SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE HUMPBACK WHALES MOVE TO THEIR BREEDING GROUNDS

SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE HUMPBACK WHALES

MOVE TO THEIR BREEDING GROUNDS

It is the austral winter in the Southern Hemisphere right now which means that the Southern Hemisphere humpback whale populations have moved from their feeding grounds along the Antarctic coast to their more northerly breeding grounds. In the South Pacific, that means that humpbacks can be seen and heard in their low latitude breeding grounds where they will mate and calve. Humpback Whales breed around oceanic islands, offshore seamounts, and reef systems.

Where to find Southern Hemisphere Humpback whales this time of year:

Oceania in the South Pacific islands of French Polynesia, Samoa, Vanuatu, Fiji, Niue, Cook Islands, New Caledonia, Tonga, and Norfolk Island.
The Pacific coasts of Central and South America as far north as northern Costa Rica to Ecuador including the Galapagos, and the Pacific Panamanian Islands.
The Atlantic coastal waters off Brazil around 23 (degrees) S
Southwestern and Southeastern Africa
Northwestern and Northeastern Australia

According to Mark Carwardine’s HANDBOOK OF WHALES, DOLPHINS, AND PORPOISES OF THE WORLD: “Humpbacks that feed in widely separated regions in the summer gather together and mix in the same breeding grounds (increasing the chances of finding each other and promoting genetic diversity).” Like sea turtles there is a strong loyalty to natal breeding grounds. Mother -Calf pairs generally stay close to one another and prefer shallower water. They may or may not have another whale with them. Other groups of whales are usually made up of a female whale and a dominant ‘escort’ and perhaps other hopeful ‘escort - contenders’.

The demonstrative behaviors of humpback whales make are very distinct. Both males and females of all ages breech, dive, tail waggle and smack, and flipper wave and slap. They can be seen doing this on their own or in larger groups. Both males and females can vocalize for communications and the Singing Humpbacks are usually lone males. Their songs can travel great distances (tens of Kilometers) in the ocean to be heard underwater and through the hull of vessels. The songs are shared among large groups of whales and evolve. They have been described as everything from haunting to beautiful.

Up until the mid-1950’s the humpback whale as a species was depleted by 95% in the whaling days and today, their biggest threat is entanglement in fishing gear. Other threats include noise pollution, ship strikes, oil and gas development, and coastal habitat disturbance/destruction. Thankfully, global humpback whale populations have recovered significantly with the ending of commercial whaling and despite current threats this majestic whale is thriving.

by EDITOR

WHAT IS ZULIP AND HOW THE POSSE USES IT

WHAT IS ZULIP & HOW THE POSSE USES IT

What is Zulip?

Zulip is a communication platform that the Posse began using in Season 7. This post is a refresher on what Zulip is and how to use it.

Zulip is an open-source group chat app that organizes conversations by topic. This structure makes it easy to follow discussions and read one conversation at a time without the chaos of traditional chat tools. It allows multiple conversations to happen simultaneously in an organized way and spreads them over time.

How to Log In

If you're an Ocean Posse member and need a Zulip account, email chat@oceanposse.com to request an invitation. Once you have your login:

On a web browser, go to https://chat.oceanposse.com and log in.
Download the desktop application for your PC.
On mobile (Apple/Android), download the Zulip app from your app store, register chat.oceanposse.com as your server, and log in with your username and password.

Main Concepts: Topics and Streams

Zulip organizes conversations with topics, like lightweight email subjects. All messages with the same topic are shown as conversation threads, making it easy to follow one conversation at a time. Topics allow for multiple conversations to happen simultaneously without interruptions, and everyone can respond at their own pace.

Streams are groupings of topics that define who sees a message. You need to subscribe to a stream to see its conversations by clicking the plus sign at the bottom of the stream list and selecting the ones that interest you. Our streams are divided into:

Location-based: For countries and regions, such as Mexico-Pacific, Columbia, Panama, Jamaica, etc.
Subject-based: For example, Weather, Boats with Kids, Awards, etc.
General-purpose: VHF16 for important, time-sensitive updates, and VHF68 for general conversation and non-critical information sharing.

Navigating Conversations

To find posts of interest, you can:

Click on 'Recent Conversations' in the left navigation panel to see all topics across your subscribed streams.
Click on a stream name to see all conversations in that stream or select individual topics.
Use the search icon to find specific posts, filtering by stream and topic name if needed.

How to Post

To write a post:

Choose the stream your message should go to (e.g., a geographical region like Columbia or a subject-specific stream like Weather). If unsure, use the VHF68 stream.
Pick an existing topic name or type in a new one. You can post a message without a topic.
Type your message and press 'Send'.

Don't worry about mistakes; messages can be moved between topics and streams if needed.

More info

Please at least read this documentation page from Zulip: Getting started with Zulip | Zulip help enter
Last season we recorded an overview of how to use Zulip: PANAMA POSSE - the inner workings of ZULIP
Zulip for communities

THANK YOU MACIEK FOR DETAILING ZULIP SO MORE MEMBERS CAN USE IT WELL!

SY QUE VENDRA 🇺🇸 Olena & Maciek – Outbound 46’

by EDITOR