I charter fished clients in SE Alaska for 30 years.
At the beginning of that career I would cease fishing operations (well, depending on the clients) and observe any whales we would chance see during the day, almost uncommon and a novelty.
At the end of my fishing years, at any one point during peak season it was not uncommon to see 50-100 whale spouts at any given time.
This area was Dixon Entrance, at one point exceedingly rich in biomass sans Humpback
Whales and Steller Sea Lions.
Do the math, figuring 1.5 tons of needlefish, krill and herring a day per whale.
How long do you figure the other species which also eat those foods will make it (think all the money fish IE Chinook, Coho and Sockeye salmons, Pacific Halibut etc….)
The whale population has INCREASED exponentially. The herring stocks and needlefish are down.
Read between the lines.
I find it interesting as the years go on, which animal gets the good press. Years ago it was the seals in the north that got the good press to stop the folks from clubbing them to death. Now it is the Polar Bears that get the good press (but eat the seals).
Still on-going competition between the whales and the salmon in the press. Mostly the salmon in the news for Washington State as the state hustles to meet a court-ordered deadline for replacing old, small culverts that prevent fish passage.
The state is spending millions of dollars on new culverts, but then there will be an old small culvert a half mile up the creek that stops the fish! This is happening in dozens of places.
What a cool life you’ve led!
I lived south of San Diego for a few years. When friends would come to visit from the Midwest I would take them to San Diego Bay for some whale watching - wintertime was the best.
We’d always see whales, and tons of Dolphin - which are supposedly related? I dunno - but once we were on a pretty small boat and a Navy submarine breached RIGHT NEXT TO US - I mean WAY too close for comfort!
The Captain later told us that was all part of the show - but I think the Sub Commander was just being a dick, LOL!