Juneau's humpback whales are beloved by visitors and locals alike. But scientists say there's a lot we don’t know about their health. Increased monitoring could help researchers understand how tourism, climate change, entanglements and ship strikes put pressure on resident humpback whales.
“We are about double the size of some of the other busy whale watching ports worldwide,” said Heidi Pearson, a professor of marine biology at the University of Alaska Southeast. “And it’s because of the cruise ship industry.”
But the population of humpbacks remains relatively small. Pearson says there are usually fewer than a dozen feeding in the area at any given time. All those tour boats could stress them out. The project proposed budget is $160,000 to sustain regular blubber sampling and photographic surveys and to hire an additional researcher to analyze the data.
Pierce says that whale monitoring makes sense, because whale watching is one of the city’s most popular and lucrative tourist attractions, bringing in at least $60 million dollars annually. But she also says that Juneau’s whales are more than just money-makers.
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