Orca Transit While Humpacks Move into Inlets

Nick Templeman of Campbell River Whale and Bear Excursions was guiding a tour in Frederick Arm, 90 minutes north of Campbell River, on Canada Day when he saw orcas in the distance.

Two orcas chased a frightened harbour seal just metres away from two whale-watching tour boats about 90 minutes north of Campbell River. July 1, 2018. (Courtesy Pacific Yellowfin Charters)

Before he and occupants of another nearby vessel knew it, they were in the middle of a lunchtime pursuit as two orcas chased a frightened harbour seal just metres away.

“When it all took place, it took literally about 30 seconds for that seal to come over 150 feet towards the other boat,” Templeman told CTV News. “All of a sudden it comes up and around, up on the swim grid, and it all just started to take place, just like that.”…
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A small group, or pod, of killer whales swam into Burrard Inlet on Thursday, giving onlookers a treat and prompting a warning to boaters from the Vancouver Aquarium.
The whales were spotted by the Ocean Wise cetacean research team.
Photos of the sea mammals showed them going right past Vancouver’s waterfront.
The Vancouver Aquarium received reports of the whales going past Spanish Banks beach, but it wasn’t clear which path they were taking.
"It sounds like they briefly came into Burrard Inlet and then headed out again," said aquarium spokesperson Deana Lancaster….
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Recent studies have linked high seal-population density to troubled chinook runs and the decline of southern resident killer whales that feed on chinook in the summer.
The U.S. federal government last week authorized a cull of sea lions that are decimating endangered chinook and steelhead populations in the Columbia River.
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife estimates that sea lions are eating 25 per cent of the steelhead as they return to spawn, after learning to exploit a bottleneck created by fish ladders. Seals use similar strategies in B.C., researchers say.
"It’s getting pretty bad out there," said Ken Malloway, chairman of the Fraser River Aboriginal Fisheries Secretariat. "Last year I went to check a net and there were eight chinook, but only two were intact; the seals ate the others and left skin and heads behind."
The Salish Sea – stretching from the Strait of Georgia to Puget Sound – is home to one of the most concentrated populations of harbour seals in the world, even though they were hunted for bounties in the 1940s and ’50s and then for sport until 1972.
A tenfold increase in the population of harbour seals in B.C. waters since then is linked to a massive drop in marine survival of chinook salmon in 14 of 20 wild populations in a new study from the University of British Columbia. By contrast, hatchery fish – another potential explanation – had little impact.

"Changes in numbers of seals since the 1970s were associated with a 74-per-cent decrease in maximum sustainable yield in chinook stocks," it reads….
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A letter sent last month from the Pacific Whale Watch Association to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his ministers of fisheries, transportation and environment, commended the government for recognizing the dangers to the southern resident population, while noting there are other types of killer whales in the area.

"They did announce that it would be 200 metres for all orcas and if you were to ask them they’d say the general public doesn’t know the difference," he said. "We’re going, ‘Wait a minute guys.’ We’re taking a half million people a year in our boats with paying customers and they deserve to see the rest of the orcas at 100 metres."

Scientists disagree, pointing to research that indicates vessel noise impacts all species of orcas at distances of 200 metres and more.

"Transients are believed to be more sensitive to acoustic impacts because they undertake foraging using stealth predation," said Sheila Thornton, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans’ lead killer whale scientist. "They need to sneak up on their prey which are marine mammals. Disturbance from vessels prevents them from being able to successfully undertake those foraging events."

She said the 200-metre limit also harmonizes with the current American limit of 200 yards, about 183 metres.

Thornton, who spends much of her time on the waters off Port Renfrew and Jordan River northwest of Victoria, said the southern residents are struggling as their population and health diminishes.

"What’s most concerning to us is the decline in the condition of the animals," she said. "They don’t appear to be robust. The moms and calves are not looking particularly robust and this is what’s concerning and worrying for us."

Biologist Misty MacDuffee, with the Raincoast Conservation Foundation, said limits on chinook fishing and restrictions on vessel movements are long overdue initiatives, but more aggressive actions are needed to reduce the extinction risk for the southern residents.

"Right now we estimate that whales are in the presence of vessels in the Salish Sea 85 per cent of the time," she said. "Much of the traffic that’s in close proximity to southern residents when they are in their habitat in the Salish Sea is whale watching boats."…
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For the last three years, not one calf has been born to the dwindling pods of black-and-white killer whales spouting geysers of mist off the coast in the Pacific Northwest.

Normally four or five calves would be born each year among this fairly unique urban population of whales – pods named J, K and L. But most recently, the number of orcas here has dwindled to just 75, a 30-year-low in what seems to be an inexorable, perplexing decline.

Listed as endangered since 2005, the orcas are essentially starving, as their primary prey, the Chinook, or king salmon, are dying off. Just last month, another one of the Southern Resident killer whales – one nicknamed "Crewser" that hadn’t been seen since last November – was presumed dead by the Center for Whale Research….
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Just before humans evolved, whales and dolphins were, pound for pound, the brainiest creatures on Earth. Another cetacean superlative: Today’s biggest whales are heftier than the largest dinosaurs that ever lived. The evolutionary trends that produced big, brainy marine animals are just a few of the fascinating tales told in Spying on Whales.

Paleontologist Nick Pyenson studies whale fossils, but he’s also been known to cut up a few modern-day carcasses. As laid out in his new science-book-cum-midcareer-memoir, the anatomical info gained from both endeavors provides strong evidence for evolution in action. That process has transformed cetaceans’ dog-sized, four-legged ancestors, which returned to the water around 50 million years ago, into today’s seafaring behemoths. Pyenson’s research hasn’t been all lab work, though: His field studies have taken him from whaling stations in Iceland to a site in South America’s Atacama Desert where…
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Will $5 million in research funds every year for 10 years save the right whale from extinction? A group of lawmakers hopes so.

Companion bills in the U.S. Senate and House, filed by five senators and four representatives, including the Cape’s Bill Keating, have put forward The SAVE Right Whales Act of 2018 (aka Scientific Assistance for Very Endangered North Atlantic Right Whales, Act of 2018).

It would establish a grant program to fund collaborative projects between states, nongovernmental organization, and members of the fishing and shipping industries to reduce the impacts of human activities on North Atlantic right whales.

"There are fewer than 450 North Atlantic right whales remaining in the world, and their population is rapidly declining," said Scott Kraus, vice president and chief scientist of Marine Mammal Conservation at the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life at the New England Aquarium.

"The biggest threat to their survival is entanglement in fishing gear. Eighty-five percent of right whales have been entangled once, and 60 percent have been entangled twice. This proposed bill is a great start toward finding solutions that protect both whales and the fishing industry. It calls for science-led conservation efforts with all stakeholders working cooperatively. Researchers, fishermen and government officials coming together is the only way that sustainable change will happen," he said….
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In our NewsHour Shares video of the day, this high-flying technology offers brand new insights into humpback whales and ocean science….
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Whales that end up on the beach make headlines. But those that sink to the bottom of the ocean make new homes for sea life. The brawn, blubber, and bone of these unlucky cetaceans-some 70,000 of which perish during harrowing seasonal migrations each year-nourish a vibrant, ­constantly evolving community of creatures. Opportunistic eaters can flourish on a decaying corpse for anywhere from a decade to a century. Marine ­biologists have discovered dozens of new critters in these deep-sea ecosystems since they first encountered one in 1987. For animals at the bottom of the ocean, a whale fall is a meal ticket. But for the humans above, it’s a helpful reminder that, even in the modern era, most underwater mysteries remain unsolved. This timeline tracks what little we know about a gray whale’s decomposition, and the friends it makes along the way….
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Spain is creating a marine wildlife reserve for the migrations of whales and dolphins in the Mediterranean Sea and will prohibit searching for fossil fuels in the area.

The Spanish government announced Friday that the protected reserve will cover 46,385 square kilometers (17,909 square miles) between the Balearic Islands and the mainland. It says the area “is of great ecological value and represents a migration path of vital importance for cetaceans in the Western Mediterranean.”

Teresa Ribera, Spain’s minister for ecological transition, says “this is the end of new prospecting or any type of extraction of fossil fuels” in the protected area.

The species Spain hopes to protect are Fin whales, sperm whales, grey sperm whales, pilot whales, Cuvier’s beaked whales, bottlenose dolphins, striped dolphins, common dolphins and loggerhead turtles….
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