lukecvlo's Journal

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/240668108

For this observation, I went whale watching with a friend. The whale in the photo is SEAK-2170 'Vendetta's' 2024 calf. There are about 30,000 documented individual humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) in the Pacific, and ~250 whales in the Juneau Flukes catalog. Juneau is unique in that our subpopulation of humpback whales have become "local celebrities" almost for those who know their flukes and dorsal fins. Humpback whales are identifiable by the pigmentation on their flukes and by the shape of their dorsal fin. Photo-ID of individual humpback whales began in the 1980s but humpbacks whales have been observed by people for centuries. Cetaceans have fascinated humans for thousands of years - many cultures globally painted recognizable pictures of whales and wrote stories about them. Some Pacific humpback whales migrate to parts of Alaska, traveling to Southeast Alaska to forage. Humpback whales are important in Tlingit culture through art including being carved into objects, painted depictions, and through weaving. For coastal Tlingit people, villages were built along the mainland coast, fjords, bays, and islands of southeast Alaska. Meaning humpback whales were well observed by those living near the sea. The term whale watching has taken on a different meaning than what the words directly imply; the words "whale watching" are often tied to the whale watch industry. But simply seeing and observing whales from the sea or from the shore, is still whale watching. Human observations of cetaceans is a timeless experience; Tlingit people now in Southeast see generations of humpback whales swim through Southeast just as people did thousands of years ago.

Source used for ID and general information about humpback whales: https://www.juneauflukes.org

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/241598433

For this observation, I took a picture of some bull kelp I saw on a walk. Bull kelp is a marine algae; like other algaes it is a photosynthesizer. Bull kelp anchors itself to the rocks with a rootlike holdfast and can grow up to ~115-130 feet long. The long stem-like part is the stipe. To keep buoyancy in the churning and rough waters the bull kelp has a pneumatocyst; which is a single gas-filled sack. Bull kelp is an annual species, meaning that it develops from a spore to maturity in a year. Photosynthesis occurs in the blades. This species was particularly interesting to me, especially this piece I saw washed up in the intertidal zone. I liked that the blades were intact and splayed over the rocks. Being able to observe and identify the anatomy of the kelp was really fascinating. Kelp in general is often overlooked even though it’s extremely important for coastal ecosystems. Bull kelp shelters small invertebrates and fishes, protects the coastline from rough waves, and is an essential photosynthesizer. Large kelp forests, like mangroves in the lower 48, mitigate the impact of turbulent water. Bull kelp also specifically provides cover for herring eggs, a food source eaten by Tlingit peoples living along the coast. Bull kelp is called sú in Tlingit; strips of sú were used to make anchors, and the large blades could be wrapped around to make storage containers. Overall, bull kelp has a multitude of uses for people and the ecosystems.

Citation:

1. Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2024, September 2). kelp. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/science/kelp
2. Goodrich, Bethany Sonsini. “Shared Stewardship.” Patagonia Stories, 5 Oct. 2022, www.patagonia.com/stories/shared-stewardship/story-124811.html#:~:text=Before%20colonization%2C%20the%20stipes%20of,foods%20like%20eulachon%20fish%20oil.