Okay. Well, hello again, KCIW
listeners, and welcome to Curry Cafe.
I'm volunteer Rick McNamer.
Every Sunday from three to four, your host,
Ray Gary, and I put together a panel
of guests to discuss various topics of interest
that impact our wonderful community.
Now listeners can participate by texting questions or
comments to
(541)
661-4098.
Again, that number is (541)
661-4098.
A little I wanna shout out today that
we just found out our topic today is
whales. We're gonna talk all whales, which is
just great and wonderful.
And, our engineer, mister Michael, pointed out to
me earlier today is World Whale Day.
That came from the Scripps Institute, I believe,
in San Diego. Didn't even know it, and
I'm a whale fan.
And one more quick thing. I'm gonna usurp
my host and friend, Ray, to for the
introductions. I just I'm gonna introduce,
our guest today.
Her name is Joanne Van Horn, and I
met her, while I was whale watching, which
is one of my favorite things to do.
Hey. And, Joanne, you're you're here to give
us all the info on the whales.
So go ahead and give us your little
Okay. Background situation. And Okay. Well, I consider
myself
a citizen scientist about whales. I'm sort of
a
a a geek about them.
I'm originally from Colorado, so I grew up
without an ocean.
And I spent enough time in places like
Hawaii when I was younger that I
liked the ocean, but I could never quite
get it together to to live there. And
so five years ago, I moved out to
Eugene from Colorado and then I lived in
Eugene for a while to see where I
might end up on the coast. And I
ended up coming here mostly because I was
my name came up on a housing list.
So that's what brought me to Brookings which
was it's not a bad deal. I can't
complain about it. But,
since I've been here, I've been involved with
the State Parks Whale Watch Program, which is
a really
big effort,
and it's actually been part of their programme
for forty years.
And so what the state parks does,
is
have people who volunteer
learn about whales and,
go through this process to do that. And
then what what we do as volunteers is
get out at the parks during certain times
of the year and help people,
learn how to watch whales and use binoculars
and things that they don't know how to
do. Right. And there are some finer points
out there, aren't there? Aren't aren't There are.
Yeah. If you don't know what to look
for when you're trying to watch for whales,
you're probably gonna miss it. Yeah. And it
takes it really takes practice. And it's
I always say it's like watching water
boil
where you're just sort of kinda it's really
boring and then it's not,
and then it's fun. But Yes. In between
the the, you know, watching and seeing,
it's just these long stretches of nothing.
So, yeah. But but in those long stretches
of nothing,
where we live, it's so beautiful. No. Really.
I I I think it was last year,
where
one of those days where
we didn't happen to see any whales for
quite some time or none appeared,
we there was a couple of bald eagles
flying around. Right. And, boy, everybody all the
binoculars went to the bald eagles and checking
those out. So. Right. No, it's well, what
we do here in Brookings, we use Harris
Beach for the park. Yeah. And that's a
beautiful park. It is. Can't complain about that.
So, yeah, it's,
I grew up always being outside
and I've always learned that, I mean, I
have to be outside as much as I
can. So for me to stand there with
Panera binoculars
not doing anything,
I'm not going to complain
as long as it's not rainy or snowing.
But it's a fun thing to do and
it's a great
opportunity to learn.
Yesterday was the
official yearly,
State Parks Whale Watch training.
Yeah. Yeah. Tell us Yeah. You tell us
about some of that. You've got a lot
of how and how long did that last
that you had to Well, it was a,
it was an in person thing at the,
at the
I can't even remember where it is in
Newport. But Oh, okay.
There's a,
what's the school? I forget.
The
Marine
Museum.
Oh, oh, oh, okay. And so they have
this facility where they do the training and
it was an in person training with about
eight different,
experts.
So you could go and do that,
and it's kind of a long drive, so
I didn't do that. So I stayed home
and watched it on Zoom and it was
about Yeah, thank heavens for Zoom sometimes. What
can I say? Yeah, but no, it started
at nine and it ended at four.
So it was a bit,
but it was great. There were some
updates of stuff that I hadn't heard before.
So it was really worth it and
I learned a lot. And,
one of the hardest things
that you learn about
whale watching and whales in general and ocean
marine mammals and stuff is
it's actually really depressing,
because of the condition of the ocean
and the stuff that's going on that we
don't really
understand and can't do much about as people.
Well, a lot of that comes in climate
change and Yeah. So there was talk, a
lot of climate change talk yesterday that was
really It's disheartening, but we have to hold
out some positivity that we can tackle this
thing. I think we can. Yeah. I mean,
the whales are basically okay. There's,
a bit of concern about we have some
really skinny whales, which seems like a really
odd way to put it, but they're starving
because of the condition of the oceans.
And not all of them.
There's one of the researchers who's been here
forever,
Carrie Newell,
she has her own whale watching service in
Depot Bay. And she also has her own
little museum of all the stuff that she's
done.
And she was talking about how the whales
in this area
are actually really fat and healthy
and that for some reason, the food here
is really
primo and they do okay here. So Yes.
And I think
we've had,
as you know, we were Bill
Gorham's wonderful talk just a few days ago.
He's a marine biologist more with the tide
pools and stuff. But we had talked about
this little section of ocean along the Oregon
Coast and California coast. Right. It's kind of
a special little place.
It is. With,
food is usually plentiful with and with the
different conditions that we have. Mhmm. Well, there's
actually,
people don't really know, but there's
a group of whale deer that stay here
almost all year round. A 100 whales. Yeah.
They're called there's a name. They're called the
Pacific Coast Feeding Group.
Oh. That's an official name. And there's like
two
twelve of them right now.
Oh, my. That's a good count of them.
Yeah. I mean, you gotta wonder how they
count
whales. I've never figured that out. But they
do.
And so so they and it's interesting. Whales
have names and researchers recognize each single whale
and they can point each whale out and
they can tell you which one it is
and Yeah. The history of that whale and
how many calves they had and all this
stuff. So it's amazing. I'm glad there's enough
smart people and,
brave people to go out and do that
because that's that's a lot of work. It's
a lot of work and they're
absolutely passionate about it. Oh, man. And it's
just great. And we've talked, both you and
I, we're both passionate about just watching them.
Yeah. No, I think it would be really
fun to do that. I mean, the one
lady that talked yesterday, Carrie,
she's done this since she was Well, she
wanted to do it since she was seven.
And she got to do it. And she
went to school and did all this stuff
and went through all this stuff and had
kids and all grandkids now doing it. And
she can't shut up. I mean, she's don't
it's like don't get her started. That's
that's a that's a good thing, I think
Yeah. For those of us passionate about wills.
And if you are passionate about wills, and
we've got the person here to talk to
us about it, then you can text in
at (541)
661-4098.
And I'm again, I'm glad you mentioned that
the the there are some here all year
round because I've seen them here all year
round, but not like I've seen them when
the migration's going on. My best day ever
here in the seven over seven years that
I lived here was one day up at
just north of Harris Beach is, Cape Farello.
Mhmm.
I think that's a great place. Place. Yeah.
It's small. Not a lot of people. Mhmm.
Well, not a lot of people can park
there. But one day,
I me and a friend of mine, we
were out there. I think we ended up
stop counting at about it was over a
100 that we saw. Now appearances, I know
there wasn't a 100 whales out there. Spouts.
Yeah. The Spouts.
What a day. Yeah. What a day that
It's fun. It's so exciting. Tail flips.
We didn't see any breaching that day. Yeah.
Great whales don't typically breach. I I did
see a breach one time at at Harris
Beach. Really? Right at the lower parking lot.
Wow. Yeah. Wow. And that was pretty exciting.
That would be. No. They typically they
what I learned yesterday, they typically don't breach.
But when they breach, they do multiple breaches.
So it's not like just one backflip, they
do five Yes. In a row. So, that
would be really exciting. Yeah. Yeah. Exciting. And
Cape Ferrero, that's an excellent place. It's really
It's a special little place. It is. No,
I've seen them and they come up. It
must be something. There must be a basin
there where they can come in. And there's
stuff right there that they can come really
close. My first couple years here, they had
the the volunteers were there at Cape Fear.
Really? And now I've never there's also a
couple of hiking trails, a little too brutal
for me, but there's one that hikes out
to the point. Right. And the guy was
saying if you can get out there a
lot of time where that it's,
it's situated so where you could actually look
down, the whales come that close to shore.
Uh-huh. Because it kind of drops off. Yeah,
I know exactly too. Yeah, it's a special
place. It's a special place and it's what
I found, excuse me, there's a once you've
had an up close experience with a whale,
then you just can't stop
And it's just in your blood and it's,
I don't know, I honestly think it's some
kind of
a divine intervention that they just sort of
sprinkle fairy dust on you and you can't
stop because I got spy hopped by a
whale up close.
And where was that at? Spy hopped up
at Oprah Wayside, which was the strangest place
to expect that to happen. And where is
that Oregon? It is. It's up just North
of Gold Beach by nine miles. Oh, wow.
It's up,
it's sort of right before you head up
the hill towards
Port Orford. Okay. But it's a bit that
is Necica Beach
and Port and that little wayside is a
there's a restroom there.
Oh, I know. I know. Pretty big parking
lot with the light flashing light. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so I was there
and I had basically just moved here and
I was
having one of those days where you just
gotta get out and Yeah. Make a place
different. So I went
went on the beach and I didn't have
my camera. I didn't have my nothing. I
didn't have my binoculars. I didn't have nothing.
And I was walking along
and I,
it was a beautiful day, I remember, and
I looked kind of to the left and
all of a sudden I thought, wait, there's
there's not a building there. Wait, there's what
is that? And I turned and it was
a whale who'd stuck its head up. Oh
my. And that's
really exciting because they're like a building. Yeah.
Like 25 feet of a whale. It's pretty
huge. And so it did it several times
to me and
I just I think I probably stood there
and cried,
you know?
And then I just that was like the
fairy dust. And I was like, I can't.
I always have to look now. I always
need to see there.
Me growing up in the Sacramento Valley, we
take occasional trips to the ocean, but I
had never seen a whale. And
the first time I did was visiting friends
up here in Crescent City
going down,
oh, Pebble Beach Drive, which skirts the ocean
down there. Are you familiar with that? Right.
A lot of little pullouts.
And, god, this is many years ago, but
that was the first time I had ever
seen a whale.
And ever since then, it's just something about,
like you said, divine whatever you wanna call
it. Yeah. Whenever I see a spout, that's
one of the biggest things. Mhmm. I have
to stop. I have to look. Oh, my
gosh. I have
to stay there forever if I could. Yeah.
No worries. And I mean, I think it's
it's reflected in the the one of the,
statistics we got in this training yesterday. Over
the past forty years, there have been 1,250,000
visitors tracked through the program,
and that's basically the volunteers have a clicker
and they Yeah, right, right. I have But
1,250,000,
that's a lot of people. Well, so a
lot more people are excited just like we
are. Yeah. Well, I think you I mean,
how could you not be once you've seen
that? Well, you're right. How could you not
be? We've talked a little bit about this.
What blows my mind, hey, everybody's got different
things that they like or don't like. But
I have been sitting a few times at
Harris or Cape Farello
or even,
down below Crissy Field. And I would see
a whale and then I'd see people walking
around. Oh my gosh. Hey. There there's whales
out there. Now some people were just as
excited, but some people were just kind of,
oh really? Okay, well
let's go hike somewhere else. And to me,
I can't believe it. Yeah. But that's just
because we have that that inner feeling for
those creatures. Well, yeah, I think you're right.
I think it's just,
just like people like to crochet and I
don't. I mean, it's just something
that you like. But it's fun and when
I've learned a lot,
of this stuff like I learned yesterday, some
of the new things that I didn't know
about,
like the one thing I learned that was
really, I had no idea.
When a whale spouts, depending on what kind
of whale and how tall the spout is,
that, let's see what the number is.
One of the whales, a gray whale that
was in captivity
after he was rescued,
it's been like twenty five years ago, they
were able to measure
the miles per hour of the air coming
out of his lungs when he hit the
low. And that whale, it was clocked at
80 miles per hour, which is really fast,
really fast. Yes. And then,
typically though,
the thing yesterday, their blows are about forty
five seconds long.
And
the typical
speed, mile per hour speed of a blow
is 200 miles an hour. So that's why
when you see it blow up, when it
shoots up in the air, that's a really,
that's a huge amount of air. Like, that's
a refrigerator
size amount of air.
And it's just blown out of their lungs
just at at 200 miles an hour, which
is pretty incredible. Yeah. Yes. And how did
they come up with that number? I don't
know. Well, like, they're smart people to do
that.
Yeah. But that's, you know, when you think
about the size of that creature, that's just
Yeah. For me, it's hard to wrap your
head around. It is. And maybe
that's why I like to watch them, is
so I can
figure it out. So
and I always think
not only are they out there when we
see them, they're out there 20 fourseven. All
the time. What is it? What do they
do? What do they do? I don't know
if they've surveyed that or not. Probably kind
of have to do. I'm sure they have.
In fact,
some whales sleep,
with their tails down in the water. They
stick their head. Sperm whale, I think, does
that. Yeah. Is that what I'm there was
a
a special I saw one time. What an
odd, almost scary looking thing, but they had
the pictures of these sperm whales sleeping,
straight up and down. Oh, vertical. Yeah. Vertical.
Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No. You know,
you'd wanna see that. I I think it'd
be fun. I've never been out on a
boat,
and the people that I've talked to that
have been out on boats and got to
pet the whales and have them come up
close and stick their heads up in the
boat. I've never had them that close, but
I have been out whale watching twice. Uh-huh.
And that was out of,
near Monterey, a little place called Moss Landing,
which is just North of Monterey.
And what got me to go out there
god, this must have been fifteen years or
so
more ago.
There was an article in the San Francisco
Chronicle. There was an outdoors writer. His name
was Tom Steenstra. I love the guy.
I don't think he's around anymore, but he
was a he was a big outdoorsman. He
would kayak out of this moss landing out
into the ocean Mhmm. While the whales are
out there, something I wouldn't do.
But,
just talking about it and Monterey is another
place
that is just big
big time for wildlife.
Uh-huh. Right. It's a special place for that
canyon and Right. That kind of stuff. But,
boy, I was reading that, and he was
talking about all the whale watching boats. And
I thought, you know,
I wanna do it. But my first excursion
out on the ocean years before was a
fishing trip that I got deathly seasick.
Right. And I thought, I'll never do this
again.
But reading that article
and hearing how
close they got and and the different types
of not so much different types, but a
whale how many how
big the activity was, I had to do
it. Mhmm. So I found a place down
there. It was called Sanctuary Cruises. I'm pretty
sure they're still out there.
Called them to book a trip, but I
said, can you help me with seasick? They
gave me a lot of advice.
Number one, just to eat
crackers
and drink ginger ale. Ginger ale. Right.
That's what I did it that morning. Didn't
anything else. And then when I got there,
they had these
plastic bracelets that
pulsated.
Now whether it worked or not, and and
they were everybody on the trip, they said,
if you want them, they're they're $12.
But if you want them, get them now.
Once you're out there and you get sick,
they're not gonna work. Yeah. Well, I purchased
it. I said I want everything. Mhmm. And,
I did not get sick. I did it
twice.
And the rough the sea was a little
rough one time. Mhmm. So, boy, that was
a a fantastic
experience. Oh, I bet. Saw not only some
breaches
Uh-huh. But, saw and we were within probably,
I don't know, 200, 300 feet. They would
catch the
maybe they were herring. The the operator would
say, okay. Look out here because you could
see the fish
gathering while they were herding the fish. And
then all of a sudden four or five
whales come up at one time to feed.
Oh, so they're Magnificent stuff. Probably humpbacks. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Just stuff that I'll remember. Yeah.
Oh, no. Yeah. Humpback whales are so fun
to watch
because they're so they're acrobats.
Yeah. And they group. Grey whales that we
see here in the migration that we watch
anyway,
they don't seem to group as much. They're
not social, but humpbacks are social. Oh, okay.
There's a difference then. Yeah. There's like four
or five and they hunt, they fish together.
Yeah.
And you know, I don't know that they,
I don't know, I didn't think they ate
fish but they might. I suppose they eat
anything. Yeah. Whatever. Whatever. It could've been Yeah.
For I again, don't remember. But another thing
was that they they were bubbling. You the
guy would catch the bubbles. They would shoot
up a bubble. Uh-huh. It's a bubble bath.
In there. It was amazing, man. Yeah. Yeah.
It's amazing they can get coordinated enough to
do that. They all get together and Right.
Create this bubble net and then Yeah.
Some get to go rush up through it
to their mouth open. Yeah. They're you know,
they really have,
when you really when you watch and learn
about them, they're really intelligent creatures, and they
really have a sense
of awareness that makes them what do they
there's a term for it. What is it?
I think that type of knowledge in recent
years has gotten them a lot of,
sympathy or empathy. I know a few years
ago in this area,
they indigenous people wanted to go out and
hunt them again. Right.
And how did that wind up? Do you
know?
They got to do it and the way
it was done was horrible.
And it was mostly
because they had their rights taken away from
them a long time ago. Yes. We have
to remember that. And so, at some point,
the rights were given back to them. But
they were the elders were really hesitant
and they didn't think they really needed to
because of the way things are in the
world right now.
But the younger,
kids, the 30 year olds, were like, No,
we're gonna go get whales. It's not right,
we're gonna go do it.
So
they got it all set up to,
whatever their method is. They knew what was
coming and they saw what it was. And
what they did,
from what I think I watched a video
one time and couldn't sit through it, but
they went out with,
loaded harpoons. They didn't just go out and
do the old fashioned wings. They went out
with, like, guns
and killed this whale that had actually come
up to their boat as a friendly
whale. And it was one of those
heart wrenching things. That would be bad PR.
How could you do that?
But they did it. And then,
apparently,
the story of the after, they had a
party to celebrate. They didn't even do anything
with the whale. They just killed it. Oh,
no. No. And then the grandmothers came along
from the tribe
and went through and did what needed to
be done to the whale
and the kids went back and got drunk
and passed out and all the stuff. It
wasn't exactly
a revival of additional value. It was just
one of those,
Taking advantage. Well, not taking advantage, but it's
like, It's alright to do this. We get
to do it. And so you I can
sympathize, but it's like, not that way. You
know, in Alaska, they never stopped hunting whales.
The the Marine Mammal
Act excluded
indigenous people Mhmm. From hunting marine mammals.
And
I've never been a fan of whale hunting
or
hunting at all for that matter. Well, I
used to hunt, but,
and I used to think, well, jeez, I
don't need to kill whales because I felt
an affinity towards them like everybody does. But
then I started going to places like
Saint Lawrence Island and getting to know people,
and
that's a big deal there. It's not just,
if you're on the whaling crew, as an
example, I I I was a state trooper
and I'd go out there and
land the plane and find somebody and ask
how I could get a hold of so
and so.
And Mhmm. Somebody say,
oh, yeah. He's my cousin and he's on
the whaling crew. Like, it was a really
big deal for his cousin to be on
the whaling crew, and they definitely did bring
the whole animal in and Mhmm. Yeah. All
the things you do with it. Well, to
me, if that's if it's done
with,
sort of a sense of reverence,
which is what it originally was. I do
believe that it's all part of it. Not
just to kill, I mean, when you the
thing that I've had the hardest time with
learning about whales, and I've read a lot
of books and stuff that's historical,
what we did to whales
it's just like we did to the indigenous
tribes. Exactly. We just killed
them and said, Get out of my way,
we want this. And the buffalo. Yeah. And
it was that type of energy. It was
that type of energy. And so, we basically
almost eliminated
gray whales.
And they came back and then we did
it again. So we've done it to them
twice and they're just the most forgiving,
compassionate
creatures, and so you have to wonder what
that's all about. But in the day when
we used whale oil for things, it was
a very big business. It was. Yeah. And
Yeah. It's hard to watch those old videos
of them cutting up
and harp the harpoon guns, like you said.
Pretty brutal. It's brutal. Pretty brutal. I mean,
I I You know, you don't wanna go
down that road, but we Well Humans are
awful. I mean, we really are. Oh, yeah.
We're so pushy and we want what we
want and we don't want no for an
answer, and it's like get out of my
way
type of energy. And it's like, it's that
to me,
that's the problem.
We don't need to do that anymore. It's
like stop doing that and we're still doing
it because that's what we do. And I
just feel like when you read about the
whale all the whale hunts and stuff, you
it's just Yeah.
Heart wrenching. Well, the the the Earth could
have well gotten along without humans. And I
think the worst thing that I I know.
And and the worst
thing that happened from humans was white people.
I think you're right. I think we're awful.
I'm and sometimes I'm embarrassed to be
in this tribe, you know. It's like, I
don't think so.
Well, and and back to the whaling now,
overall, from what I have read,
the only countries left
that do whaling and and they do it
in,
against the Whaling Commission's moratorium
when they had that Mhmm. Which said no
more whaling, basically. But Japan Mhmm. Norway,
and Iceland Mhmm. Still
violate that moratorium. Right. Yeah. I've heard that.
I know Japan does for sure, and they're,
they're really aggressive.
Yes, they are. They've pretty much
wiped out a bunch of species of whales,
I think. And some dolphins. They have something
about the yeah. Yeah. So why they continue
to do that, I don't know. Now, and
the other part because it's pretty much
how are you gonna take them to jail
when you're gonna Probably, you're gonna do that.
Well, true. Yeah. I don't know. You're probably
both familiar with Sea Shepherd,
whose Oh, yeah. Aim it is to save
the the whales and the suitcases,
and
they literally go out and get in the
way of the whaling boats and cut them
off and Right. Cut them off from the
whales and do very dangerous things. Yeah. Years
ago, when,
Sea
Shepherd broke away from
Greenpeace, they would sink whale well, and boats
in port.
It is not any better. That that Paul
Watson still has a Did they really do
that? They okay. That one I don't really
call. That's a little too the other way.
That's way too yeah. But, the Greenpeace, I
haven't heard much about them lately. I always
do think they're still Paul Paul Watson
quit Gene
Greenpeace because they thought they were too wimpy.
Oh. And so we need to be out
here blocking these people and going. Okay. And
and I yeah. I I tend to go
along with that line of thinking. Okay. But
I ain't going out then.
Well, what does it do? Because they're just
gonna
wait till you're not looking and do it
anyway. Well, if you do enough of it
though,
I seem to remember a couple of reading
a couple of years ago that Japan has
cut back a whole lot on their well
oil, primarily because of Really? Of a sea
shepherd.
That's good. No. I think this is good.
Yeah. I mean, it's not like you really
need their their meat, their oil. You don't
need that. No. Right. And you know, there
at one point,
I think it's Japan,
that the biggest export, whale export that they
had, the biggest product was dog food.
Yeah. And they really did that. Oh my.
That's shitty. How could you do that?
I had no idea.
It's a fact and you just kind of
gag, but you do that. Yeah.
So to me, it's just one of those,
you know, things that you don't wanna think
about but it's really happening. It's not, it
hasn't really,
you know, we've the whales have recovered.
They talk about
orcas now. The orcas are endangered,
seriously bad because of the pollution,
mostly,
and plastics, pumpkins. Plastics. Oh my gosh. Is
that some of the reasons they've changed their
their feeding pattern?
They Workers didn't used to eat
otters and now they attack the rafts, which
are very
Yeah. Slink ducks basically. They thought orcas always
have had
the
ocean mammals, if you will, on there. Well,
they're a breast.
They're meteors. Yeah. Grey whales are not. Right.
And so that's the difference. And orcas are
just,
they're big dolphins.
They're in a dolphin family, they're not really
whales, but they have teeth so they eat
meat. Yes. And they're
pretty intelligent too. They are. They're very intelligent.
They're one of the most intelligent creatures on
the planet, they say.
So, you know, don't get in their way.
No. There used to be two tribes.
They call them tribes. I don't know.
Pod they're called pods and there's three four
pods now. I think they may. Well, the
pods are different than the tribes and there
were there were,
certain orcas that basically ate salmon, and that's
what they fed on all the time. Right.
And then others
ate meat. Yes. And I understand that the
salmon ones are giving up that diet and
joining and they're eating Well, because there's not
enough salmon and the salmon are all,
toxic.
And
that's what's killing them off is the orcas
are eating toxic salmon,
which is
the meat, their toxins are stored in their
fat. And then when there's no food for
them to eat, they burn off
their fat and the toxins come into
their systems and it kills them. And the
orcas, they're endangered now. The only,
Oregon has they're endangered in Oregon,
they're federally endangered,
and California hasn't made them endangered yet, which
is bizarre. I'm surprised.
That's my state, my home state. I didn't
know that. They didn't. They hunt.
And along the lines, speaking of orcas,
that's
one of my bucket lists. I have never
that's one I've never seen out even in
Monterey or Moss Landing. I was figuring on
Catching Sight. I've never seen an orca
out in the wild, but I know we
have them here. I was at the Sport
Haven one day, and a guy had a
wonderful camera that was taking pictures. And
he, he said just a day before, he
had seen a couple of workers right by
the harbor. Mhmm. So Yeah. There were some
Have you seen any here? I saw the
tail end of them once. I was I
couldn't cut myself. I was I had been
down on the the,
South Harris Beach for my evening Okay. Thing,
and I came back up.
And, as I came back up that hill,
a whole bunch of younger people passed me
and they were like party time passing me.
And I was glad I came back up
and I got my car and was sitting
there like you do on your phone for
a minute, kind of going through whatever it
was I did. And there was all this
yelling and screaming and all these people, and
I thought, Wow, they're really having a party
down there. And I looked up just in
time to see the tail end of two
orcas
swimming right exactly where I had been,
right there, right in that cove. And
they're so fast you can't just run and
see them. They were, you know, they're really
fast swimmers. But yeah, no, they're around and
they actually resident here too.
So there's Yeah. I'm still,
I'm waiting I know. By first sight. Well,
you have to be fast. I think that's
what it I'm not fast. I was on
the beach in LA one time, and there's
a dolphin swimming in the surf there all
the time. And one time, there were some
black
cetaceans
with white on them.
And I Well, there were I would say
they were orcas
except they're small, but there are porpoise that
that Yeah. White on them. And I don't
It's a kind of dolphin or porpoise that
has that same color. But who knows? Could
have been a baby orca. I don't know.
Well, there's so many marine animals. It's hard
to prove nobody somebody like me to know
which one's
where, what doing. Right.
But no, they're Morcas are aggressive because
they eat meat. I mean, they that's the
difference. They're not vegetarians.
Right. Now, and I know how much take
this a little bit with a grain of
salt, but I've been hearing reports and reading
on YouTube. Here we go, Ray. But I
don't know how that could be. But there
have been orcas attacking boats over off the
coast of Portugal.
Have you been hearing that at all? I
I remember seeing news items about it and
I I don't think they were attacking them
to
attack the people. It was just They were
yeah. I again, I don't know. It's it
was a popular kind of a news story
bite for quite a while. But the
they had it they sank a couple of
boats.
From what I hear, and they were able
to get the people off before they were
biting the props. I have a hard time
to believe in that. Well, again,
take that with a grain of salt. Well,
the thing that I find, and I don't
spend that much on time time online, but
I do see
an awful lot of stuff,
that's you can tell it's AI generated. Oh,
garbage, garbage, garbage. And it's just and it's
a lot of whale stuff. A lot. There
have been you know, the the the story
of Moby Dick
started out with a whale that actually attacked
the whale and boats. So but and Okay.
Yeah. Developed a little bit. A little bit.
But it's the the idea to me that
I don't
I, you know, I bet it would have
come up in our class yesterday
about orcas attacking
boats. I think they Yeah. I would have
fought for a what was it? A six
hour presentation?
No. I think it would have been mentioned.
Yeah. I, you know, it might be that
Your class was a PR thing for
It was for whales. Right? They're not gonna
tell you the bad things. Good. Oh, no.
I bet they did. I bet they did.
No. They've I got really depressed. I think
they told us the truth. Well So Yeah.
You know, for a lot of it. And
it's it's,
I really, honestly, I have to really watch
myself because I go on Facebook every now
and then just get the local
director. Do that. I know, but I do.
And so and I share pictures and stuff
and it's okay.
But sometimes, I've managed to get on a
feed that I get that just shows up
and it's whales. And there are these incredible
pictures of people who are like in a
little fishing boat right there and there's like
a big 100
foot whale breaching right in front of the
boat, which would never happen, that would never
happen.
And there's like 2,000,
100,000
likes for that post. And you think people
are really stupid.
And I'm sorry, but I really think that
they are. Yes. So we as a species
could be that way. They have the the
the videos where,
a seal or something has
has washed up on shore and is literally
covered from head to tail with
with barnacles and these,
that are in a perfect pattern and, you
know, these wonderful people come and take the
barnacles off. Right. Right. But I imagine by
erasing them in Photoshop or something. Well,
I guess you can do that. I learned
yesterday something I didn't really know. There's actually
whales, gray whales have barnacles for a reason.
And so because I've seen those videos too
where there's a they're, you know, they've simulated
a whale
breaching and then some guy jumping on his
back with a brush and brushing off the
barnacles. And in spring, Jose, I mean, I've
seen this. That was the dumbest video I
ever watched. Oh, okay. And it got like
10,000,000 likes. But
barnacles are on whales for a reason. It's
a symbiotic
relationship and they do good things for it.
Okay. And, there's an actual whale barnacle. And
the researchers
notice the patterns in the barnacles and they
can tell you what whale is what whale
bite
the barnacles. They know They have to identify
that particular whale. So it's really interesting. I
never I always thought barnacles were just like
yuck dirty looking things. Like they have a
there's a purpose. Well, I'll be darn.
That's a good thing. The purpose is the
little parasitic
guys
that keep
whale skin healthy live in the barnacles.
And so they need a place to be,
and so that's where they hang out. And
it's really interesting. Well, good for them. Good
for them, yeah. But they don't, you know,
if you went to pick a barnacle off
a whale's back, you wouldn't be doing it
a favor.
It'd be really dumb. Okay. So Okay. That
was a good thing to know. I had
no idea.
Well, y'all out there, remember, you can text
in questions or comments here. (541)
661-4098.
Line's
open, so text in. You know, back to
you were talking about the spouse earlier, Joanne.
Mhmm. We did have
a very unique happening here, not to back
in I think it was August.
The blue whale sightings that we had here?
Yeah. Were you able to catch any of
that? I caught that. I did. I That
was amazing. But it's amazing. It was amazing.
No. Nobody seems
to know what that was or why it
was so That was pretty rare to have
them come in that close to you. It
was, and it wasn't really documented.
You know, it didn't it was a quick
It was. Little thing, but it would actually
lasted a couple of weeks.
I I think so. And I was
at Harris Beach, didn't like you said, not
documented,
and I wasn't really even looking because it
was August or With August. That time. Early
on. And I thought, you know, and all
of a sudden, halfway through my walk,
which and I didn't have my binoculars, I
saw a spout. Mhmm. But this spout looked
different and bigger. Bigger. And I thought, oh,
that's
Mhmm. It intrigued me. So then I'm run
not well, not me running, but I walked
fast back to my car, grabbed my binoculars,
and more people had assembled. Mhmm. And then
one of the volunteer, the rangers, I guess,
came up and said, well, you guys are
checking out the blue whale. Mhmm. And yeah.
Uh-huh. And, boy, it was you could tell
that the spouts were, different than when they
showed their back, they were just big. It
was a wonderful sight. And a blue whale,
that was one one of the things on
my bucket list also, so I got to
cross that one off. That was really cool.
No. It was really unusual, and it they
were around for a while, but I got
to see I had a neighbor who had
a drone. I don't like drones very much.
But he sent a drone out. Yeah, I
don't either but sometimes I wish I had
them. But go ahead. He That was the
coolest video.
It was because he sent the drone out.
I live on a place where we have
a park right across from where I live.
So you a long time ago, there was
a restaurant there. So now there's no restaurant
but there's this big empty field.
It's private but we go there anyway.
And anyway, this guy, we were out on
that particular point and the guy sent the
drone out over the cliff
and he got, it
was a blue whale and a baby.
And it was just the best video. And
there you could see
all the way out to the horizon, you
could see spouts. It was just whatever that
was.
I'm so tempted to buy one of those,
but
I I I know it will happen. I
would use it about an hour, and that
would be it. It would crash. No. No.
I would get tired of playing with it.
I mean, there's just
so many Yeah.
Films of Zooming. We we watched a, a
movie yesterday
that was full of drone shots. It was
a little self made by movie by by
a couple,
and the drone shots were amazing. They're amazing.
Yeah. And and
the things they can do and the things
you can buy for less than a thousand
dollars, they're just tons of automatic features. Yeah.
But I would take
well, my house is situated. You can't really
get a picture of it because it's on
a,
flyby and have a picture of my house,
and and I'd put it away and never
use it. Yeah. Right. We'll go with the,
the cam camera I bought years ago. I've
been to Ray's house, and it's got some
beautiful panoramic
views of the ocean.
Some other bands that has some views.
Joanne, I have to ask you too,
because we encountered,
when we were there just a few
weeks ago,
some crazy questions from some of the people
that come up when you're doing the volunteer.
Uh-huh. I think I remember one guy, if
I had this right, he was
asking you it was you and two Bob
and then where was the other lady? Shannon?
Oh, there's Shannon and there's,
what's her name? I forget. Okay. Yeah. Anyway,
about how how do you get the whales
to come in to the shore? Just that
kind of stuff. But that's okay, man. Well,
it's you know, you have to once you
do that for a while and, you know,
you're there are multiple days
and you get to see
all kinds of people from all over the
world, people from Italy and Turkey and all
over the world. And that's a beautiful thing.
They don't know anything about whales at all.
Right. And so, you know, until I started
to learn about it, I didn't either. Yeah.
Correct. So you have to kind of wonder,
I guess I knew more than you don't
really call whales in,
but,
you know, that guy didn't. But, you know,
I think that's the whole point of the
program.
It's not just to let people watch whales,
and that's a part of it. But the
other part is to raise the awareness of
the oceans and the need that we have
to connect a little bit more in a
in a maybe a more heartfelt way that
makes it more important so that we take
better care. I think the three of us
at this table pay some attention to nature
and what's going on. I hope so. But
not everybody does. I used to do a
reptile demonstration
at the,
a park in in Tucson.
And
as part of that, my job was self
appointed thing was I
I've handled this fairly large gopher snake,
and it got used to me. It was
very common. It didn't actually even mind being
out of the demonstrations. It got it out
of its cage
for a little while. But
I had this one that I kept referring
to as she,
and somebody asked me,
how do you know it's a it's a
it's a female? And I said, well, in
one of the tanks down there, there's
10 babies that that egged she bled soon
after we caught her.
And the person wanted to know if we
put the snake in there at night to
nurse the babies.
I don't know what happened. Actually, if we'd
put her in there at night, she'd eat
the babies. So that would be good. Yeah.
That makes perfect sense. But but but I'm
sure one of your joys, and it is
one of mine, and I'm not a volunteer
yet anyway, that's kind of intriguing. We had
talked about it a little bit when I
was there.
Another example, at Cape Forillo, I was there
during the migration. I was the only one
there, which is unbelievable.
And the couple came up and they were
and they saw me with the binoculars and
they were, you know, what what are you
checking
out? I said, well, right
now, man, there's there's whales out there. Oh,
my and they were from Klamath Falls. You're
not gonna see any whales in Klamath Falls.
And they were just intrigued as heck and
sat there for the next hour and a
half or whatever
watching just as excited as I was. It's
a pleasure to turn somebody else on
to that wonderful
sight. Well, it's part I
get that a lot of people come to
Oregon to see a whale.
You know, that's part of what we do.
That's one of our draws.
And so, you know, I understand. That's what
happened to me. I mean, I was in
Cannon Beach, what was it,
in 2012,
I think,
and I saw my first whale
here and I was I just sort of
got addicted. Yeah. You know, and I think
It's easy to. It happens, especially like you
said, that once you learn how important the
outdoors is and nature is, it's just sort
of what you do. Right. I mean, it's
not
Right. And again, I
praise this place a lot of times. It
like you say, out in nature, we're right
we've got so much beauty here. So much
beauty. Mountains,
greenery, trees, the ocean,
all the different wildlife.
And, again, back to the bird, we talked
about the bald eagles.
There's so many different types. One of my
favorite
scenes out here is, when the pelicans come
in and start feeding. Yeah. Watching those things
dive bomb the water, they
they look so graceful as their flag well,
they are graceful, but, boy, when they hit
that water and going for the fish, it
looked like somebody doing a belly flop. Mhmm.
No. You look at them while you're out
there. You look at them and think they
screwed up.
They got too close and fell in. Well
because
it's not They're rolling up something. How do
they do that? I don't know. Well, I
like it when they're flying right along the
top of the wave. They're like and, like,
happening off the top of the I don't
know how they do that. How do they
do that? Yeah. But that's the contour of
the waves. Yeah. It's amazing. That's what pelicans
do. Yeah. That's what they do. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. It's a special place. Yeah. No, we're
really lucky and I feel that,
every day. I think that's why I go
out
to watch whales is that if for no
other reason, then I just get to stand
there and watch what's going on Yeah. Around.
I feel pretty special when I when I
do see that. Uh-huh.
Yeah. And and so
and how many we have grays,
humpbacks, and now I've seen blues. Blues. Right.
Orcas.
Is that pretty much no. No. But they
had a fin whale wash up on it.
They're fin whales. Right? It's fin whales. And
I don't you know, honestly,
I don't know how
I would be able to tell the difference
between a gray whale and a fin whale
if I was looking on the water. They
really
are really similar. Maybe it's a spout, I'm
not so sure about.
But, yeah, no, there's, I'm counting in my
book, I have one, two, three, four, five,
six, seven, eight,
10
different kind of,
baleen whales, which is what a gray whale
is. Yeah. And those we have here along
the coast? Well, there's four specific ones that
you would expect to see here. But then
they don't they're not counting the fin whale.
And the fin whale just washed up on
the beach up north.
So you have to wonder, I really,
I'm
curious about the fact that
there's deep
sea
mining going on all over the Pacific Ocean.
And so,
what that means is that they're basically,
whoever it is, Japan, China, maybe USA, we're
going way down deep in the ocean in
these little submarines
and blowing up
the ocean ground so we can get minerals
out of it. And so, if you were
a whale and you lived
by
echolocation which is the vibration in the water
and they started to blow up the ground
at the bottom of the, you know, the
basin,
that kind of make you wanna leave, wouldn't
it? Well, you would think that you would
think that you just sort of hightail it
in a different direction. And so maybe they
came here
because it was safer. I don't know. I
don't know either.
Another thing that concerned me during the migration
now,
and this is a big
so we fresh seafood
up here is around here is wonderful.
I was amazed at
what I saw a lot of crab traps
set out Mhmm. Right off of Harris Beach
during the migration.
I I thought that that was not allowed.
I don't Do you know anything about that?
Know anything about that.
And I did talk to because I get
my local
fresh seafood at the harbor a lot, and
I talked to the lady in there,
wonderful lady, we're we're friends,
and I mentioned, oh, have you been out
have you seen any whale? Before the migration
started, I asked her, had she been out
to see any had she seen any whales?
And she gave me a look and she
said, I don't wanna see any whales. Yeah.
Because that's her livelihood.
Mhmm. You know? Yeah. I kinda see that,
but I think also, boy,
do you know what the whales
are,
what do they call the species of of,
very
all species are important, I suppose. There's a
a Keystone.
Keystone. Yeah. Thank you, Ray.
A keystone
species for the ocean Mhmm. And which is
gonna eventually affect the salmon, the crabs, the
whatever else. Mhmm. But, yeah, she was just
not,
in favor of
seeing the whales. I just thought that was
fair. Well, you know, that was one of
the concerns yesterday that's been brought up because,
yeah, I mean,
you gotta be aware of that. People make
their living off of that
stuff. You do. You have to make trade
off. And you have to be able to
take care of what's in the water, too.
You bet. And so that it's just a
really hard thing. Balance. How do we get
that balance? Yeah. And I don't I mean,
I think
being a fisherman must be a really hard
life.
And so I don't blame those people for
kind of being territorial going around. It was
just how I made my living. But at
the same time I think they're a debater,
believe me. I can't do that. But How
about the whales?
Yeah, how about the whales? I mean, they
can't get out of your net
and you're killing them.
And we don't always see them. I mean,
they don't always wish up on the beach.
Sometimes they just sink into the bottom of
the basin. And it's just
Well, and we have talked a little bit
about this particular problem with Bill Gorham on
another show,
about,
you know, balancing.
How can we work this problem out? Now
this is what I have read also, not
on YouTube, but I've read. They're starting to
develop crab traps without
having to attach the line,
which that's what the whales get hung up
with. Yeah. Now it's
a lot more money because they're
from what I remember, they they drop they
can drop the crab
traps without a line.
And through their phones, they can,
beep. So I this is not gonna be
the scientific explanation,
but they basically have little inflatable,
balloons, if you wanna call them. When they
wanna get that trap back, they'll
inflate these. They will float to the top
with with no lines attached. Right. Now, again,
I'm sure that's gonna be a lot of
money and
You know, the People are going to work.
Technology, that would not Technically, thank you. There
you go. Would not really not be that
big a deal to do something like that,
except I don't know how well these
railways go into the water. I think Well,
again, that's above my pay grade, and I'm
sure that people who are hard enough can
Yeah. Figure that out. But it I'm sure
if you have 5,000
crab traps, it could've cost you lots to
to change. Well, they can't be cheap at
all. Oh, no. No.
Yeah. So, yeah. No. You have to, you
know, you have to hope, but then how
are they gonna regulate it? And who's gonna
comply? And, you know, who's gonna get off
Yeah. Because they don't have the and all
that stuff. All of that. And there's always
major
money involved in blocking any kind of Right.
The current administration that doesn't think that we
have any Well, you know, you gotta wonder
about those guys. I mean, who are those
guys anyway?
But I'm glad they're keeping track of,
climate change and realizing it's a big hoax.
Yeah, if we could just do something, if
we could just figure out and do it
quickly, so we don't totally, I mean, the
thing that I see is that we just
kind of waited a little bit too long
to start thinking about it. We should have
been doing this fifty years ago. Well, we
certainly should have been brought up fifty years
ago. It was. Yeah. No. I was aware
of it. And I think before maybe even
before then, but, yeah, didn't really catch fire.
No. And then when it did catch fire,
the opposite
started to happen where the
the big hoax started. It was a big
deal just getting lead out of out of
fuel. Well Yeah. It was a big, big
brouhaha.
Well, we have to make it so complicated.
I mean, that's what keeps those people in
Washington jobs
because we make it just complicated that we
can't just figure it out and deal with
it. We have to just talk about it
for a year. Unfortunately, we can overcomplicate a
lot of things, can't we? Yeah. Right. The
human spirit. Right, we're so good at it.
And that's why I think when I watch
whales, I just feel so
honored to be able to connect with the
creature that's just out there doing this thing
that they do and they've been doing for
millions of years and they just do it
regardless.
And they must have something that we don't.
They must be able to connect with some
force in the universe
that's so much greater than we can even
wrap our heads around. And I really envy
them, I really do. I feel like I
wish
I mean, maybe in my next lifetime I'll
come back as a whale.
I hope they've cleaned up the oceans by
then, but, you know Hopefully,
that would be the case. Yeah. Yeah. But
No. They they they are
very special.
I I just now I I keep putting
my note. I came across where I finally
had the keystone species, what they call the
whales. They call them also,
they're very at the very top of the
keystone species. Ecosystem
engineers
is a term that they use because
I mean, without them, everything else goes down
Mhmm. Pretty much. Right. Well, they, you know,
they, like I say, they've been around for
so long and that they're still here, that
has to mean something.
And, you know, that we're so,
you know, that there's enough of us that
are concerned about it that they actually do
research.
And there's
a huge amount of research being done all
the time all over the world. And that's
positive. That's positive. That's huge. That's a big
deal. So you have to know that what
we see on the news probably isn't what's
really happening, which is a good thing.
Right. But the rest of it, you just
kind of have to to me, it's like,
well, what can I do that might be
positive to help other people sort of get
excited about
what's possible? And -Well,
and you're doing one thing. Well, I hope
so. I mean, that's -Yeah. It's not what
I wake up in the morning to think
about. But to me, if we don't start
doing that
for more things in whales, we're screwed. I
mean, I think we're already kind of screwed.
But,
the whales make it easy for me to
just sort of get, okay, there's this passion
that we forgot about you guys and it's
everybody. It's not just me and you and
everybody in this room, it's us.
And the species needs to wake up and
start taking,
you know, worrying about things that are important
instead of, you know, what's on sale at
Fred Meyer's.
And stuff like that. We're just so unbalanced.
And that's the concern I have is that
I'm, I mean, I'm old enough, I'm gonna
be out of
here, you know, twenty years and I'm probably
gone. Okay.
Us too. But the rest, you know, what
are we leaving behind? Yeah. And, you know,
what's gonna happen and do I need to
care?
And I care while I'm here, so that
works. But for the rest of it, you
just have to go, boy
Right.
What else? Well, it is even even if
you if you do live in a place
that maybe you don't like I did, you
don't see whales,
it's I care about the even
the species that maybe I don't see Right.
Or will never see. I'll use, let's say,
the the polar bears for an example. Will
I ever see one? No. I'm sure I
won't. I spend every morning tracking the progress
of
salamander eggs in my pond. Do these Okay.
There you go. Oh, there's a little spot.
That one's developed. And now they're now they're,
I'd say, less than a week away from
hatching. And I have two different kinds. And
I love those sal those salamanders are cool.
Uh-huh. Except they're newts and and
okay. I have I have two,
sets of eggs and I have two two
different types
animals are breeding.
And soon, any day now, the frogs will
start to breed. And you you know that
because it's a racket. It's almost too much
noise. Right? It's too early. Yeah.
And when That's a bunch of noise. So
what happens is the newts, who are carnivores
Oh. Mean,
aggressive carnivores
develop quicker than the frogs,
and they start eating
the the the tadpoles before and there's a
lot of those that can eat a lot
of those, and I don't have any frogs
left. So Oh, okay. As soon as the
frog
as as these newts start getting to any
size, I'll start catching them and releasing them
someplace else so that I don't eat all
my frogs. You've got your own little echoes
going on. Yes, I do. And I had
my own little things I care of. You
guys, whales,
frogs, lizards,
lizards. We all gotta have something. Right?
Yeah. And I was lucky enough to see
Ray's
poison dart frog little friend that he has.
They're beautiful. They're absolutely beautiful. Who ever thought
an 82 Wouldn't wanna lick one, I guess,
but
Whoever thought an 82 year old person would
have pet frogs? Oh. I think that's a
good thing.
No kidding. You know, I just there was
an article someplace the other day that there
was somebody murdered with
with dart frog poison.
That's horrible.
Yeah. That's yeah. But I believe it. Yeah.
There was probably a recipe on YouTube that
you can make your own.
And how to get away with it. And
how to get away with it. Right? Right.
And how the AI might do it for
you. Oh, oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, we are
running out of time. Joanne, I really wanna
thank you. I'm I'm glad I met you
with the whale watching
escapade there at Harris Beach. Thank you. It
was fun to get to talk to somebody
with as much passion and maybe more than
I have. Well, yeah. I'm I'm pretty sure
it's an important thing that we need to
It's an important thing. We we need to
get over it and and not,
you know, start screaming about stuff we like.
Yes. And we really do. Yes. And there's
the flaming of it. The trouble is when
you get passionate about something, you
kinda get your feelings hurt when people are
not bashing around. What what do you mean?
If I did that, then I would lose
my job or something. Uh-huh. Well, it's the
times we're in. I mean, you get to
choose what you think is important, I guess,
is how I see it. And and when
I hear this Yeah. It will destroy that
industry. There's lots of industries have been no,
we don't make buggy whips anymore and parts
for
They don't make corsets, I don't think. It's
like that. So, yeah. No. It's I I
always like to use the analogy that many,
many, many years ago, there was this guy.
I don't know his name, but he had
a wonderful business. He was the third generation
doing this making Clovis spear points.
And and he was training his kids to
to make Clovis spear points, and then
all of a sudden, there wasn't a need
for Clovis spear points anymore.
So just to keep just to keep him
in business, should we have continued Right. Well
and and going out and spearing animals. Who
knows? I don't think so. Adopted.
That's a good thing to adapt. Okay, ma'am.
We're down to about ten seconds. So thank
you again. You ready? Yeah. Thanks for having
me. Michael and Booth, my mister host, Ray
Gary. Thank you all. KCIW
LP one hundred point seven FM, beautiful Brookings,
Oregon.