Allied reetings from all of us at Allied Much of the excitement of the year Whale. The past year has been an excit- focuses directly on Steve Katona's accom- ing one for our organization. Members of plishments, including the publication of Whale the finback project mastered procedures the new edition of his field guide and his for sexing finbacks using the biopsy sam- new position as president of College of ples gathered during the past three years. the Atlantic (COA). Turn to the next page Staff of the North Atlantic Humpback Cat- to read his letter to you. alogue traveled to the Dominican Repub- In addition to the usual field notes lic and Newfoundland to participate in the contained in the Fall/Winter newsletter, News final field season of YONAH (Years of the this issue contains the Mount Desert North Atlantic Humpback). The hump- Rock Report as its centerpiece. In the back crew is now feverishly matching pho- past, the Rock Report has been sent out tographs to see what all the YONAH separately to volunteers and others who effort and data have to tell us. have directly supported our research Allied Whale staff responded to strand- efforts on the Rock. We felt that you ings of a sperm whale and a True's would also enjoy learning of our work on Beaked Whale this summer. True's the Rock. Let us know what you think of Beaked Whales are extremely rare, SO this this new format. stranding was of particular interest. Unusual strandings keep Allied Whale busy On August 6, Steve Katona and Jim the carcass, the researchers had "Howdie" Houghton responded to a attached a one-gallon plastic milk jug report of a dead fin whale floating about containing a note requesting anyone 20 miles offshore from Mt. Desert Island. Using COA's new 19-foot boat, the R/V FIELD NOTES Laughing Gull, they found the 35-foot WINTER 93/94 carcass, surrounded by hundreds of Wil- Reports from Allied Whale son's storm petrels busily eating the oil researchers on the 1993 field season droplets given off by the carcass. Dead for some weeks, the glistening white car- finding the carcass to contact COA. No cass had lost all its skin and was difficult sightings or reports of the carcass have to identify until the researchers noticed subsequently been received. the narrow, large- On August 27, the Allied Whale toothed lower office was notified jaw hanging that a medium- down into the sized whale had water. It was a stranded alive on INSIDE: sperm whale! Curtis Island, in Closer inspection Camden Harbor, revealed that the but died shortly FIELD NOTES animal was male, thereafter. Visit- and that thick ing investigator page one monofilament Alan Reitsch trav- line used in long- elled to Camden LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR page two line fishing was and was surprised wound tightly to find one of the ART SHOW around the jaw. world's rarest page six We presume that whales, a beaked the entanglement whale. The fol- A WHALE OF A DEAL caused its death. lowing day, Dan Planned attempts DenDanto and page seven to retrieve the Ann Zoidis orga- carcass were nized an expedi- foiled by several tion to retrieve the days of fog. The cause of death of this rare True's carcass, a 13'8" Before leaving beaked whale is still unknown. Continued on page 3 Letter from the director Allied Whale News Investigations on ly published by Smithsonian Institu- whales and other WINTER 93/94 tion Press also had marine mammals its origin in the first have been important years of the work- at College of the Atlantic (COA) since shop. New projects were also added, the first students matriculated here in including the Fin- back Whale Cata- 1972. Concerned that whales would logue, Antarctic become extinct from Humpback Whale Catalogue and oth- over-hunting, litera- ers; and new tech- ture professor Sam Eliot, I, and ten stu- niques were incor- dents formed an porated, including DNA biopsy sam- inter-disciplinary pling and Geograph- workshop named Published by "Humans and the ic Information Sys- items. In addition to Adopt-A-Finback-Whale Great Whales" to ana- Allied Whale lyze the history and Steve Katona contemplates the world teaching courses in possible future of rela- from Mt. Desert Rock. the biological sci- College of the Atlantic ences within the 105 Eden Street tionships between our species and theirs. Students renamed COA curriculum, I have been privileged to Bar Harbor, ME 04609 the workshop "Allied Whale", and its work work with an extraordinary group of stu- 207-288-5644 has continued to this day. We have dents, alumni and friends while sharing the retained the collaborative nature of the excitement of these endeavors for the past Dr. Steven K. Katona, original workshop and several early pro- 21 years. Editor-in-Chief Nancy Stevick jects are still ongoing, including the Mount When COA president Lou Rabineau Desert Rock Whale and Seabird Research announced last spring that he planned to Managing Editor Contributors Station and North Atlantic Humpback retire, I decided to throw my hat in the Whale Catalogue. The Field Guide to ring as a candidate. After a 5-month Tim Cole Dan DenDanto Whales, Porpoises, and Seals from Cape nationwide search involving 140 candi- Tom Fernald Cod to Newfoundland (4th edition) recent- Continued on page five Stephanie Martin Megan McOsker GENDER BY GENETICS: Alan Reitsch Ann Zoidis Determining the Sex of Fin Whales Coordinator, Adopt-a-Finback-Whale Allied Whale staff Jen Rock and Dan sue into tiny bits and then subjecting it Dan DenDanto DenDanto, under the direction of Dr. to consecutive enzyme digestion. The Production Charles Sidman and Dr. Steve Katona enzyme used in these extractions, Pro- Z Studio completed DNA extractions and deter- teinase K, attacks and destroys cellular material, but leaves DNA intact. The mined gender for forty-five individual fin whales at the Mount Desert Island result, a dark, viscous soup of cellular material and DNA was refined to iso- Biological Laboratory in Salisbury Cove, Maine. The biopsy samples on which late the pure DNA. their experiments were conducted Gender of each sample was deter- were collected over a three-year period mined using Polymerase Chain Reac- from 1991 to 1993. The results of their tion or PCR. In these experiments, a research were presented at the Tenth small segment of the DNA for all the Printed in Maine on recycled paper Biennial Conference on the Biology of samples was replicated or amplified Marine Mammals in Galveston, Texas using PCR. The segment of DNA cho- this fall. sen for amplification was a fragment DNA was extracted from the skin found only in the DNA of males. The biopsies by first physically dicing the tis- Continued on page six 2