harnesses. The other three were suc- 

 cessfully harnessed, released to their 

 mothers, and tracked. Capture was 

 performed from the swordfish boat 

 Loiison. a 15-m vessel equipped with 

 a II .5 m welded aluminum pipe pulpit 

 projecting from its bow. During cap- 

 ture Captain Tim Houshar occupied 

 the basket at the end of the pulpit, 

 while the helmsman steered from a 

 remote station atop the crow's nest. 

 The vessel was maneuvered behind a 

 whale pair, attempting to place the 

 netman in the pulpit over the animals 

 as they surfaced to breathe. At the 

 same time another crewman in a 

 speedboat zigzagged around and in 

 front of the animals in an attempt to 

 direct and distract them. This attempt 

 succeeded often enough that surfacing 

 whales rather regularly allowed the 

 pulpit to pass over them. The tendency 

 to surface beneath the pulpit varied 

 rather widely from pair to pair and 

 seemed most consistent in mothers 

 with small young. 



Once a pair surfaced under the pul- 



pit a noose of 1.25 cm nylon line was 

 placed over the small animal's head by 

 means of a large metal hoop cut 

 through at its outer margin and held 

 together inside a piece of plastic 

 tubing (Figure 2). The rather slow 

 speed of the whales (usually less than 

 7 knots) and the relatively long time 

 they spend at the surface during res- 

 piration make this a reasonably sim- 

 ple process. 



At this point the nylon noose which 

 was tied to the metal hoop with light 

 twine was pulled loose. The hoop 

 separated over the animal and was 

 pulled away, leaving the noose to slip 

 back to the tail stock of the little whale. 

 Another crewman on the pulpit pulled 

 the noose tight over the tail stock. The 

 noosed young took out a modest 

 amount of line, usually less than 100 

 m. before the line was belayed around 

 a Samson post. The young did not 

 dive for extended periods (less than 

 1 minute) but towed the vessel for a 

 time in this position. The mother 

 always stayed in close attendance. 



Figure 2. — Capture of the baby whale. Note hoop and noose being placed over the baby. Note also 

 the swordfish plank which is maneuvered over the mother-young pair. 



often sliding over the line or coming 

 up underneath it. At times she lifted 

 the young on her snout or back, and 

 occasionally she thrashed at the re- 

 straining line with her flukes. 



Once the young animal began to 

 slow somewhat, it was brought back 

 under the pulpit by bringing in line. 

 The mother came with it and swam 

 under the pulpit or slightly off to the 

 side. Never did a female attempt to hit 

 the boat or the pulpit, though our 

 small sample may not be representative. 

 A head net bag of 5 cm nylon mesh, 

 also containing a noose of 1.25 cm 

 nylon line and similarly positioned 

 on a hoop frame, was placed over 

 the baby's head. Optimally this net 

 was deep enough to extend from the 

 tip of the snout to just posterior to the 

 pectoral flippers. In practice our nets 

 were too small for all but one animal 

 and placed the noose anterior to the 

 pectorals. Even so. the noose did not 

 slip loose. 



With lines fore and aft the young 

 animal was severely hampered and 

 could be pulled in rather easily by 

 hand. During this time the boat and 

 skiff had been maneuvering the pair 

 toward the east bank and its shallow 

 shelf. 



Two plastic trash barrels containing 

 the coiled head and tail lines were lift- 

 ed into a waiting skiff and payed out 

 to the restrained whale until the shallow 

 shelf was reached. Then the lines were 

 taken ashore and the men. usually 

 four to six. pulled the baby sideways 

 onto the shelf. Usually the mother's 

 efforts were strenuous at this time, and 

 occasionally she looped the line over 

 her body or tail giving an irresistable 

 pull, but always she rapidly slipped 

 free and the baby could be towed in 

 again. The baby was beached in about 

 0.7 m of water. 10 m or so from the 

 shelf edge. The mother was unable to 

 enter such shallow water, though she 

 did patrol the shelf edge, and in one 

 case partially stranded herself, seem- 

 ingly in an attempt to reach the baby. 

 Thus protected from the obvious ire 

 of the mother, it was rather simple to 



60 



