An unidentified pod of killer whales was reported yesterday in the snow near the home of Doug McCutchen and Kari Koske on San Juan Island.

“Snorkas” on San Juan Island. (Click to enlarge.) Photo courtesy of Doug McCutchen

“They’ve been milling slowly in the same place for the last 28 hours now,” they reported to Orca Network. “No vocalizations or other surface activity.”

Orca Network dubbed them “snorkas” for snow orcas.

I thought this was a nice piece of sculpture work, but I was wondering how Doug and Kari were able to color the snow black in exactly the right places. Doug sent me this note:

“We used some old oil that had been kicking around the shop after changing oil in the car awhile back. Kidding! We simply cut the black portions out in Photoshop, pasted them into a new window, adjusted the contrast, and then pasted them back in again. Really didn’t spend much time on it, as you can tell if you look closely. We’d made the whales the night before by rolling big snowballs together then sculpting with a machete. It snowed another 4-6″ that night, so they’re a little softer than the originals.”

Speaking of killer whale sightings, Orca Network has been receiving reports of animals in Central and South Puget Sound the past few days.

The latest report was about 9 a.m. this morning near Kingston. Because of the weather and difficulty seeing from shore, many of the reports are coming from ferry crews.

Sightings yesterday included one near Fay Bainbridge State Park and another from Restoration Point, both on Bainbridge Island. Later in the day, three groups of orcas were seen traveling down Colvos Passage between the Kitsap Peninsula and Vashon Island.

Filming of the second season of “Whale Wars” is under way, and today Paul Watson, leader of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, claimed to have the Japanese whaling fleet on the run.

I’d like to ask a question of all you readers of Water Ways. Would you like me to provide occasional updates on Sea Shepherd’s controversial tactics, or do believe it is wrong to give this organization the extensive publicity it is already receiving?

I’m open to arguments on both sides.

Meanwhile, let me tell you what has been happening with Sea Shepherd and its television series “Whale Wars,” which completed its first season on Animal Planet this week and is going into reruns.

A news release issued today quotes Watson:

“It does not get more real than this. While people are sitting in their living rooms watching our campaign against the whalers that took place last season, we are at the same time in the icy hostile seas of Antarctica engaged with the whalers this season. There is an Animal Planet crew on board and the cameras are rolling for season two of Whale Wars.”

Yesterday, Watson reported that Sea Shepherd’s boat, the Steve Irwin, caught up with the harpoon ship Yushin Maru #2. The small Delta boat was launched with the idea of pelting the ship with stinky butter bombs, but it had to be called back because of high winds and rough sea conditions.

Watch the video by Sea Shepherd.

The Yushin Marin #2 was a ship that members of Sea Shepherd boarded last year, one of the dramatic moments in Season One of “Whale Wars.” Because of that controversial action and other life-risking incidents, the series quickly picked up an audience and was a big winner for Animal Planet, according to Variety magazine, which reports on show business.

This year the Japanese ship reportedly has installed a net over its side to prevent any further boardings.

Meanwhile, producers of the program have invited Japanese officials to participate in the second season, perhaps to offer a more balanced view of events.

As you may have heard, actress Daryl Hannah has joined the crew for this year’s campaign in the Antarctic. Hannah, best known for her mermaid role in the movie “Splash,” is a longtime supporter of environmental causes. She has been forcibly removed from more than one protest demonstration, and she runs a personal Web site that covers a lot of environmental issues. I wonder what her presence will add to the show.

It seems Sea Shepherd is getting wrapped up in show business as well as continuing controversy and criticism — including Watson’s claim of being shot against denials by the Japanese. Watson apparently believes all the publicity will help stop the whaling, and now he’s getting more attention than anytime in the last 30 years.

I don’t know where things will go from here, but I can’t help but watch.

Fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico are understandably excited by a recent sighting of what may have been a “superpod” of more than 200 killer whales — all swimming relatively close together and apparently fishing for tuna.

Up until the sighting earlier this month, Charter boat captain Eddie Hall thought he had seen everything.

“Lot’s of cool stuff, everything from submarines to ships to every kind of shark you can think of, never a killer whale,” he said during an interview with Debbie Williams of WKRG News in the Mobile-Pensacola area. “Never ever thought about seeing a killer whale in my lifetime in the Gulf.”

(If the screen below doesn’t work, go straight to the WKRG Web site.)

Until now, the population of killer whales in the Gulf had been estimated at 150, according to Williams’ report.

Biologist Keith Mullin said 17 orca sightings have been recorded. “Ten to 15 in a pod; that’s the most we’ve ever seen or really even gotten reports of,” he told WKRG.

The stock assessment report (PDF 152 kb) by the National Marine Fisheries Service suggests that very little is known about killer whales in the Gulf of Mexico. A report written in October 2007 offers a guesstimate of 49 animals in the Northern Gulf of Mexico area.

Thirty-two individuals have been photographically identified to date, with 6 individuals having been sighted over a 5 year period, and 1 whale resighted over 10 years… The Gulf of Mexico population is provisionally being considered a separate stock for management purposes, although there is currently no information to differentiate this stock from the Atlantic Ocean stock(s)…

There are insufficient data to determine the population trends for this species. The total level of U.S. Gulf of Mexico fishery-caused mortality and serious injury for this stock is unknown, but the rarity of mortality reports for this species suggests that this level is insignificant and approaching a zero mortality and serious injury rate.

As you can see, the knowledge about killer whales in the Gulf is considerably different from what we know about killer whales in the Northwest, where every birth and death of our two fish-eating resident populations are noted and where most of the seal-eating transients have been identified and monitored over time.

For a little more about the recent Gulf sighting, Steve Layton and Gary Finch wrote about the event on the Orange Beach (Ala.) Community Web site, where they said video would be coming soon.

Thanks go to Orca Network for tracking down good whale stories, wherever they take place.

Researchers with the New England Aquarium, Wildlife Trust and Florida Conservation Commission have started their annual aerial survey to monitor the movement of endangered right whales. The focus of their attention in a calving area in the Southeastern United States. (See area map.)

Researchers from the New England Aquarium are blogging about the experience on a site called Right Whale Aerial Survey Blog. The team of bloggers is including plenty of great whale photos to go with their observations.

One of the researchers, identified as Jonathan, posted this today about an event that took place yesterday:

Kara and I were flying the southern part of our survey when, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a whale about one mile north of us. We broke from our track line and headed for the whale. As we approached, we noticed a very long piece of fishing line (approx. 350 ft) trailing behind the whale. Our team reacted quickly; Kara grabbed the camera and began photographing the whale and the trailing fishing line; I took a position of the whale and immediately called our ground contact …

Our images show there is line wrapping around the whale’s head and body and there appears to be fresh peduncle scars that may be from this entanglement…

We stayed with the whale for over an hour. During which the whale moved almost true north 4 miles! The whale was racing diving - A forceful and fast dive in which the flukes are typically lifted out of the water at a shallow angle. Racing dives are often observed in a quick series with each dive being performed after a single respiration…

The weather conditions were too poor for a disentanglement effort to be launched yesterday. All the survey team are aware of the entangled whale and we are hoping to see it again when we can deploy a research vessel to attempt to disentangle the animal.

Another aquarium researcher, Monica Zani, is said to be the first person to observe the birth of a right whale. In a question-and-answer interview on the New England Aquarium’s Web site, she described it this way:
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Glacier Northwest has begun work on the controversial pier that will eventually support its gravel-mining operation on Maury Island. See updated story by Leslie Brown in the Vashon Beachcomber.

Meanwhile, a protest demonstration got underway this morning near the construction site. Kathy Fletcher of People for Puget Sound reported about 50 protesters as well as some 10 dinghies and kayaks at 8:30 a.m. this morning.

Yesterday, a contingent of 20 to 30 killer whales — apparently including members from all three Puget Sound pods — visited the South Sound area, not far from the Glacier site. I thought maybe they had come south to join the protest, but during the night they turned north and came up through Puget Sound.

If you recall, the orcas were cited among reasons to deny the construction activity in an aquatic reserve frequented by the whales in winter.

As of 11:30 a.m. today, the orcas were in Admiralty Inlet north of the Kitsap Peninsula, according to Howard Garrett of Orca Network, who was among the widely scattered whales when I talked to him by phone.

See Orca Network for reports of whale travels. In case you’re not aware of it, anyone can sign up for e-mail reports of whale sightings, typically compiled at the end of each day.

By the way, People for Puget Sound has scheduled a “Bremerton Moonlight Beachwalk” Thursday in Bremerton and a “Starlight Beachwalk and Bonfire” Friday in Burien. Reservations are recommended for both events.

Washington Department of Natural Resources has approved a 30-year lease to allow a dock in the Maury Island Aquatic Reserve. It was the last approval needed for construction of a gravel mine that has been the subject of intense opposition by environmental groups.

Robert McClure, environmental reporter for the Seattle PI, calls the approval the most controversial of Land Commissioner Doug Sutherland’s eight years in office. Sutherland has taken this action in his final weeks as head of the DNR, having lost in the November election to Peter Goldmark.

Goldmark issued a statement saying he was “deeply disappointed” by the decision.

“The timing of this decision, only one day after the Puget Sound Partnership brought forward their plan to clean up Puget Sound, is very troubling,” Goldmark was quoted as saying in the Seattle Times. “While I understand there is only one lands commissioner at a time, this decision does come after the voters of Washington sent a very clear message.”

Amy Carey, president of Preserve Our Islands, was not pleased with Sutherland’s decision. She told the Times, “It’s disappointing he felt he had to stick to Glacier’s needs and agenda. There’s absolutely no reason that this decision had to come out now other than that Glacier wanted it now. It’s a really pitiful legacy as his tenure ends.”

In a news release, Sutherland said, “This has been an extremely rigorous process, and our aquatics staff have examined every document submitted to us and to the permitting agencies to be sure that we have addressed the issues. I directed staff to add requirements to protect this aquatic ecosystem in the long-term—which they have. This lease agreement accomplishes the goal of environmental protection while allowing existing commercial activities.”

Kathy Fletcher, executive director of People for Puget Sound, had this to say in her blog:

One of the black clouds hanging over the Puget Sound Partnership’s celebration the other day was the bleak budgetary outlook. Optimism about the new plan is tempered by the knowledge that money will be hard to come by. Not to sound too naïve, but since it’s expensive to undo the harm that we’ve done to our Sound over the years, why would we proceed to do more? Saying “no” to a bad idea like the Maury Island gravel dock doesn’t restore the Sound to health, but at least it’s a pretty cost-effective way to avoid making things worse.

Maybe I’m also naïve to think that in a year when we lost seven more of our endangered orcas, most likely to starvation, responsible decision-makers would say no to a project that puts one of the whales’ favorite winter fishing grounds at risk. Perhaps the whales had heard what was up in Sutherland’s office on Tuesday, when they decided to spend that very day hanging out in the Vashon area—their first visit of the season.

Conditions of the lease include the following, according to the DNR:
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You may have seen this video before. Circulating on the Internet for at least four years, this clip has generated a lot of excitement. Several people have sent it to me by e-mail, and YouTube keeps getting mileage from it. The video shows a killer whale breaching and coming down on top of a nearby kayaker. But things are not always as they seem.

It turns out that the video is the Korean version of a commercial for Poweraid, an energy drink made by Coca Cola, according to Snopes.com, which is a good place to check out Internet rumors and falsehoods.

I have yet to see the English version of this commercial. But the footage of the killer whale breaching without any kayaks around can be seen in the trailer for the movie “Lolita: Slave to Entertainment.”

So it appears that this video has a Northwest connection. As many of you know, Lolita, captured in Puget Sound in 1970, is the last orca from this area to remain alive in an aquarium, and she can be seen doing tricks in Miami.

Meanwhile, opponents of captive orcas continue their effort to return Lolita to Puget Sound, a subject that has been debated in Water Ways over the past year.

Orca Network provides a lot of background information on its Lolita Web page. The organization also holds fundraisers to help in the effort to return Lolita to her native waters.

Since Lolita was captured as a calf, the whale in this video cannot be her. Can anyone can identify the orca that so gracefully crushes a kayaker? Also, if anyone has information about the footage in “Lolita: Slave to Entertainment,” I’d like to hear more.

If you can stand another scientific report about Puget Sound’s killer whales, I’d like to point you to interviews I conducted with Sam Wasser and his research associate Katherine Ayres for a story in Sunday’s Kitsap Sun.

It turns out that hormones taken from the whales’ feces tend to confirm that the animals were under “nutritional stress” this year, when seven whales died, compared to last year, when the mortality was minimal.

The unpublished information needs to undergo peer review, but the implications are many for Puget Sound restoration and what is needed for the whale population to survive.

Wasser and Ayres also hope to be able to tell whether the whales are under stress when pursued by a greater number of whale-watching boats. Stay tuned; I’ll be tracking this research as it goes along.

I’m still trying to understand the various implications of a study by David Bain and Pete Schroeder, who found that Puget Sound’s killer whales are harboring antibiotic-resistant bacteria as well as some strains of bugs that can be deadly to immune-compromised mammals.

Puget Sound killer whales // NOAA photo

It seems likely that killer whales are picking up bacteria from humans, since the resistance is most likely caused when people or livestock take antibiotics but don’t take them long enough or in great enough concentration to kill all the bacteria. The result is that some bacteria get a taste of the antibiotics but escape and become resistant.

How the bacteria get into marine waters is somewhat uncertain, but likely sources are discharges in stormwater, in sewage effluent and from boats.

The fact that the researchers found some bad bugs is not a good thing, since the orcas’ immune systems may be weakened by toxic chemicals and a shortage of food.

Federal biologists studying the risks of extinction for Puget Sound orcas worry that a catastrophic event — such as an oil spill or disease — could kill one-third or more of the animals, leaving a nonviable population. It’s distressing to think that humans are loading these animals up with toxic chemicals, which reduce their resistance to disease, then dumping potentially deadly bacteria into the waters around them.

Read more about these findings, including interviews with the researchers, in a story I wrote for today’s Kitsap Sun.

Navy officials and attorneys with the Natural Resources Defense Council, which brought the sonar lawsuit, offered these responses to today’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

For further details about the ruling, see the entry below in Watching Our Water Ways.

Navy Secretary Donald C. Winter:
“This case was vital to our Navy and Nation’s security, and we are pleased with the Supreme Court’s decision in this matter. We can now continue to train our Sailors effectively, under realistic combat conditions, and certify our crews “combat ready” while continuing to be good stewards of the marine environment.”

Admiral Gary Roughead, chief of Naval Operations:
“We are pleased with the Supreme Court’s decision on this case of vital importance to our National Security. We will continue to train realistically and certify the Sailors and Marines of our Navy strike groups in a manner that protects our nation’s security and the precious maritime environment.”

Lt. Sean Robertson, media relations action officer, CHINFO
“Without the crippling restrictions contained in the preliminary injunction, our Sailors can train realistically and the Navy is able to certify our forces are ready for Anti-Submarine Warfare, reducing risk to our Sailors and national security, while simultaneously protecting the environment. The Navy appreciates the careful consideration and prompt review the Court gave this important case involving national security.”

Rear Adm. James A. Symonds, commander of Navy Region Northwest
“Although this decision does not directly affect the Puget Sound, some SONAR training does occur on a smaller scale in the Northwest training ranges. It is important that our Sailors are able to train as they would be called to fight, in a realistic environment.

“When Sailors train, they adhere to the 29 protective mitigation measures whenever mid-frequency active SONAR is needed to minimize potential harm to marine mammals. This includes posting lookouts, power-down and shut-down requirements. The Navy is preparing an environmental impact statement to comprehensively analyze the effects of all Navy activities in the Northwest training ranges.”

Joel Reynolds, senior attorney and director of NRDC’s marine mammal program:
“The Supreme Court held that the lower courts did not properly balance the competing interests at stake, and struck down two significant safeguards that reduce harm to whales from high-intensity sonar training.

“The decision places marine mammals at greater risk of serious and needless harm. However, it is a narrow ruling that leaves in place four of the injunction’s six safeguards. It is significant that the court did not overturn the underlying determination that the Navy likely violated the law by failing to prepare an environmental impact statement.”

Richard Kendall, NRDC co-counsel:
“It is gratifying that the court did not accept the Navy’s expansive claims of executive power, and that two thirds of the injunction remains intact.”

See the full press release from NRDC