Whale Research in the BVI

There are few creatures that capture our imagination and hearts as much as whales and dolphins. The beautiful oceans that surround the BVI are world famous for their natural beauty and safe sailing, but a dedicated team of researchers are discovering that our waters are a vibrant home to migrating and breeding whales. The article just below from the Virgin Islands Daily News publication details their work and Whales sightings.

Alton Bertie, who has taken 80% of the images of our property portfolio has been working with the research team in his capacity as a conservationist and photo and videographer. Alton is a phenomenal talent and when not tracking these majestic creatures you will find him tagging turtles, teaching martial arts (he has a black belt), appearing on stage all over the world with is band of musicians or running marathons and weight training. We are so proud to share Alton’s wonderful images and if you are out sailing or island hopping keep your eyes on the sea as you might see one of these amazing creatures for yourself. They are very much here with us.

TORTOLA — A team of British Virgin Islands researchers with Beyond The Reef, a nonprofit that focuses on ocean conservation, spent some time Monday studying whale migration patterns in the territory’s waters.

Since October, the group has documented more than 100 whales and dolphins, including humpbacks and sperm whales in BVI waters and near its border with Anguilla.

Kendyl Berna, who in 2018 founded Beyond The Reef alongside Chris Juredin, told The Daily News via telephone Monday while conducting research in waters off Anegada, that they are currently in the process of a field study of cetacean — any group of whales or dolphins — to prove that the BVI is an important breeding ground and migratory path for cetacean species, such as humpback whales.

“The reason this is important is that no one has done any sort of whale field research in the BVI in 25 years, yet we’re an incredibly important place for it,” she said. “It’s just that where the whales are, they are far out, like on the back side of Anegada where we are now, which is behind Virgin Gorda, following coastlines for humpbacks and in the deeper trenches for sperm whales.”

She noted that a few days ago, “we photographed a sperm whale, and I believe it’s the first time a sperm whale has been photographed in this area. To ensure that they remain protected in the BVI, we must acknowledge that they’re here.”

According to Berna, the group’s aim is for the BVI to remain a haven for the mammals to breed. By doing the research, she said, “anyone who wants to come in years down the road and do any sort of mining operation or large-scale fishing operation, the data is really important to say the water is really important for them.”

So far, Berna said Beyond the Reef has three years of data, but the current expedition is the first time they have stayed out overnight. The group has been plying the waters since Friday, allowing researchers to go farther and into deeper waters than if it were simply a day trip. In addition to the BVI, she said, the Anguilla government has also given them a research permit.

“Whales don’t believe in any sort of country barriers, so we’re just following them along this trench in the Anegada passage,” Berna said. The group, she said, has been researching since October and have mostly seen humpbacks but have also seen a Cuveirs beach whale — the first they have seen this year — as well as several dolphin species.

Alton Bertie, one of the researchers, said that the group has seen seven sperm whales in the last three days and Berna added that they saw 25 humpbacks. Since October, they have seen a total of 109 whales to include 67 humpbacks, 23 bottlenosed dolphins, eight sperm whales and eight pan tropical dolphins.

Bertie said that the humpbacks have been seen in BVI waters. The sperm whales have been discovered closer to the BVI-Anguilla border, but that they are coming from the back side of the Anegada Horse Shoe Reef.

“A cool thing about humpback whales, is that the tail flukes have unique markings similar to human fingerprints, so our goal is to take photographs of the underside of the tail flops and upload them to the happy whales software, and that tells us if they have ever been photographed before,” Berna said. “If they were photographed, it would tell us where they were last photographed. We can use that basically to tell us who the whale is, where they were last seen and where they’re coming from.”

“What we’re finding is that most of our whales are coming from Iceland, Greenland, Norway, Newfoundland, the Artic,” she added. “They’re coming here in the winter months to have babies, breed and then they go back up.”

For Bertie, who has been taking photos of the whales, some frolicking in the waters, said the trips have been “a lot of fun” and “educational.” He said, for example, that he didn’t know of Sombero Island until two years ago“ Apparently, it was part of the BVI and then we had a dispute with Anguilla and now it’s part of Anguilla,” he said.