The Humpback Whale

The humpback whale is the fifth largest of the great whales.The humpback whale's Latin name, Megaptera novaeangliae, means "Big wings of New England", and refers to the 15 foot pectoral (side) fins or "flippers" which protrude from either side of the body.

Females are slightly larger than the males in the adult stage, reaching 45 and 42 feet respectively. A mature humpback whale may weigh up to a ton per foot, or nearly 40 tons (80,000 lbs) when fully mature. Calves range from 10 to 15 feet in length, and average 3,000 pounds at birth.

Yim and I have been fortunate enough to actually be in the water off Sydney, BC when one of these magnificent whales broke the surface not fifty feet from us. Mesmerizing !

The head of a humpback whale is large in proportion to its body, comprising nearly one-third the whale's entire body mass. The mouth line runs high along the entire length of the head, dropping sharply just before the eyes. The eyes are located one on either side of the head.

Each eye is about the size of a large orange, and is found just above the end of the mouth line. The eyes bulge slightly from the orbital cavity (eye socket) and are generally brown in color with a kidney-shaped pupil.

The ear of a humpback is located just behind and below the eye. The absence of an external ear flap makes it nearly impossible to detect the tiny half-inch ear slit. The nares, or blowholes, through which the whale breathes air, are located near the center of the head, and slightly further back than the eyes. There is an elevated area in front of the blowholes, called the splash guard, or blowhole crest, which prevents water from pouring into the blowholes when the whale breathes in.

A humpback whale's head is adorned with curious knobs, which are called tubercles, or sensory nodules. These golf-ball sized bumps are located on the humpback's upper and lower jaws, and along the lips. Each tubercle contains a hair follicle, with a single light gray vibrissa, usually about 0.5 inch long. The exact function of the tubercles is unknown, but it is generally believed they provide some sensory capability, perhaps through sensitivity to either vibration or temperature.

A series of prominent grooves is located along the whale's throat, stretching from the tip of the lower jaw all the way back to the navel. These ventral pleats, which may number from 12 to 30, allow the animal to expand its mouth (to nearly three times the body's normal girth!) during feeding, but yet remain relatively stream-lined while swimming about at other times.

The torpedo shape of the whale may assist in its long migrations (upwards of 7,000 mile round-trip between the summer feeding areas and the winter breeding grounds in Hawaii).

Humpbacks may occasionally swim at speeds in excess of 15 miles per hour for brief periods. This would probably not be possible if their mouth was permanently enlarged to its full extent.

Certainly worth traveling to Maui to view their migration.

St. Vincent

I was last in St. Vincent and the Grenadines in 1989 and was astounded by the black beaches. At the time, and I suppose this is still true, it was off the beaten path of most divers, so everything had the feel of being in a place for the first time.

We spent time sailing to a variety of islands aboard a 34 foot Morgan, including Bequia, Mustique and Canouaan and each place had it’s own charm.

On St. Vincent, we stayed at a small inn called Coconut Beach right across from Young Island. I recall it being a short walk to where we picked up our Morgan and set sail through a small cut in the reef off towards Bequia. It was also directly across from an odd little rock called Ft. Duvernette. You can actually walk to the top of it along a set of winding steps someone carved into the rock years ago.

Read more at Ocean's Edge >

St. Martin / St. Maarten

From 1986 - 1988, I lived off and on in St. Maarten producing the first island magazine, Discover St. Maarten, for the department of tourism. And, I began to dive seriously, since the ocean surrounded me.

My first PADI certification was with Leroy French in St. Maarten along Simpson Bay. He had a simple little dive shack at the time and on both my open water and advanced certifications, I was the only diver on the boat with him. It was a very laidback operation. I'd plunk myself down on a wooden deck with my feet up and write my exams. It was Leroy who taught me how to triangulate a position out in the ocean to re-locate a dive site.

The fact that I was working on the island helped make it easier to take my sweet time getting the certifications.

After being certified, I would drive around the island looking for people to dive with, anywhere. We (whoever I found) would drive to one of the local beaches, drag our gear to the Ocean's Edge and do entries. My favorite part was coming out of the water 45 minutes or so later to unsuspecting beach goers. That and the clothing optional beaches, of course.

There were great houses to photograph and most of the beaches were deserted much of the time.

I spent hours walking along Cupecoy Beach taking photos. I'll be adding more photos, so if you are interested, check back every now and then.

It was a good time. I spent a lot of time traveling to other islands, directing photo shoots for the magazine and scuba diving.

Some of the architecture around the island astounded me as did living in a place surrounded by beaches. I took hundreds of photos of sunsets and beaches.

Cupecoy Beach was my favorite and I loved Grand Case (below) for local culture.

The Athabasca Glacier

The Athabasca Glacier is one of the six principal toes of the Columbia Icefield, located in the Canadian Rockies.

Due to the warming climate, the glacier has receded more than 1.5 km in the past 125 years and lost over half of its volume.

The glacier moves down from the icefield at a rate of several centimetres per day. Due to its close proximity to the Icefields Parkway, between the Alberta towns of Banff and Jasper, and rather easy accessibility, it is the most visited glacier in North America.

And the drive there is spectacular.

The leading edge of the glacier is within easy walking distance; however, travel onto the glacier is not recommended unless properly equipped.

Book a hotel room in advance and we suggest staying on site at the lodge for easy access.

Fiji - The Mamanucas

Bula. We visited Fiji, specifically, the Mamanuca chain of Islands in December 2005.

The Mamanuca (pronounced Mah-mah-noo-tha) islands lie in a majestic arc, only a short distance from the mainland of Viti Levu, curving to the north-west, and almost touching the Yasawa chain.

There are 13 islands in all, not counting those covered by the Pacific at high tide and they all share in common pristine white sandy beaches, waving palms, crystal blue waters and, at night, the cooling influence of the trade winds.

The Mamanucas are essentially volcanic outcrops pushed up from the ocean floor in a gigantic earthquake thousands of years ago. From the air you can see that the Mamanucas group is in fact two clusters known as Mamanuca-i-ra and Mamanuca-i-cake. Within the Mamanucas is the Malolo group, three miles inside the barrier reef, extending in a curve for about 75 miles. As islands, they are certainly beautiful.

Find out more by visiting http://www.oceansedge.com/t16.shtml

Ocean’s Edge... where the name came from.

In January 1999, Yim and I flew to southern Belize to spend three weeks on the beach and scuba diving. By the time we left, we owned over an acre of beachfront property along the Caribbean Sea with plans to build our own small resort.

We named the property Ocean's Edge and built a small web site to book reservations. We've never given up the name even after we sold the property and are continuing to use it for evolved purposes.

The property was completely overgrown and we looked forward to returning the following year, walking the property, clearing some of it and developing plans to build our little resort.

Over the next two years, we designed beach houses, developed the landscaping plans and set about building. It became our little piece of paradise for three years. We planted 155 Palm Trees, Alamanda, Oranges, Bananas, Limes, Rubber Trees, Plantain, Hibiscus, Oleander, Orchids, Periwinkle, Bougainvillea and Birds of Paradise.

The houses were constructed to my drawings and delivered in sectional pieces, which we then constructed on site. We built it entirely from indigineous materials found in Belize, Guatemala and San Salvador.

We designed septic systems which utilized the grey water to fertilize our garden.

We developed a cistern system which caught our rain water and filtered it through multiple charcoal filters, which we kept stored in multiple 5,000 gallon tanks. We even bought the telephone pole and our own transformer and had it installed.

We built a walkway which allowed guests to walk above the sand if they chose. In short, we had some fun.

To see a bit more on the construction, visit www.stephenroper.com and go to the resort management link.

These pages feature a small tour of how we took a completely overgrown piece of property in Belize and turned it into a small profitable resort. The most rewarding thing about this project is that Yim and I built Ocean's Edge entirely on our own, with no help from anyone except those we hired to do work we designed.

The Sooke Potholes, Vancouver Island

For a day of fun splashing around in the water, the Sooke Potholes is a set of naturally formed pools and unique rock formations carved into the sandstone bedrock along the Sooke River about an hour outside of Victoria. The water in the potholes has a beautiful aqua-green colour and cascades through sets of waterfalls into deep clear pools offering an excellent choice of swimming holes.

It is a wonderful day trip if you happen to be in Victoria on a hot weekend.

This part of the Sooke River is considered very sacred by the T'Sou'ke First Nation - the area's native community.

The pools and swimming areas that are available for you span a length of 5 km (3 miles) or so. The potholes start at the Sooke Potholes Provincial Park located at the end of Sooke River Road and stop at Leechtown, situated at the end of the Galloping Goose Regional Trail... so if you are up to it, you can ride your bike.

Yim and I had a very nice day trip here, hiking along the shores and down to the water's edge and jumping into the cold but refreshing water.

Ucluelet, British Columbia. Life on the Edge.

The only Highway to Ucluelet is Highway 4, that starts at Parksville, travels through Port Alberni and on to Ucluelet and Tofino, 140km (86.6 miles) away. From Port Alberni, the Pacific Rim Highway (Highway 4) leads west through the rugged mountain scenery of the Mackenzie Range, past the rushing waters of Kennedy River and the shores of Kennedy Lake, to the west coast of Vancouver Island.

At the edge where land meets the Pacific Ocean lies Ucluelet.

Ucluelet, population 1,753, is surrounded by the spectacular beauty of Canada's temperate rainforest and the Pacific Ocean. Some of British Columbia's largest inventories of red cedar stand adjacent to the town. They enjoy a fairly temperate climate with year-round temperature ranges from 5ºC to 20º C. Snowfall is minimal, and the town have roughly 328 frost-free days and 1800 hours of sunshine a year.

The Nuu-Chah-Nulth people have long used the word U-clue-let, meaning "safe harbour" and it is indeed an apt description for a village that offers both a sheltered inner harbour and magnificent vistas of the open Pacific Ocean within easy walking distance. From the sheltered inner harbour, watch the bustle of the fishing and charter vessels, spot the ever present bald eagles as they soar overhead, and keep an eye out for the Sea lions, harbour seals and river otters and even occasional Orcas We saw three on our trip all of which were speedier than my ability to get my camera.

The rocky shoreline of the open Pacific offers spectacular view and breathtaking winter storm watching.

There are numerous signs with information about where you can hike, stroll the beach and camp. For a good overview of the Pacific Rim National Park, visit the Wickaninnish Centre, towards Tofino, an interpretive centre with theatre programs, exhibits, displays and activities helping visitors to understand the marine ecology, ocean and rainforests.

Visitors from around the world come here for the excellent fishing, whale watching, scuba diving, nature cruises, beachcombing, kayaking, wilderness hiking and the pristine nature.

The Ucluelet Wild Pacific Trail (entrance photo above) takes you into a coastal old growth forest walk. Don't miss this. It is well worth the hike.

In addition, every spring, over 20,000 gray whales move through these waters on their annual migration from Baja California and Mexico to the Bering Sea. There are locations in the Park for whale watching, or you can take a whale watching tour. We watched the Grey Whales migrate through this year and it was a wonderful day out on the water.

During the winter months, you can see nature at its wildest during storm watching season. Eight-meter waves, thundering surf, and ocean spray whipped into a foaming frenzy provide nature's ultimate natural theatrics. Watch the storms from safe, designated viewpoints outdoors or from the comfort of an ocean view inn.

Places we recommend to stay; The Cabins at Terrace Beach or The Terrace Beach Resort.

A little bit about Whale Sharks

The whale shark is the largest living shark. It is one of the three filter-feeding species of shark, with a broad, flattened head and minute teeth. It also has a distinctive patterning of light spots and stripes over a dark background, fading to a light colour on the underside. This natural camouflage allows it to ‘blend’ into its surroundings when viewed from any angle.

Whale sharks are found in all tropical and warm temperate seas except the Mediterranean, with a range typically between latitudes 30°N and 35°S. They are known to inhabit both deep and shallow coastal waters and the lagoons of coral atolls and reefs, frequently in surface sea-water between 21 and 25°C.

The whale shark is a filter-feeder. It is believed to sieve zooplankton as small as 1mm in diameter through the fine mesh of their gill-rakers. However, unlike the megamouth and basking sharks, the whale shark does not rely on forward motion but can hang vertically in the water and ‘suck’ food.

They regularly visit Gladden Spit in Belize from February to May.

After feeding on cubera and dog snapper spawn at Gladden Spit, several miles north of The Silk Cayes, it was found that sharks dispersed throughout the Belize Barrier Reef with directed movements of over 550 km recorded to the tip of the Yucatan Peninsula and east of the Bay Islands in Honduras.

Rachel Graham, who was studying the whale shark in Belize writes that the "patterns of whale shark movement and feeding behaviour indicated that the marine reserve boundaries encompassed the main spawning aggregation and whale shark feeding zones."

"Increased visitor and boat numbers to the marine reserve coincided with alterations in the spawning behaviour of aggregating snappers and consequently the visitation of whale sharks at Gladden Spit. Strong management directives and enforcement are needed at the marine reserve to check unregulated growth of tourism and thus minimize its impacts on the fish spawning aggregations and visiting whale sharks."

She is entirely right.

During my years of leading groups to Gladden Spit, there were occasions where there were so many boats in the area diving and fishing at the same time that there was a real danger to visitors being snagged by a fishing line or simply getting confused and losing their dive group.

I have been there and counted 32 dive and fishing boats in the area, which is less than a couple of square miles. Local dive shops play politics with who will get to manage the reserve and then certain operators enjoy opportunities iother may not have acccess to.

The efforts of people like Rachel Graham will be the deciding point for places like Gladden Spit.

Ranguana Caye, Belize

Diving off the barrier reef of Belize for close to four years is enough to spoil most anyone and Belize is one beautiful place to spend your days diving.

The reefs are still pristine and in places like my personal favorite, Seal Caye, at the bottom of the Sapodilla Cayes, is almost unbelievable. If you anchor carefully, you can set your anchor in 8 feet of sand at the front of your boat and 80 feet at the stern, then slide off along one of the most beautiful walls you can imagine. And easy to dive. You can do a number of different profile dives here and end the dive in ten to fifteen feet of crystal clear water before surfacing.

The diving here is truly world class. You can head down to 80 plus feet if you want but from my experience diving this many times, I found the best marine life and coral above 65 feet, frequented by Eagle Rays who flew past just off to your left if you are travleing clockwise around the reef. For more information on where the best divng is in Belize, contact us here at Ocean's Edge Belize and we'll glady give you a free guide to the best guides and places to dive in the country.

There are tube sponges as tall as a full grown man along the walls here. So, if you are in southern Belize, check this spot out.

Off Ranguana Caye, top center photo and top photo on the right, towards the south, there is a difficult to find site called The White Hole. If you leave the island from the southern side and head towards the reef about five miles away, you will find three breaks in the reef and three sandy ravines which lead to the wall.

It’s very hard to find and I suggest you find Arthur Westby in the village and have him show you where it is. Arthur was my divemaster and friend for the years I dove in Belize and he’ll show you the spot.

It features a large canyon of gleaming white sand at 45 feet which runs down to a large opening and a lip which surrounds the sand as it settles at the top of the wall. As you swim to this lip at 55 feet and peer over, there is virtually no bottom. I brought many advanced divers that I was certifying there so they could experience the wonder of a true barrier reef wall dive.

Moving along the wall at 55 feet is a magical drift dive as you travel beside the wall on your left and the coral on your right.

To the north of Ranguana lays a garden of spur and groove formations just west of the wall that you can easily spend dozens of dives exploring. In between the grooves are home to resting Nurse Sharks and a wide variety of marine life too varied to list. Worth several dives.

Coral

Coral reefs are some of the most complex and colorful tropical ecosystems, rivaling rain forests in their richness of life. Coral reef organisms build massive & intricate physical structures that are home to some of the most fascinating plants and animals in the world. Their extraordinary beauty captivates visitors and their productivity provides a wealth of resources for local communities and the world.

Coral reefs are massive structures made of limestone that is deposited by living things. Although thousands of species inhabit coral reefs, only a fraction produce the limestone that builds the reef.

The most important reef building organisms are corals.

Coral reefs support over twenty-five percent of all known marine species. As one of the most complex ecosystems on the planet, coral reefs are home to over 4,000 different species of fish, 700 species of coral and thousands of other plants and animals. A good way to imagine a coral reef is to think of it as a bustling city or community, with the buildings made of coral, and thousands of inhabitants coming and going, carrying out their business.

In this sense, a coral reef is like a busy city under the sea.

Read more by visiting http://www.oceansedge.com/coralreefs.shtml

Half the world's coral reefs could be gone in 40 years!

I try and keep these stories mostly light but every now and then something comes along that I am reminded of the almost crushing need to remind everyone I can that the CORAL REEFS ARE DYING AND WE NEED TO PROTECT THEM!

Tue Oct 25,10:10 AM ET, 2006
BANGKOK, Thailand

Nearly half of the world's coral reefs may be lost in the next 40 years unless urgent measures are taken to protect them against the threat of climate change, according to a new report released Tuesday by the World Conservation Union.

The Swiss-based organization called for the establishment of additional marine protected areas to prevent further degradation by making corals more robust and helping them resist bleaching.

"Twenty percent of the earth's coral reefs, arguably the richest of all marine ecosystems, have been effectively destroyed today," said Carl Gustaf Lundin, head of the agency's marine environment program who helped write the report "Coral Reef Resilience and Resistance to Bleaching."

"Another 30 percent will become seriously depleted if no action is taken within the next 20-40 years, with climate change being a major factor for their loss," he said in a statement.

Coral bleaching is caused by increased surface temperatures in the high seas and higher levels of sunlight caused by climate change. As temperatures rise, the algae on which corals depend for food and color die out, causing the coral to whiten, or "bleach."

Prolonged bleaching conditions over ten weeks can eventually lead to the death of the coral. "Current predictions are that massive coral bleaching will become a regular event over the next 50 years," Lundin said.

In its report, the organization said that marine parks reduce the stress on coral reef ecosystems by reducing the impact of pollution and overfishing.

The report also recommends a strategy for the establishment of a global marine park network in the face of climate change, covering all important marine ecosystems including coral reefs.

Other key strategies to enable coral reefs to be more resilient to bleaching are sustainable fisheries management and integrated coastal management, the report found. "Destructive fishing practices such as blast or poison fishing can make coral reef more vulnerable to bleaching," said The Nature Conservancy's Rod Salm in a statement. "It can decrease coral cover or deplete fish populations that are important for the coral reef ecosystem."

FOR MORE INFO, visit http://www.iucn.org/

Loggerhead Turtles

Population 60,000+ nesting females.

Loggerheads are highly migratory and particularly vulnerable to accidental capture in the nets and long-lines of the world's fisheries. Although Turtle Excluder Devices (TED), fitted into shrimp nets in some countries have lessened the threat, the use of these devices is not yet mandatory everywhere. Longline bycatch trials are also being conducted in several places across the world, but will they be in time to halt the decline?

I have had the pleasure of spending a fair amount of time with Loggerhead Turtles off the coast of Belize from 1999 - 2003. At certain times of the year, they were fairly present along the outer edge of the barrier reef.

On several occasions, I could watch them rising from the depths along the edge of the reef until they were quite literally right beside me. On more than one occasion, they would spot a crab nearby and make a meal of one, seemingly oblivious to my presence. One I saw so often that I named him Seven Barnacles for the seven large barnacles he carried with him.

To view the photo, visit http://www.oceansedge.com/loggerheads.shtml

On more than one occasion, I attempted to swim alongside them until they seemed to realize I was there and with a few powerful fin sweeps, would leave me breathing far too heavy for 60 feet under the water.

On one particular dive, it became quite apparent how poor their visibility was when one large Loggerhead swam straight towards myself and a student until it was literally so close that I had to reach out and place my two arms on the shell and push it away for fear that it was simply going to swim directly into the student I was teaching.

The loggerhead turtle has a rusty coloured carapace. It is one of the largest cheloniid turtles, and carries more encrusting organisms such as barnacles on its carapace (shell) than the other marine turtles species. This species is distinguished mainly by its large head and strong jaws.

As with leatherbacks, loggerheads are highly migratory, making some of the longest journeys known of all marine turtle species. The possibility that juvenile loggerheads cross the Pacific Ocean has been corroborated by studies showing Baja Californian loggerheads have a genetic affinity with those found in Japan, and recently the first trans-Pacific migration of a loggerhead was recorded with a satellite transmitter. It is thought that an ability to detect wave direction and the Earth's magnetic field enables this species to navigate across open oceans.

On average, the loggerhead has a 92 cm long carapace (shell). Adults weigh about 115kg.

Nesting Range States: Angola, Australia, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Belize, Brazil, Cape Verde, Cayman Islands, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Cyprus, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Greece, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Libya, Madagascar, Mexico, Montserrat, Morocco, Mozambique, , Namibia, New Caledonia, Nicaragua, Oman, Panama, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Senegal, South Africa, Sri Lanka, St Lucia, Turkey, Turks and Caicos Islands, USA, Venezuela, British Virgin Islands.

Why is this species important?

Marine turtles fulfill important roles in marine ecosystems. Loggerhead turtles eat many types of invertebrates, in particular molluscs and crustaceans, and can change the seabed by "mining" the sediments for their favourite prey. Also, loggerhead turtles carry veritable animal and plant cities on their shell. You can see from my photos just why I named one of these turtles Seven Barnacles. As many as 100 species of animals and plants have been recorded living on one single loggerhead turtle. These animals and plants depend on turtles to have somewhere to live and to prosper.

The future for many of these species is intimately linked to our care of the oceans