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Berardius bairdii Stejneger, 1883

Ltd. Gaibou Hogei

550887-550910 Berardius bairdii 85-08 to 85-34 Flensing sequence at Wadaura – flukes and dorsal fin off 1. Dorsal blubber 2. Lateral blubber 3. Ventral bluber 4. Top expaxial muscle 5. Lareal mass: ribs (topside), viscera, top hypaxial muscle 6. Sternum and abdominal muscle 7. Bottom hypaxial muscle 8. Remainder of muscle and axial skeleton (bottom ribs and vertebral column) Separated from bottom blubber and turned over 9. Ribs, vertebral column separated from bottom epaxial muscle 10. Ribs separated from vertebral column 11. Bottom blubber piece cut into small pieces with head attached, starting from posterior end. 12. Lower jaw separated from skull Tuesday 23 July 1985 Twiss called RLB this morning and talked to me about various matters. I told him I had trouble with the Endangered Species Working Groups schedule because of lack of research material over here. He agreedd to moved it ahead by 10 weeks. Kasuya showed up at 10:00 – we discussed taking out big mount- out boxes on the train and decided it was impractical. Kasuya arranged from the hotel to ship them to the inn at Wadaura. We then took the Hibiya line to Ginza and transferred to another line to Tokyo Station, then took JNR (Japanese National Railways) train – express limited to Kamogawa. Transferred to a local train (destination Chiba City) to get to Wadaura. Left Tokyo at 11:00, arrived Wadaura at 14:00 – cost ¥3,500. Went to the inn (Choukichi Minshuku) and checked in, then to the whaling station office. Two whales were in and a third one was expected shortly. Wandered down to the wharf and saw the whales. Went back to the Inn, had a good meal and turned in at 21:00. Wednesday 24 July 1985 Got up at 04:30, they were due to take the first whale up at 05:00. Actually got it up at 05:30. It was a 1035 cm male. Berardius seems to have the genital slit and the anal slit confluent in males, mammary slits present in males, so that makes sexing them at a glance suspect. I was also impressed by the extreme depth of the caudal peduncle – they seem to have a “keel”, though not as pronounced as it is in Stenella longirostris, more like Globicephala macrorhyncha. Spent the day trying to get by with the things that were in the big mount-out boxes. WAW spent the bulk of his time doing the stomachs. I assisted him and watched out for the skulls – collected all three. Brownell collected some cyamids and helped roughing out the skulls. The station owner, Shoji, was extremely cooperative as was the head flenser, Abe. Shoji had ordered a raft of 25 kg bags on salt. He gave up permission to use a big tank that they used for storing sperm whale blubber, to salt the skulls down. Kasuya says that this station sells the meat to various local dealers who salt it and dry it. They also sell the blubber to one dealer who freezes it for human consumption. There is a rendering plant that disposes of the bones, meat trimmings and viscera for nothing. They process the testes only for human consumption. At the current market prices, the average Berardius is worth ¥4,000,000 ($17,000); ¥3,500,000 ($14,900) being 3.5 metric tons of meat. Two whale are due tomorrow. Thursday 25 July 1985 Down to the slip at 05:00 – the first whale up (10) was a large female. Decided to collect the complete skeleton on it. Had some trouble keeping track of the pieces because not everybody knew we were saving them. Got 90% of it collected and then discovered that there was a harpoon in the underside of the skull. Aborted the collection attempt. The station fiddled around until about 11:00 before bringing up the second whale. It seem that the price that the meat fetches perks at about 18 hours post mortem then gradually declines so there is a disadvantage to processing extremely fresh whales. Two boats out of three were out today and both got whales. The third boat is having some work done on the gun platform. It seems that the recoil has loosed the mounts. Tried to use the Hasselblad today and the body was jammed. Am going to try to manufacture a screwdriver tomorrow to repair it. Friday 26 July 1985 Down to the station at 05:00 to sketch map it. Went back to the inn at 07:00 for breakfast. Pulled the first whale up at 09:20 (12). Collected the skull on it. Pulled up #13 at 11:30. It was too small to make saving the skull worthwhile. Finished up at 15:00. Shoji gave us a chunk of fresh steak for dinner off 12. Boats in today. Saturday 27 July 1985 Boats did not go out today because typhoon 7 has made it too rough to work. Opened an accout at the local bank today. They have a “magic money card” machine which will dispense cash as soon as: 1. We get the cards (~1 week) and 2. As soon as the traveler's checks clear. It seem that there is no way to convert currency outside of Tokyo. Went to a restaurant about ½ mile south of the whaling station, which is said to be the only one in town [it was not]. Has roast pork (excellent) and Asahi draft beer (from a keg, also excellent). Spent the rest of the day idly. Kasuya's wife and his younger daughter showed up. Sunday 28 July 1985 Boats out hunting today. One whale in port at 09:30 – maybe others will come later. Took the train up to Kamogawa and visited Teruo Tobayama at Kamogawa Sea World. Quite a place – good restaurant, hotel, big swimming pools, etc. They had several shallow, indoor tanks that were backed by miniature dioramas of the Japanese coast. They had two moderately large Mola mola's, which they took as50-70 cm juveniles about three years ago. They keep them inside a clear vinyl sheet “bumper” to prevent them from knocking their brains out on the glass. They had a couple of belugas in very nice condition, three Neophoca, bunch of Tursiops, Lagenorhynchus obliquidens and one Delphinus delphis. Mrs. Nishiwaki showed up and we spent some time talking to her. Caught the 16:04 train back to Wadaura. Dinner at Shoji's tonight. Monday 29 July 1985 Two whales today, both males, one immature, the other one harpooned in the head. Started flensing at 04:00, finished around 10:30. I spent most of the time in “my office”, as we have come to call the sperm whale tank where the skulls are. Problem with maggots and I had to re-rough out the skulls. Two whales in port this evening. One of them came in early and so we will start flensing at 04:00. Tuesday 30 July 1985 Up at 03:30, down to the slip at 04:00. Did numbers 16 and 17, both sexually mature females, both lactating, both harpooned in the head. The first one was reportedly in the company of a 7-8m calf. Talked to Shoji about our problems with salting the skulls. We had been just liberally applying salt to the skulls. Shoji suggested that we bury them in it. We had a ½ metric ton of salt (20 or 25 kg. bags). We applied that to the five skulls and jaws in a square tank that was approximately 3m x 2m x 1.5m and did not manage to cover them. We decided that we needed an additional ton. The first lot cost ¥1,500/bag or a total of ¥30,000 ($120). We engaged Shoji to get us more salt and to try to get a cheaper grade this time. I had been thinking about rock salt and the bags looked like table salt. Wednesday 31 July 1985 Got up at 04:15 and got to the slip at 05:00. The first animal was an adult male. Processed him slowly and then hauled up the animal that had been reported as a calf. Turned out to be a 7.9m male. The gunner apologized for taking it because it counts against the quota just as though it were an adult. The animal was said to be swimming toward the boat. The single cold harpoon entered the back about 50 cm posterior to the blowhole and was oriented like so: A larger animal was said to be in the company of this one. It had what appeared to be about 2-3 liters of ivory-colored liquid in its stomach (milk? Stomach was cut in flensing) and traces of otoliths and eye lenses. WAW says the otoliths are a type that has never been seen in adults. Collected the head for Heyning. The other boats only got one whale today. The speculation is that schools have begun to recognized the boats and avoid them. They report seeing a lot of whales but they are spooky. Thursday 1 August 1985 Up at 04:30, down to the slip at 05:00. Did #20, a 978 cm immature female. Finished with it and proceeded to bury the five skulls that I have taken in another 1200 kg. of salt. This salt was a bit coarser and of a slightly yellowish tint. Came in 30 kg. sacs. The additional salt barely covered the skulls and all but the back end of one of the jaws. Made a decision not to collect any more skulls or skeletons in order to avoid compromising the chance of success of those that I already have in hand. Went to the bank and tried out my new magic money card. Had lunch at the restaurant by the train station and saw Kasuya off on the 13:00 train. Went back to the hotel to call Bannister who agreed to serve as chairman of the nominating committee. I told him that Kasuya had agreed to serve and that the third member was up to him. Kicked around for the rest of the day. Did budget and may make it. Friday 2 August 1985 Down to the station at 04:00 – two whales today. Catchers went out at 05:00 hours. #21 had broken rostrum – looked like it had been bent up, then broken off. WAW found a ball of heavy fishing line, with at least 2 hooks (about 0000 size), about 15 cm. in diameter, in one of the pyloric compartments. Also found a single kernel of corn in the stomachs. Dissection of stomach of 85-22 WAW and I roughed out the stomach of #20 and we got the impression that there were 8 small pyloric compartments in it. The communication between compartments is by way of sphincters. Three whales tomorrow. Discovered that when they separate the jaws from the head, they put considerable force to abduct the jaws. The maximum separation that they can achieve, without cutting, is about 30 cm at the tip of the jaws. The force applied ~ 500-1000 lbs. Saturday 3 August 1985 Down to the slip at 05:00 – brought a hatchet yesterday to sample epiphyses with. Turned out that the first two whales had fused epiphyses. We were worried about the technique and our ability to recognize epiphyseal condition in Berardius. Fortunately the third animal was immature. It seems that Berardius may achieve physical maturity relatively early in life. Developed a technique to take the teeth out with a combination of the hatchet and my knife. This was the first day tha I felt we had a system for getting data. RLB is in charge of the ectoparasites and reproductive organs. WAW is responsible for the endoparasite examination and the stomach contents. I am responsible for the external measurements (initially with WAW recording and somebody holding the end of the tape), epiphyses, teeth, sundry internal morphometrics. We collaborated on a lot of thing where a second pair of hands is valuable (WAW and I spirit the stomach away, RLB and I take out the brain, etc.). WAW has been going through has been trying to collect the ectoparasites off one side. He sometimes does not collect all the Conchoderma. Nobody has done anything with the fresh Isistius wounds. We hope that some of that data will be retrievable from photographs. Same for sundry conspecific scars and Orcinus scars. Catcher #31 came in with a whale about 15:00. Katsamaru has gone to Taiji. Take that back – RLB has just come back and said that the Katsamaru got a whale at 08:00 this morning. Tomorrow is another three whale day. There was a feeling that the catch area had shifted and that we were taking from a different group of whales – WAW found several new types of otoliths and two of the whales had numerous juvenile (really small) barnacle on their teeth. Somebody should look at the sexuality of scarring, particularly in regard to dermal scarring, particularly scars on the rostrum. Sunday 4 August 1985 Down to the slip at 05:00 – last 3 whale day. All of the animals appeared emaciated. That appearance seems to have been given by dorsal muscle wastage, giving them a “caved in” look. Shoji was disappointed with the low meat yield (1.7 tons on #26, 2.2 tons on one of the others – normal is 3.5 tons). RLB and I took vertebral counts today and tried measuring CBL was a tape using condyle to eye, eye to rostrum. We exactly duplicated the results (i.e. he and I got the same figure). #28 was the first animal that we have noticed Isistius scars in the process of healing. The other animal have all had extremely fresh or completely healed scars. Have started measuring maximum gape when they separate the skull and jaws. Two whales tomorrow at 06:00. In counting the caudal vertebrae I assumed that the end (terminal) vertebrae, which was shaped like this: Represented fusion of two vertebral bodies and scored it as two in the counts. Rough approximation of the orientation of connective tissue sheets as you pass from the blubber to the muscle. The 1st layer strongly adheres to the blubber, the 2nd layer adheres to the 1st layer and, to a lesser extent the 3rd layer. As far as I can tell, the 3rd layer follows the muscle fiber orientations. Fish hooks WAW remembers two loose fish hooks found free in the stomach of the two previous whales, which were not noted. Also, one of the first three whales had the same kind of hook loose in its rectum with the line protruding from its anus (photo). Monday 5 August 1985 Down to the slip at 06:00. The two whales for today were both physically mature males. Our “office” has been largely taken over by the offal of yesterday's whales. It seems the rendering plant was closed yesterday. Today we got a taste of rainy weather. It was raining so hard at 09:00, when they brought the second whale up, that I did not photograph it. WAW found a bunch of substantial squid beaks (LRL ~ 1 cm) in one whale. The weather cleared up in the afternoon. Could have been a part of typhoon #8 that we experienced this morning. #21 was in with one whale about noon. We finished up at the slip about noon. Last we heard there was one whale that was taken at 08:00 by #31, so we are due at the slip at 04:00 to get an early start on it. The town has considerable to say over the hours that the station is allowed to operate. Tuesday 6 August 1985 Down to the slip at 04:00 – hauled up #31 and were on the way back to the minshuku at 08:00. #31 was a 950 cm male, which was the shortest mature male that we have had – 2 at 930 cm were immature. The anterior teeth were extremely difficult to remove, as opposed to #29, 30. In males the teeth continue to erupt by the alveoli filling in and becoming shallower. This animal also had an Isistius wound on the top of the head which had begun to heal (photo). I last my cord for the Vivitar flash so I can't use the Hasselblad for flash photos. Just discovered that the shutter on the Hasselblad is not opening. RLB and I have been trimming the soft tissue of the end of rostrum in order to take a CBL. We agreed (back at the hotel) that it averages about 3 cm (>2, <4). Shall have to measure it. Thinking about the discovery that the terminal caudal do not reach the end of the tail in Berardius: I should measure it on other ziphiids and in the Dugon in alcohol in the USNM (& manatees). Wednesday 7 August 1985 Down to the slip at 05:00. A 950 cm and a 962 cm males. Note about the lengh in the second male – sometimes the lengths are taken by Abe – when his length is obviously off by 20 or 30 cm, as it has been, we read the tape and put down a different length anyway. I would have put this down as a 955 cm animal, but since Abe had his finger on the 960 , I called out 960 to the recorder. Shoji was there and Abe put up a fuss and said it should be 962 cm. The 950 cm (#32) had a wound, which looked for all the world like an Isistius wound that was just starting to heal, midwat back on the left lip line. The wound covered both the upper and lower jaws. It looked like an Isistius bite in on the lip. The animal also had a vestigial fluke notch (photo). There was 14 cm of tissue between the notch and the terminal vertebrae and there was only 15.5 cm of tissue in #33, which had no vestigial notch. This means that the posterior margin of the flukes had to be placed more posteriorly in #32. The secondary tooth (small one) on the left side of #33 had been lost due to abcess. There was a pocket of abcess along the lateral surface of the left primary tooth, occupying about half it's imbedded surface area. There was also a circular abcess about 3 cm in diameter on the very base of the tooth. Pulled both teeth on the right and found no abcess on the primary but a very old abcess (no pus) around the base of the secondary tooth – this made it an easy job to remove. #33 had “foreign” items in its stomach consisting of a potato and a piece of plastic. I sectioned the potato and it revealed a bit of a medullary structure as I think potatoes do when they have been in storage for a long time. I photographed this. It is possible that it represents another tuber, but it had to have come from ship's garbage. The plastic was a rectangular piece 17 x 15 cm. It was clear, very thin (~ 1 mil) and had a surface texture in the light that reminded me of “Saran wrap” – more garbage. A word about the “Wada Lobster Race” – a season for lobster gill nets just opened up about 4 days ago. All of the boats that want to set nets for lobster line up outside the jetty about ¼ mile. The signal to begin is given but what must be a official boat at 17:30. The boats all race off to get to the choice spots to lay their nets. There does not seem to be any rules governing the proximity of nets unless it is that a subsequent boat cannot set closer to a rocky point than the former boat, hence putting him off from the supply of lobsters. About 30 outboards and 15 medium sized inboards (25') participate in this event. They leave the nets set for 8 hours and then pick them up at 03:30. As of 18:00 there is one whale for tomorrow, which is to be pulled up at 08:00. Thursday 8 August 1985 Down to the station at 08:00 – pulled #34 partly out of the water, Abe made an incision in it and decided that the meat was too fresh – postponed the flensing until 10:00. #31 came in at 08:30 with a whale that she took at 04:00 – looks like an early day tomorrow. When they pulled #34 up, half of the meat was still black (tough). I photographed the meat situation with the Nikonos (JM 790). The line between the dark red and black meat was very well defined on the expaxial muscle mass. I had thought it would be more gradational. This appeared to be a young whale (moderate scarring, especially on the head), teeth were barely erupted but epiphyses were fused. Rooted around in my “office” to check on the salted skulls. They were satisfactory – two minor rice worm infestations. It looks like it takes 2 weeks buried in salt to cure a skull. Spoke with Kasuya today, who continues to have trouble with the CITES permits. In order to simplify matters we have pooled it into one shipment, from Tokyo to L.A.. Once it is in the states we can then split the shipment. This means that LACM is probably going to get their shipment paid for by us. WAW says the things that he has been referring to “Braunina” (which aren't) are found only in the main stomach, are not encysted, have 3 feelers. Didn't ring any bells with either RLB or myself. Word is that they're going to have #35 up at 03:30. Friday 9 August 1985 Down to the slip at 03:30 – had a bit of a problem. They tow the whales over from near where the ships tie up, with a short, heavy outboard motor boat. It is surprisingly easy to tow Berardius. As the boat entered the channel leading to the station, she ran out of fuel. At that instant she was about 100 yards from the station. BF (Brownell's friend) and AD (Ayukawa dog) were in the boat as usual. AD took his clothes off and proceeded to swim in with the rope. He got the rope ashore and all the station's personnel pulled the whale in until it grounded. AD then went back out with a cable, assisted by Abe, and hooked the whale up to the winch. Abe got his clothes back on just as the whale ran firmly aground. He had to shuck them off and supervise AD's putting of a second winch line and snatch block on the pull. With that it came ashore. Before they started working on it they also hauled the boat ashore. Next time – make a diagram of a Berardius (dorsal, lateral) in which to show the placement of the harpoon, scars, parasites, etc. We were up early enough today to see the start of the 03:30 lobster race (boat stampede0. They gather inside the harbor and at a prearranged signal (I couldn't tell what it was) they charge off. There were several free-lance skin divers (not scuba) working just outside the jetty. They dove for about 30 seconds and the spent 1-1½ minutes on the surface, and then dove again. They have full wet suits. From the produce that's vended in the shops around here they must take snails, abalones and oysters. Saturday 10 August 1985 Down to the slip at 05:00 for the last Berardius of the season. #36 was a 1065 cm male. It had a wicked injury to the base of the rostrum which left quite a scar. When we got the jaws off we could see that this scar encircled the palate. RLB looked extensively for the adrenal gland and found one of them in the tissue about 20 cm anterior to the kidneys. The thing that had kept us from finding them before was their extreme thinness and flaccidity. WAW and I examined the heart on this one and it looked like a typical Mesoplodon heart, thin and flabby. There were two “generations” of Conchoderma on the teeth – a whole bunch of little ones and a few (<5) big ones. Sunday 11 August 1985 Caught the 10:21 Limited Express to Tokyo from Kamogawa. The innkeeper drove us up in their car due to the excessive precipitation this morning. The train was abou one quarter full when it left Kamogawa but was standing room only about halfway to Tokyo. Got into the Tokyo rail station and wandered around there hoping to find the subway. That station is going to be a bear to get around in myself (I was with RLB). Made it to the Hotel Ibis and made reservations to meet Ohsumi at 16:00. Took the Hibiya subway line to Ebisu Station then took the JNR train to Shinjuku. Ohsumi and his wife took us to a lovely dinner at a very palatial (and expensive) Japanese restaurant near the Tokyo Women's University called the Chinzan-so. Back to the hotel early.

Date

23 Jul 1985

Medium

1010 cm

Department

NMNHMAMMALS

Institution

NMNH - Vertebrate Zoology - Mammals Division

Object number

nmnhvz_7022015