Apparently 7 whales, are missing and feared dead in the Puget Sound area of Vancouver. It has been called a "disaster" by a scientist at the " Center for Whale Research on San Juan Island". Now, when I first heard that I wondered how any group of researchers would admit to losing that many of something they were monitoring. So I looked in to how they do the monitoring. They listen. Apparently they stick very sophisticated microphones in the water and they listen, to the whales singing. They do not have collars with GPS or anything that outdated. They just stick a mic in the water and listen for whale songs. I suppose they get good at recognizing different tunes. Now of course, to be fair, they work approximately 60-70 days over the course of the summer. Gee that sounds like gruelling hours. In truth the population of whales just in that area has grown and shrunk over the past 10 years but has remained fairly stable. And because they have no proof, or anything to show that they just didn't "get bored and go somewhere else", they raise an alarm and declare them dead and "oh my god" it's such a horrible thing. Now, if there was GPS collars on all 7 whales and they washed up on shore stone cold dead then yes, it would be a concern. But no, there is none of that. Perhaps they should turn down the mp3's and turn up their mics in the water.
