Marine Mammals - Sounds Wild
Harbor Porpoise Surveys

Audio

Download Episode: Harbor Porpoise Surveys (MP3 file 2,332 kB)

Transcript

On a summer day in 2025 a large liveaboard boat rocks in the chop of Sumner Strait west of Wrangell in Southeast Alaska. Two marine mammal biologists are at the top rail, peering through binoculars at a disturbance in the water a couple hundred yards away. It’s a school of harbor porpoise, a dozen dark grey backs rolling at the surface as they feed.  The biologists take note – they are surveying these waters for harbor porpoises, trying to estimate the abundance of these small marine mammals and learn more about the different stocks of harbor porpoise in Southeast Alaska’s Inside waters. These animals are sometimes caught in fishing nets, and researchers need to learn more about them.

In 2025, onboard vessel observers documented 60 groups of harbor porpoises in Southern Southeast Alaska.  They collected DNA samples from 22 fluke prints in the water, which will help them better understand the relatedness between different stocks of harbor porpoises in the region. Surveys in areas of northern Southeast Alaska will continue, using the liveaboard vessel and a drone launched from the deck.