Grey Whale - Ship Strikes

Preliminary findings were that the 41.5' adult male
Gray whale had good body condition and had a stomach full of food (ghost shrimp and other inverebrates from a quick glance). Evidence of bruising and internal bleeding lead biologists to believe this whale likely died from blunt force trauma, such as a large ship strike.

Cascadia Research will be providing a summary of their findings on both this whale and the whale necropsied Tuesday near Birch Bay, WA which we will post in our next whale report.

Healthy Oceans

A credible, long-term plan for any ocean region must include an increase in protected areas where specific types of industrial activity are limited. Canada has the longest coastline of any nation on Earth, and 40 per cent of our jurisdictional area is ocean, yet the federal government has set aside less than one per cent of that as marine protected areas. - Dr. David Suzuki

Healthy Oceans

Navy Submarine Sonar

This file is edited from the Navy SONAR recorded yesterday by John Boyd through the Whale Museum Lime Kiln hydrophone. The sonar had a fundamental frequency of 3.8Khz with harmonics up to 15Khz. The fundamental frequencies of killer whale calls range from 300Hz to 6 kHz. Killer whales respond to tones within the frequency range of about 0.5 to 125 kHz. Peak hearing sensitivity for killer whales is about 20 kHz and their sensitivity declines gradually above and below 20 kHz. Dr. Val Veirs of Beam Reach reported that the SONAR source level was in the range 175 dB to 225 dB re 1 microPa@1m.

Transient T44 found dead

John Ford of Canada's DFO reported the sad news that 31 year old male Transient T44 had been found dead near Port Hardy, BC. T44 and his family, the T41's have been sighted and reported regularly to Orca Network, and T44 was one of those easy to recognize whales with his large fin with a nick in it.




A couple of days ago, the MacKays were told of a sighting of a dead orca floating near Hope Island (near Port Hardy). The DFO was alerted and with the help of a Coast Guard boat, that was in the vicinity, the whale was secured. DFO was able to identify the 31 year old transient male as T44. A necropsy will be performed in the next day or so. Finding a whale, soon after death, is a very rare occurrence and presents an opportunity to gain valuable knowledge.
Helena Symonds, Orcalab