While some Southern Resident killer whales are still out of the area, J pod has returned to our inland waterway (Point Roberts at the moment). We also have the L-12s and a few Ks, according to Ken Balcomb of the Center for Whale Research.

We’ll wait and see if any of these whales show up for Orca Sing tomorrow night. See my previous Water Ways entry.

There’s another interesting orca event going on next week, which is worth some attention. It’s called “Southern Resident Orcas, Then and Now: What Have We Learned?” It’s sponsored by Orca Network, the Seattle Aquarium and Puget Sound Partnership.

I’m anticipating that the highlight of this social event will be recently unearthed film footage of the 1971 killer whale capture in Penn Cove on Whidbey Island. The late Don McGaffin, a reporter for KING 5 TV, became thoroughly involved in the story, asking the right questions.

Ralph Munro, former secretary of state for Washington and a longtime advocate for orcas, helped bring this dramatic footage to light and make it available for Tuesday’s event. I’ve previewed the film, which takes us back to what seems like another world.

You will see in the film orcas thrashing about in a tiny pen, as people with ropes looped around the animals try to move them around.

At one point, McGaffin sits down on a dock with the water behind him and looks into the camera.

“Whale catchers and oceanarians keep pounding the public relations drum, taking the position that one of the reasons the killer whale is taken is for scientific reasons,” McGaffin notes. “Yet some marine biologists don’t know whether to laugh or cry at that suggestion.”

McGaffin then points out that one may study the physical structure of a captive killer whale — but what about their social structure, their feeding choices, their travel patterns?

“What they really don’t know is if the whales taken by (Ted) Griffin and (Don) Goldsberry these past seven years are from the same family or the same pod, yet the captures go on.”

At the time, researchers knew little about Puget Sound orcas. Of course, McGaffin could not know that these whales would become one of the most studied marine mammal populations in the world. Today, thanks to Ken Balcomb and a convenient family structure among the whales, we can draw all the family trees going back 35 years.

The recently unearthed film also includes interviews with biologists and politicians who talk about the captures from their points of view.

“The struggle to protect the Puget Sound killer whales has many heroes,” Ralph Munro says. “Perhaps first and foremost is the late Don McGaffin of KING 5 television and publisher Wallie Funk of the Whidbey News Times newspaper. Both Don and Wallie risked their lives to get detailed pictures of the captures and the sorting of whales during the 1970s.”

Ralph will provide commentary to the film. Others expected to make comments are Bill Ruckelshaus of Puget Sound Partnership, Howard Garrett of Orca Network and Gary Chittim of KING 5 TV, who will provide more recent footage of killer whales.

Tickets are $50 per person to cover expenses. Any proceeds will go to special projects by Orca Network.

For information or to purchase tickets, go to Orca Network or call (360) 678-3451.

Ralph sent the following letter to promote Tuesday’s event:

(more…)

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UPDATE

A group of orcas swam by Lime Kiln State Park earlier in the day Saturday, but they were gone by the time OrcaSing started in the evening, according to notes with photos by People for Puget Sound. Still, everybody seemed to have a good time, according to reports. Also, check out the YouTube video by The Whale Museum.

——————–
With luck, J pod will be back in the San Juan Islands Saturday in time for “Orca Sing,” an annual celebration of Puget Sound’s beloved killer whales on San Juan Island.

Three members of L pod shown in a rare "triple tail lob" Wednesday off the western shore of San Juan Island.
Photo by Jim Maya, Maya's Westside Charters

This morning, I received a report that J pod had been spotted with a portion of L pod near Jordan River at the southern end of Vancouver Island, west of Victoria. That’s just a spy hop and a jump away from their summer waters in the San Juan Islands.

Charterboat operator Jim Maya told me about J pod hanging out with a group called the L-12s when I contacted him about using the photo on this page — a rare “triple tail lob,” in which three orcas slap their flukes at once. Maya, who has 20 years experience on the water, says he has never seen one of these maneuvers before, let alone capturing it with a camera.

The L-12s have been in and out of the San Juans lately, but J pod has not been seen for about a month. Many people have been worried, since J pod is known to spend much of its time in inland waters, especially at this time of year. (See Water Ways, June 12.)

If J pod really is at the south end of Vancouver Island as of this posting, the whales could be back to the San Juans by tonight or tomorrow — though there are never any guarantees that they will show up for Orca Sing.

Experts at the Center for Whale Research are ready to see if all the animals are accounted for and if their are any newborns in the group.

Orca Sing, now in its 10th year, begins at 6 p.m. at Lime Kiln State Park with “Stories and Sounds,” an update on the orcas and their activities by Cindy Hansen, education coordinator for The Whale Museum.

Music by the City Cantabile Choir and guests begins at 7 p.m., as participants watch for whales off the western shore of San Juan Island. Last year, a large number of orcas showed up to make it one of the most memorable events in the series.

Some years, the whales have not been seen, however.

“We tell people to come and make a day of it,” said Jenny Atkinson of The Whale Museum, who has helped to organize the event.

She suggests bringing a picnic dinner and carpooling to the park, since parking is limited. For information, e-mail Atkinson or Hansen or call (360) 378-4710.

Sponsors include City Cantabile Choir, The Whale Museum, People For Puget Sound, Friends of the San Juans, Whale Trail and the American Cetacean Society’s Northwest Chapter.

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Federal biologists are really stirring things up in Northern California. They have determined that the irrigation system in the vast Central Valley farm region jeopardizes the future of several species of fish as well as Puget Sound’s killer whales.

The killer whale angle is worth some discussion — but first the larger picture.

“What is at stake here is not just the survival of species but the health of entire ecosystems and the economies that depend on them,” Rod Mcinnis, southwest regional director for NOAA’s Fisheries Service said in a news release. “We are ready to work with our federal and state partners, farmers and residents to find solutions that benefit the economy, environment and Central Valley families.”

Changing the water system to meet the requirements of threatened and endangered species could reduce water supplies by 5 to 7 percent, significantly affecting farm production and drinking water supplies. Several proposed projects — valued at hundreds of millions of dollars — could help balance that out. To see the technical reports, go to NOAA’s Web site on the issue.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger objected to the findings in a written statement:

“This federal biological opinion puts fish above the needs of millions of Californians and the health and security of the world’s eighth largest economy. The piling on of one federal court decision after another in a species-by-species approach is killing our economy and undermining the integrity of the Endangered Species Act. I will be asking for a meeting with Secretary Salazar and Secretary Locke to discuss our concerns with these biological opinions, and my Administration will be pursuing every possible avenue to reconcile the harmful effects of these decisions.”

Court action is almost certain.

Reporters Kelly Zito of the San Francisco Chronicle and Colin Sullivan of the New York Times’ “Greenwire” do a good job in fleshing out this story from the California perspective.

It’s interesting to see the federal biologists address the plight of the Southern Resident killer whales with respect to water use in California. These orcas frequent Puget Sound, but they are spending a great deal of their time along the West Coast down to Monterey Bay. The bottom line in the biological opinion is that salmon availability along the coast could be a key factor in whether the population is able to avoid extinction.

Environmental groups were quick to argue that if water operations in Northern California can raise the risk of extinction to intolerable levels, then surely the dams on the Columbia River ought to be a concern.

“The recent National Marine Fisheries Service conclusion linking destruction of salmon habitat to harm to killer whales is a breath of fresh air,” said Kathy Fletcher, executive director for People for Puget Sound in a statement. “Our killer whales are at critically low numbers, and NMFS has recognized that what we do to salmon in freshwater impacts our orcas in the ocean. But it doesn’t make sense to protect salmon for whales to eat in California while at the same time ignoring the effect of dams on fish in the whales’ backyard.”

The issue of what to do about the dams remains before a federal judge. The Obama administration is considering whether to continue with the Bush approach to leave the dams in place or revisit the issue.

“The fiction that the dams on the Columbia and Snake Rivers have no effect on the food supply for orcas is one of many failings in the Columbia and Snake River biological opinion,” said Steve Mashuda of Earthjustice, which represents the groups in the case. “Our killer whales shouldn’t have to travel all the way to Monterey Bay to find a decent meal.”

To understand why the federal biologists consider water activities in California critical to the survival of the Southern Resident killer whales, I’ve pulled some comments from the Biological Opinion and Conference Opinion on the Long-Term Operations of the Central Valley Project and State Water Project (PDF 12.7mb):

(more…)

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Each June, killer whale observers of all varieties wait for the three Puget Sound pods to arrive in the San Juan Islands for an extended stay.

I usually mark the arrival with a news story reminding local folks about the social structure and behavior of our resident pods. I was prepared to write this story when I heard that L pod was headed south through Johnstone Strait along Vancouver Island. Instead, I’ll wait. Here’s the story I did write for tomorrow’s Kitsap Sun:

For a brief time this week, it appeared that Puget Sound’s killer whales had returned to Washington waters to take up their summer residence.

Several members of L pod were seen off Victoria Tuesday, after traveling along the east side of Vancouver Island in Canada, according to reports compiled by Orca Network. But, instead of heading on east into the San Juan Islands, the L-pod orcas turned west into the Strait of Juan de Fuca, headed for the Pacific Ocean.

All three groups of Puget Sound orcas — J, K and L pods — typically spend their summers hunting salmon in and around the San Juans. While J and K pods have been around part of the winter, L pod last appeared for only a day or two in February. When L pod showed up Tuesday, it was a good bet that the whales were here for a longer stay, said Howard Garrett of Orca Network.

“They did a quick peek in, then headed out,” he said. “The supposition is that they didn’t find enough to eat.”

The whales’ primary diet is chinook salmon, which are normally running at this time of year. Maybe, Garrett said, they’ll be back in few days.

Gov. Chris Gregoire has proclaimed June “Orca Awareness Month.” For a list of events, visit Orca Network.

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Ken Balcomb of the Center for Whale Research filled me in today on the third orca calf spotted in the Puget Sound region in the last month.

The animal looks healthy, he said, much more healthy than its sibling who died two years ago before its first birthday.

In comments on the story that went up on kitsapsun.com this afternoon, some people expressed legitimate concerns for these whales, because they are ingesting chinook salmon, which are known to contain elevated levels of toxic chemicals.

Our good friend Sharon O’Hara asks, “More importantly, sorry for asking, aren’t the salmon toxic? Are the calves immune to the toxicity of the mother milk from the salmon they ingest?”

“That’s what I’m thinkin’,” adds Morganm12.

While Puget Sound chinook do carry a higher toxic load than salmon in British Columbia and Southeast Alaska, I don’t think it means that the Puget Sound orcas, which eat them, are necessarily doomed.

Rather than launching into an off-the-cuff discussion about the synergistic effects of food supplies, disease and stress, I’ll try to get gather up some hard data to support my ever-optimistic outlook. Stay tuned, and feel free to jump in if you have some real information about the toxic problem.

For those who haven’t seen my story, I’ll paste the entire text below:
(more…)

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I don’t mean to be overly sentimental, but writing about L-57 last night was like writing an obituary for an acquaintance, maybe even a friend.

L-57, a 31-year-old male orca, has gone missing. That means, in all likelihood, that he has died, as I described in a story in today’s Kitsap Sun.

L-57, known as Faith, is special to a lot of Kitsap County residents and others, because he was the whale everyone could recognize when 19 members of L pod spent a month in Dyes Inlet in 1997.

He was the animal that opened my eyes to the fascinating research taking place among these highly intelligent creatures. I still recall taking Kelley Balcomb-Bartok over to Red and Donna Gay Boyle’s house in Tracyton (“Whale Central”) to see a bunch of killer whales swimming back and forth in Dyes Inlet — something that had not happened in that location for 40 years or more.

Kelley, son of Ken Balcomb, grew up around these whales. Here’s how I described it in my two-part series marking the 10th anniversary of that remarkable period:

When Kelley first arrived at Whale Central, he dragged out a long pair of binoculars and aimed them at the darkening water. He spotted a tall dorsal fin with an angled tip.

“That’s L-57,” he announced, describing the 20-year-old male. Then he turned to meet Donna Gay.

Kelley, 34, whose dark hair hung in a long pony tail, told her he didn’t know why the whales were staying in Dyes Inlet. If it was for food, why wouldn’t they be exploring other areas as well?

“If this is a place they don’t know well, it could give them problems,” Kelley said.

Donna Gay described how, over the past three days, the whales had swum to the edge of Dyes Inlet and even entered the Port Washington Narrows, but then turned back each time.

“We need to get the word out,” Kelley said. “If they make an effort to move out, then people can’t get in their way.”

Kelley realized that excitement was spreading like wind upon water. State law enforcement officers had already issued warnings to people for chasing the whales in boats to get pictures.

Kelley took another look toward the water, noting high-speed and circular swimming patterns.

“It’s seriously possible these animals may be stressed. We need to watch them, but if this goes on much longer, I’d have to say they’re stuck.”

I was impressed then, as I have been ever since, that one can get to know individual whales and their behaviors, which are coordinated with the larger group. One can tell when orcas are calm, when they’re stressed, when they’re feeling free and when they’re feeling threatened.

Male killer whales can live into their 50s and sometimes beyond, and L-57 seemed to an active whale in the prime of his life. If he has died, we may never know the cause. Given how loaded these whales are with toxic chemicals, a good guess is that he succumbed to a disease or cancer.

I would welcome further thoughts.

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If you listen to National Public Radio, you’ve probably heard of Ari Shapiro, an independent radio producer who often provides special reports to the network.

What I was surprised to find out in a report this morning is that Shapiro spent years as a killer whale researcher before changing careers. He names as a colleague Volker Deecke, who is well known among killer whale biologists.

It’s probably just a hole in my knowledge. A Google search of “Ari Shapiro” along with “killer whales” produced 168 results. “Ari Shapiro” and “whales” produced another 350 or so. And I learned from this search that Shapiro, while working at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, studied the effects of Navy sonar on beaked and pilot whales.

But that’s not why I wanted to write this entry. I wanted to go back to a reader comment about killer whales made last week and the response I gave. A person who calls himself Cynic essentially said we should applaud the decline in Puget Sound’s killer whale population because it means greater protection for their prey, Puget Sound chinook, another endangered population.

I was thinking of population dynamics and the food web when I suggested that the loss of the killer whales in Puget Sound bodes ill for the entire ecosystem, including humans. And, of course, it does. But I was hoping that someone else would point out how important these animals are to the people who live in this region. Having orcas around enriches the lives of many people. The importance of these animals goes beyond the science.

That’s why I was thrilled with Ari Shapiro’s piece on NPR this morning. It reminds me that field biologists are sometimes uncomfortable with the affection they feel for their research subjects. Is there a risk that researchers will lose their scientific objectivity when they become emotionally attached? Shapiro seems to dismiss the very notion.

You should listen to the entire piece, but I especially liked these comments from Shapiro:

“Day after day, while we stood there looking for whales and not seeing any, there were often tourists and locals observing us, trying to make out why we watched the waters around us so intently, so hopefully.

“As killer whale biologists, we wait weeks for a glimpse of a black fin on light water — for the moment when we can observe and describe what the animals let us see.

“It takes a kind of love to maintain that kind of relationship, because we’re pretty sure the killer whales don’t feel the same way about us. It’s not like they’re waiting for us to show up. But it doesn’t matter. We’re drawn to them.”

One last observation. As a reporter, I’ve learned to look at things from many viewpoints, trying on one perspective after another. How does this person feel? How does that person feel? How the heck do the whales feel? In the end, news stories are built upon a foundation of facts, as best we can figure them out. And it seems to be a fact that a large number of people really care about the killer whales.

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A new study in the journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (PDF 432 kb) failed to excite me, mainly because most of the findings were not new, let alone profound. The first story released by the Associated Press “buried the lead,” as reporters say, because the unidentified writer apparently had no sense of the research that has gone on for years.

I wrote a story about this study in my own way, focusing on the new stuff. See Thursday’s Kitsap Sun.

What I failed to realize was that many people have not paid close attention to the research findings of the past few years. Nor did I recognize that we now have a reason to explain it all again — namely the fact that last year’s presumed deaths of seven Puget Sound orcas raise new interest and questions about the population stability.

I think it is worth referring back to a more extensive story I wrote on this subject following a wide-ranging research conference in April of 2006 along with a related story about the makeup of the population itself.

Puget Sound chinook are more contaminated with toxic polychlorinated biphenyls than chinook from other areas, even though all chinook spend most of their lives in the ocean. The new finding helps explain why the Puget Sound whales contain some of the highest levels of pollutants in the world.

Two rapid declines in orca populations — starting in 1980 and again in 1996 — were linked to a coastwide decline of chinook in the same time period.

Chemicals banned years ago, such as PCBs and DDT, still show up in Puget Sound chinook, but in lower numbers. Meanwhile, toxic flame retardants, a new class of persistent chemicals, are building up and could be having biological consequences for the orcas.

Chinook salmon have declined in size since the 1950s. Now it takes nearly two chinook to provide the same energy and nutritional value that one salmon provided years ago.

So maybe I missed the boat last week by not taking the time to place the new study into its fuller context. In my defense, I’ve been working on a couple of long-range projects to be published in the future and have neglected some of the low-key reporting and blog-writing I typically do every day.

Other outside reporters, not having as much history with these whales or choosing a more engaging news angle, went well beyond the most recent study, emphasizing the role of toxic chemicals and not the limited findings in this new report. Note the story in Environmental Health News by Editor Linda Cone.

A couple of clarifications should be made for those reading Cone’s story:

Overall, Cone’s story is worthwhile, reminding us of the critical issues in the effort to recover the orca population. I guess that’s one reason I write this blog, Watching Our Water Ways. I can point folks to other resources when I don’t do the primary reporting myself.

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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.

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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.

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