Northern Resident and Southern Resident Orca in Upper Georgia Strait

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Wild Ocean Whale Society’s Annual General Meeting is scheduled for January 19, 2016 in Powell River. Please Contact us if you wish to participate or have any general queries.
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18:00 • NRKW Orca in front of Lund, Malaspina Strait. ?A42s? While fishing on just in front of the Lund Harbour Orcas swam by us and then started to fish about 100 feet from our boat. After they were done they swam right by us. What a treat to see such a sight.

11:00 • 4 NRKW Orca off Powell River. ?A42`s? Identifications were made thanks to Michelle’s photos. ▫ Observed from Shore

11:00 • 20 SRKW Orca foraging, up as far as Cape Mudge, Georgia Strait. ?J-Pod and K–pod? The Orca were feeding on Salmon.

Scientist Michael Ford of the Seattle-based Northwest Fisheries Sciences Center says DNA analysis of killer whale fecal matter confirmed more than 98 per cent of the July and August diet of the southern resident whales is salmon, particularly the Chinook salmon bound for British Columbia’s Fraser River and its tributaries.

Scientists on both sides of the border say the study provides useful information to government officials tasked with managing whale recovery efforts and salmon stocks.

The study published on Wednesday in the journal Virology, found out of more than 1,000 farmed and wild fish that were tested, 8 per cent of the samples had the European variant of the infectious salmon anaemia virus (ISA).

According to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, ISA is a fin-fish disease caused by a virus that belongs to a family of viruses called Orthomyxoviridae. The agency has not declared the presence of ISA in the province. However, it has been previously reported in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, P.E.I. and Newfoundland. It was first detected in Atlantic Canada in 1996.

The Virology Journal article can be found at:
http://virologyj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12985-015-0459-1

Unmanned aerial vehicle allows scientists to study killer whale health and reproduction while also offering a glimpse into the family life of these social animals. Enjoy video interview with a NOAA scientist describing their work with the Vancouver Aquarium who are doing year to year measurements of whales using Drones to assess whether the supply of Chinook salmon is sufficient for their needs.

The video highlights the intimate family life of the Whale Pod as the family work to care for the calf born just days before the images were taken.

VIDEO Interview with the Arctic-born fisheries minister says Canada will make good on international agreement on coastal waters.
Federal Fisheries Minister Hunter Tootoo says science will determine not only which areas of Canada’s oceans the government will designate as marine protected areas but also what development, if any, will be permitted in those areas.

More info on DFO Marine Protected areas can be found at:
http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/oceans/marineareas-zonesmarines/mpa-zpm/index-eng.htm

Beluga migration to Hudson Bay coast is ‘incomparable natural wonder,’ report says.
The province released a plan on Friday with recommendations on how to protect belugas that migrate to Manitoba’s western Hudson Bay coastline. The province’s conservation minister says he will also raise it with the federal fisheries minister when the two meet later this month.

A new study examining the amount of drag that fishing gear has on entangled whales could help rescue teams save them from emaciation and death.

The study, published in Marine Mammal Science this month, has quantified for the first time how much drag is produced when North Atlantic right whales get caught up in fishing gear and tow it through the water.

The 20-foot killer whale was identified as Lulu, a member of the rare resident population of orcas that live off Scotland’s west coast. According to the Hebridean Dolphin and Whale Trust, there may be as few as eight individuals remaining in the West Coast Community, which has not produced calves since the conservation group began studying the pod in 1992.

With dolphin and whale watching on the rise, Edward Robertson looks at how the World Cetacean Alliance’s new accreditation scheme can safeguard the practice’s future.

With climate change Globally and the El Nino effect here on the Pacific Coast, whales are appearing in new territories. In this story, we learn about a surprising danger faced by Pilot whales coping with the natural challenges they encounter as their territories change.
A pod of a few dozen pilot whales was spotted in the North Sea, along the coasts of the UK and Belgium. They were far from home – pilot whales are almost never seen in this part of the Atlantic.Six weeks later …

According to a census undertaken by the Uttar Pradesh forest department and the World Wide Fund for Nature, India, in early October, as many as 1,263 dolphins were found in a stretch of over 3,000 km in the Ganges.

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