Photo-ID catalogue and I don’t know whether it is a new group, or a group that has been documented before.

This year I focus strictly on my research and will not take tourists or volunteers with me. that means I am very busy and cannot update the news regularly, I hope you understand.

pictures will follow soon, once I have gone through my 8535 pictures….

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in the afternoon I received a phone call from a friend in Svolvaer that they have found a dead whale floating in the water around the islands of lille molla. we went out with their boat and I could take pictures and skin samples, it was clearly a male spermwhale, ca 12-14m long. spermwhales are extremely rare inside the Vestfjord and maybe he died outside the Lofoten Islands and floated into the Vestfjord afterwards. the whale has been dead for some time, his kin was already pink and eaten up in most parts. what has caused his dead is unknown, he was too young for a natural death (adult male spermwhales can reach 18m of length). often spermwhales collide with large ships, or he could have died of an infection or pollution. male spermwhales travel from the south (e.g. Azores) to northern Norway along the continental shelf to feed and return to the females and calves in the south after some time. I hope the DNA samples will tell us to which clan he belongs, and maybe the dorsal fin was not too destroyed for a match, but more to that asap.

here are the pictures, let me know if you need more info/material for research.