Where did the Orca Go? Humpbacks and Porpoise Abound

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REGIONAL

Cracroft Point’s handheld video camera is operated by OrcaLab volunteer Megan Hockin-Bennett. Megan has a wonderful ability to follow the orcas, anticipating their breaths as they move. Her HD video camera is mounted on a tripod that sits on a platform built into rock, so it is absolutely stable.

Cracroft Point itself is at the juncture of Blackney Pass and Johnstone Strait, and is one of the most common thoroughfares for foraging orcas. Orca families often pass close to Cracroft Point as they head further out into the Strait.

The combination of Megan’s ability as a camera operator and the CP location itself is breathtaking.

OrcaLab’s whale research station is located on Hanson Island in British Columbia’s Johnstone Strait at Blackfish Sound. These waters are the summer home to over 150 orca whales, and an ideal place to study the whales in their natural habitat. To that end, OrcaLab set up a network of remote hydrophones covering 50 sq. km of the surrounding core habitat for Northern Resident orcas. The lab has long shared its library of orca songs with a worldwide audience. It now adds a visual dimension, streaming a series of live cameras in partnership with explore.org.

June is Orca Awareness Month in the Pacific Northwest. Officially declared in Washington State several years, Oregon and B.C. joined unofficially last year, and it’s a good thing they did. Orcas are in serious and life-altering danger, with seven adult southern resident killer whales lost last year, including the 105-year-old matriarch known as Granny.

The quality of orcas’ waters has also changed during Granny’s 105 years. The increase in the number and size of ships and tankers plying the Strait of Georgia create noise and disturbance. Vessel traffic interferes with pod communication and their ability to find the already sparse salmon they eat, not to mention it puts the species at a real risk of collision….

These majestic animals are a beloved icon of the Pacific Northwest and hold particular cultural and spiritual significance for Northwest tribes. Southern residents are highly intelligent, social creatures that live and hunt in complex family-oriented communities. They teach the younger members of their families special skills they need to survive, and demonstrate a culture of cooperation and sharing….

WEST COAST

IMPERIAL BEACH, Calif. (KGTV)-Dead dolphins are washing ashore in the South Bay, and lifeguards believe algae is killing them.

The first dead dolphin was discovered Sunday night at the foot of Elkwood Ave. in Imperial Beach, according to the San Diego Sheriff’s Department. Deputies found two more on Tuesday.

The algo-bloom isn’t visible on the surface, but it’s deadly as it works its way up the food chain, according to Clarissa Anderson of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at U.C. San Diego….

Using custom-made, noninvasive underwater cameras that they attached directly to the dolphins’ bodies, researchers with the University of Sydney and the University of Alaska Southeast captured more than 500 minutes of footage, allowing them to observe behaviors that humans rarely have the privilege of witnessing.
The study’s lead author, Heidi Pearson, a dolphin specialist and assistant professor of marine biology at the University of Alaska Southeast, said that the cameras provide such a fine degree of information that they could open up whole new avenues of research for protecting endangered species.
While the cameras themselves may represent the cutting-edge in technology, Pearson and team attached them to eight wild dusky dolphins off the coast of New Zealand with the aid of decidedly low-tech implements: a long pole and some Velcro pads….

NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL

Orca Guardians Iceland. In the northernmost reaches of the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of the small Icelandic village of Grundarfjördur, among a pod of about 360 orcas, lives a whale family caught in an accidental double life. The mother orca, a …

Catch a glimpse into the life of orcas, the largest of the dolphin family and one of the top predators in the world.
Orcas, or killer whales, are one of the more well-known creatures of the sea with their distinctly vivid black and white coloring, sleek dorsal fin, and four-inch-long teeth. Despite their name they are actually the largest member of the dolphin family. Orcas rank as one of the world’s top predators.

They are impressive hunters, traveling in close pods of up to 40, and communicating with distinctive sounds. Their group tactics allow them to prey on a variety of animals such as seals, fish, other whales, and other small marine mammals.

Orcas can be found anywhere from the polar regions to the equator, in any ocean, but are known to frequent cold coastal waters.

MEXICO – The Sea Sheperd’s research vessel, the R/V Martin Sheen, returned to Guadalupe this week to continue their research of Cuvier’s beaked whales and captured never before seen drone footage of the rare animals.

Guadalupe Island is a Mexican reserve famous for its large congregations of great white sharks between the months of August and December. However, according to Cardenas, "what most people don’t know is that in addition to large numbers of sharks we can also find the rarely seen Cuvier’s beaked whales here.”

Cuvier’s beaked whales are considered the most extreme mammal divers in the world, with the ability to dive down to almost 10,000 feet or 3000 meters – roughly the length of eight Empire State Building. They can stay under water for up to two hours and only need a few minutes of surface oxygen before going back down.

"Their exceptional diving ability makes them hard to study, in comparison to most whales which surface every 20 minutes or so,” Trickey added.

On May 20th, the R/V Martin Sheen captain and drone pilot Fanch Martin recorded the first ever seen drone images of a Cuvier’s beaked whale.

Given the helical, horn-like tusks protruding from the front of narwhals’ heads, it’s no wonder why the whales are dubbed the “unicorns of the sea.” And these Arctic-loving animals are just as mysterious as their mythical counterparts, especially when it comes to their mating behaviors.

Narwhals (Monodon monoceros) are medium-sized whales that are closely related to the beluga whale, which is part of the same taxonomic family. The whales spend their lives in the Arctic waters of Canada, Greenland, Norway and Russia….

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