UPDATE, Jan. 11, 2013
K-25 and presumably all of K pod traveled south all day
yesterday, reaching an area just north of Point Reyes National
Seashore this morning. Will they linger near San Francisco or
continue on to Monterey Bay, the southernmost location ever
reported for the Southern Residents? See map posted on
Orca Network’s Facebook page.
—–
UPDDATE, Jan. 10, 2013
As of this morning, K pod had moved south about 150 miles in 24
hours to an area just north of Fort Bragg, Calif. See the map on
Orca Network’s Facebook page.
—–
UPDATE, Jan. 9, 2013
It appears that K pod has chosen to hang out for awhile outside of Humboldt Bay near Eureka, Calif., not far from where the pod was located yesterday via satellite transmissions. Recent movements can be seen on the map posted on Orca Network’s Facebook page.
Ken Balcomb of the Center for Whale Research met up with Jeff Jacobson of Humboldt State University yesterday. Ken spotted from shore while Jeff took his boat out to photograph the whales, according to Brad Hanson of the Northwest Fisheries Science Center. During the foraging, Jeff was reported to have picked up some fish scales to identify what the whales were eating, and he may have gotten some fecal samples as well, according to Brad.
The weather is a little rough to get out on the water today, but
conditions may improve over the next day or so, Brad told me.
—–
In the 10 days that a satellite transmitter has been attached to K-25, this 21-year-old male killer whale has traveled from South Kitsap to Northern California.
K-25 — and presumably all of K pod — was reported off Eureka, Calif., this morning. Where the whales will go from there is a matter of intense interest among orca researchers.
This is the first time that the endangered Southern Residents have ever been tracked for more than three days in the open ocean, and researchers have told me they are somewhat surprised at their pace of travel.
I wrote about the tagging project in Sunday’s Kitsap Sun, where I briefly touched on the controversy over whether it is wise to attach these barbed tags to the endangered orcas. For now, there’s not much more to be said.
For background on the tagging program, check out my previous stories and blog posts:
Story, Dec. 4, 2010:
Satellite Tagging Could Track Killer Whales in Winter … but at Some
Risk?
Blog entries
Orca tagging raises questions about research (Dec. 8, 2010):
Orca researchers divided over use of satellite tags (Dec. 28, 2010)
Researchers launch winter tracking of killer whales (Feb. 22, 2012)
Update on orca research cruise and tracking effort (Feb. 26, 2012)
