Slick / J16 was born in 1972 and gave birth to a new baby in Puget Sound on December 17th, 2011. Slick is mother to J26 / Mike, J36 / Aiki, and J42 / Echo.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
A New Calf in J Pod!
Slick / J16 was born in 1972 and gave birth to a new baby in Puget Sound on December 17th, 2011. Slick is mother to J26 / Mike, J36 / Aiki, and J42 / Echo.
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Canada Should Cooperate on Climate Change
If Canadian representatives at the UN climate change summit in Durban, South Africa won’t commit to the Kyoto Protocol and contribute to global efforts to stop climate change, they should go home and stop impeding progress.
SIGN PETITION
SIGN PETITION
Click to tell Japan, no disaster funds for whale slaughter!
Right now, the Japanese whaling fleet is hunting thousands of majestic whales -- guarded by a 30-million-dollar security force paid from disaster relief money! Meanwhile, Japanese children are stranded in radioactive areas with no funds to move away. Join the call to save kids, not whalers!
SIGN PETITION
SIGN PETITION
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Killer Whale Salmon Diet Limiting Fishery
Experts look at killer whales salmon diet with eye on limiting the fishery
Canadian Press
A cross-border panel will determine if the salmon fishery should be limited in order to increase chances of survival for the endangered whales. Huge chinook salmon are the most prized catch on the Pacific coast for fishermen on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border, but they may soon have to share the bounty if a scientific panel links chinook and the survival of endangered southern resident killer whales. The independent, cross-border panel has recently completed the first of three workshops looking at studies connecting the abundance of chinook and the well-being of the rare killer whales. There's great interest from sport, commercial and First Nations fishermen in the recommendations because of the implications on the lucrative fishery, said panel member Andrew Trites. "Everybody is watching this very closely," said Trites, director of Marine Mammal Research at the University of B.C. Fisheries Centre.
Panel chairman Ray Hilborn said their job isn't to make a fisheries management recommendation but to evaluate the science behind an assessment that limiting the fishery will benefit the whales. The panel has about three dozen studies and reports to analyze before a decision is made at the end of 2012. Several studies have shown there's a correlation between poor survival of southern residents and low chinook abundance, Hilborn said. The professor of aquatic and fishery science at the University of Washington said both the Department of Fisheries in Canada and the Fisheries Service in the U.S. know a decision to limit the fishery will be controversial. "So if they're going to go forward with regulating these fisheries they want to be able to say, `You know it's not just our own scientists, we've had an independent panel review this stuff.'" William Stelle Jr., the regional administrator with the U.S. Department of Commerce, said in a letter issued earlier this year that if the panel recommends changes, the goal could be to implement the fisheries restrictions for the killer whale recovery plan starting as early as the 2013 salmon fishing season. Studies show that up to 90 per cent of the summer diet for the 88 southern killer whales is made of the large and fatty chinook and that a large percentage of those are returning to British Columbia's Fraser River.
Experts estimate adult orcas need up to about 290,000 calories a day. That's 10 to 34 salmon a day, depending on the size and species, or over 800,000 salmon a year. Lynne Barre, a marine biologist with the fisheries service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Washington state, said it's too soon to determine if limits would be placed on fisheries in order to protect the whales. "This is an impact we're considering," she said. "We haven't identified how or in what way a fishery would be changed in order to accommodate a need for the whales. We haven't gotten to that point." Barre, who leads the Orca recovery program in the United States, said the effort is part of an action plan to restore Washington state's Puget Sound by 2020. Plans are also in the works to keep the whales from oil spills and reduce contaminants. There's even a proposal to start tracking a whale with a satellite to see where the three pods winter. New regulations implemented this year in American waters limit the possibility of whale-vessel impacts. Limits were doubled to keep ships away from whales from 90 to 180 metres. Canadian no-go zones have been set at 100 metres. Barre said one of the most exciting proposals is an application by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to apply a small satellite tracking tag to one of the whales. Researchers are hoping the device can solve one of the biggest mysteries about where the whales travel in the winter. "It would increase our data with one deployment, to help us see how far off shore they're going, if they're staying in localized areas for extended times or if they're just transiting to and from feeding hot spots," she said. There are two different groups of resident whales off the B.C., Washington state coasts. The northern residents, which spend most of their known time in the waters off British Columbia, and the southern residents which split their time between Canadian and U.S. waters. The northern residents, with a population of about 200 whales, are similar to southern residents and have the same diet.
There are also about 500 other killer whales off the Pacific coast divided into transient and offshore groups that have a diet of mammals or sharks. Barre said helping the southern residents survive and thrive has been difficult. "It's definitely challenging because it is a trans-boundry issue because it covers a number of different types of threats, the prey, the contaminants and pollution and then vessel impact and sound." The population of the whale dipped dangerously low in the 1990s and while Barre said experts don't think it had anything to do with oil spills, they're working on a plan to keep the mammals away from potential harm. "We can use sounds, we can use these banging pipes, we can use a helicopter from the air to sort of encourage them to go in a certain direction. There's also these little underwater explosives that are generally used to keep seals and sea lions away." She said there's been plenty of concern this month about how to heard whales after several killer whales were spotted going up an Alaskan river. Three of them, including a pregnant whale, died.
Panel chairman Ray Hilborn said their job isn't to make a fisheries management recommendation but to evaluate the science behind an assessment that limiting the fishery will benefit the whales. The panel has about three dozen studies and reports to analyze before a decision is made at the end of 2012. Several studies have shown there's a correlation between poor survival of southern residents and low chinook abundance, Hilborn said. The professor of aquatic and fishery science at the University of Washington said both the Department of Fisheries in Canada and the Fisheries Service in the U.S. know a decision to limit the fishery will be controversial. "So if they're going to go forward with regulating these fisheries they want to be able to say, `You know it's not just our own scientists, we've had an independent panel review this stuff.'" William Stelle Jr., the regional administrator with the U.S. Department of Commerce, said in a letter issued earlier this year that if the panel recommends changes, the goal could be to implement the fisheries restrictions for the killer whale recovery plan starting as early as the 2013 salmon fishing season. Studies show that up to 90 per cent of the summer diet for the 88 southern killer whales is made of the large and fatty chinook and that a large percentage of those are returning to British Columbia's Fraser River.
Experts estimate adult orcas need up to about 290,000 calories a day. That's 10 to 34 salmon a day, depending on the size and species, or over 800,000 salmon a year. Lynne Barre, a marine biologist with the fisheries service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Washington state, said it's too soon to determine if limits would be placed on fisheries in order to protect the whales. "This is an impact we're considering," she said. "We haven't identified how or in what way a fishery would be changed in order to accommodate a need for the whales. We haven't gotten to that point." Barre, who leads the Orca recovery program in the United States, said the effort is part of an action plan to restore Washington state's Puget Sound by 2020. Plans are also in the works to keep the whales from oil spills and reduce contaminants. There's even a proposal to start tracking a whale with a satellite to see where the three pods winter. New regulations implemented this year in American waters limit the possibility of whale-vessel impacts. Limits were doubled to keep ships away from whales from 90 to 180 metres. Canadian no-go zones have been set at 100 metres. Barre said one of the most exciting proposals is an application by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to apply a small satellite tracking tag to one of the whales. Researchers are hoping the device can solve one of the biggest mysteries about where the whales travel in the winter. "It would increase our data with one deployment, to help us see how far off shore they're going, if they're staying in localized areas for extended times or if they're just transiting to and from feeding hot spots," she said. There are two different groups of resident whales off the B.C., Washington state coasts. The northern residents, which spend most of their known time in the waters off British Columbia, and the southern residents which split their time between Canadian and U.S. waters. The northern residents, with a population of about 200 whales, are similar to southern residents and have the same diet.
There are also about 500 other killer whales off the Pacific coast divided into transient and offshore groups that have a diet of mammals or sharks. Barre said helping the southern residents survive and thrive has been difficult. "It's definitely challenging because it is a trans-boundry issue because it covers a number of different types of threats, the prey, the contaminants and pollution and then vessel impact and sound." The population of the whale dipped dangerously low in the 1990s and while Barre said experts don't think it had anything to do with oil spills, they're working on a plan to keep the mammals away from potential harm. "We can use sounds, we can use these banging pipes, we can use a helicopter from the air to sort of encourage them to go in a certain direction. There's also these little underwater explosives that are generally used to keep seals and sea lions away." She said there's been plenty of concern this month about how to heard whales after several killer whales were spotted going up an Alaskan river. Three of them, including a pregnant whale, died.
Canadian Press
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Vote on Fish Farms
An application to site a new open net-cage salmon farm in the waters of Clayoquot Sound, in the heart of a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, is being assessed by government regulators. Use the form below to send a message loud and clear; Say no way to uncontained salmon farming in B.C. Government must deny this application and put in place a moratorium to halt any new net-cage salmon farms in the province.
VOTE
Friday, July 08, 2011
K44 - new SRKW calf
K27's new male calf K44 was spotted off San Juan Island on July 7, newest member to the Southern Resident endangered killer whale community.
Orca Network
Orca Network
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Wednesday, June 08, 2011
Happy Oceans Day!
Gooseneck Barnacles, Pollicipes ploymerus
Aggregate Anemone, Anthopleura elegantissima
Saturday, April 09, 2011
NOAA Issues Final Killer Whale Vessel Regulations
New regulations to protect killer whales in inland waters of Washington State from the effects of various vessel activities.
1. vessels must not approach any killer whale within 200 yards
2. vessels must stay out of the path of oncoming whales out to 400 yards.
Website for more information on the vessel regulations.
1. vessels must not approach any killer whale within 200 yards
2. vessels must stay out of the path of oncoming whales out to 400 yards.
Website for more information on the vessel regulations.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
J1/Ruffles
The 60 year old killer whale Ruffles/J1 was last seen on Novermber 21st, 2010. He would travel with Granny/J2 (100 years old) who has been seen several times since without Ruffles. Male longevity, typically is less than females, averaging about 29 years, some live well into their 40s and up 50-60 years of age. The average lifespan for females is about 50 years, however some may reach 80-90 years of age (Ford et. al. 2000).
King5
Ford, K.B., Ellis, G.M., Balcomb, K.C. (2000) Killer Whales: The natural History and genealogy of Orcinus orca in British Columbia and Washington. UBC Press p.22
Tuesday, February 08, 2011
Offshore Killer Whales eating Sleeper Sharks
John Ford and colleagues were observing the whales, they noticed them engaging in feeding behaviour. Immediately following this they discovered chunks of pink meat on the water’s surface which upon genetic analysis turned out to be the meat of at least 16 different Pacific sleeper sharks (Somniosus pacificus).
Link
Thursday, January 06, 2011
Social-10
The Social-10 objective is to estimate the risk and minimize the impact of human sound and military sonar. It includes suction-cup tagging, listening, and tracking of whales, dolphins, seals, and sea lions. Preliminary findings show marine mammal response varied by species, behaviour, and sound type. For example, beaked whales were more responsive than other species, like pilot whales.
Sonar's Effects on Marine Mammals - Brandon Southall
Institute of Marine Sciences - UC Santa Cruz
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