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From: CLAIRE GARRIGUE
_: 5
Date: 03-02-10
Time: 16:23
Dear all, In August we saw a humpback with a double dorsal fin in New Caledonia. From behavior (fighting in a reproductive group) it was probably a male. We got skin sample and ID. Latter we have been in touch with Wade Doak who saw a doubble dorsal fin humpback in Bay of Island, New Zealand in August. Would be a female with calf. Surprisingly these two whales matched by members of the SPWRC using dorsal fin only are not the same.
In September a friend of mine was in Vanuatu and sent me a shot of a double fin humpback whale taken on the 7th of September. The whale was with a small calf with flank type 2. The photo was not easy to matchedwitht the New Zealand one. And now Francis has sent these new photos of a Vanuatu humpback with two dorsal fins and with a calf that has a white flank too.
I just matched the photos and my opinion is that the Vanuatu whale is the same that the New Zealand one. I am waiting some confirmation from my matching partner Rochelle when she will be back from Antarctica! This is/will be the first match between NZ and Vanuatu!
Francis or Wade do you have any photo of the underside of the fluke ? Francis is it possible to get higher resolution of your photos ? Any genetic sample? of the mother or calf would also be useful to search for any relationship between these two whales from the same area which such a characteristic anomaly. So funny to see this kind of "malformation" (if it is one) in the same area the same year but two distinct individuals. From my knwoledge there is only another humpback whales which has been recorded with such a feature. Phil saw it in Carribbean and sent me a photo in August when I was enquiring about New Caledonian stranded whale.
A week ago I got a forward email from Nan Hauser from Michael Rainer [French] who has written a paper on these kind of abnormalities explaining that they could be teratology. I have added him in this email.
Any comments? We could may be wrote a note on this.
All the best Claire
Last changed: 03-Feb-2010