Whales

Saving Scarlet The Killer Whale-NOAA & SeaWorld Team Up

Photo Credit: Brian Gisborne/Fisheries and Oceans Canada

An Orca whale knows no boundaries when it comes to U.S. and Canadian waters. However, it is this very little difference in location that could be a factor of life or death to a malnourished killer whale.

Scarlet also known as J-50, of the critically endangered Southern Residents population, has been monitored by the NOAA since the beginning of this month. After observation, scientists agree that she is in very poor condition and may not survive. But the NOAA, SeaWorld San Diego, and other organizations are exploring their options to provide medical attention and treatment to Scarlet.

As of Tuesday, Scarlet was swimming near Port Renfrew, B.C., on Vancouver Island, with her mother by her side. As of right now, no one on the Canadian side has applied to give Scarlet the medication that could help save her life. Luckily, the teams in the US have some experience with killer whales, and plan to provide antibiotics to her once she passes over the line.

The NOAA began speaking publicly about their plans earlier this week. Lynne Barre of NOAA’s Seattle office said, “it’s been an evolving process, of what the best approach is.” After assessing the whale, the NOAA’s first step would be to deliver antibiotics by dart-gun or pole, Barre explains. And as last in line of their possible actions, they have a new, experimental technique of feeding live, medicated fish to Scarlet.

A rotating team of veterinarians, including staff from SeaWorld San Diego and Dr. Martin Haulena of the Vancouver Aquarium, are on standby at the research station, awaiting the signal to act on the NOAA’s plan.

The personnel of SeaWorld San Diego have years of experience caring for killer whales at their facilities. With the knowledge from their team and the previous research they have conducted, they are prepared to do they can to help Scarlet.

Learn more from the sources here and here.

Guest Columns

Beluga Whales Amazing Survival Technique

Cover Photo Source.
By: Kira Krall

The Arctic is a tough place for any animal during the winter. Birds, bears, and most marine life flee the temperatures that drop well below -50 °F. One of the most famous residents includes the beluga whale. Some populations are known to brave the winter long after most other arctic animals have gone. However, their life histories vary depending on their family. Belugas, just like orca whales and bottlenose dolphins, live mostly in family groups called pods. There are populations all across their range, some of which rarely leave the waters they call home. The Hudson Bay population spends summers near the land and the winters in the deep water of the Bay. Arctic populations usually migrate south to escape the winter.

Unfortunately, sometimes they don’t time the trip correctly and become trapped by miles of sea ice. They can survive for months on their fat stores but must find a place to breathe. They have a spectacular behavioral adaptation that saves them from drowning: they keep the sea ice from
forming with their bodies!

A pod of belugas surrounded by sea ice prevent ice from forming in their breathing pool by continually surfacing. Ice can’t form in quickly moving water, but it is quick when the current stops. The belugas take turns surfacing and wait for the spring thaw so they can move freely again. Photo Source.

Even though most of the Arctic belugas migrate, water temperatures can still be as low as 14 °F. The secret to keeping warm lies mostly in the marine mammal’s anatomy. By having small pectoral fins and tail fluke, belugas have a reduced surface area and lose minimal heat through these thin body parts. The rest of their body is large and in charge with a thick blubber layer. Their body style also helps insulate them against cold deep water temperatures. Belugas have been recorded diving over 1,100 feet below the surface on hunting drips.

The beluga’s small tail and fin size help conserve body heat. By comparison, the smaller bottlenose dolphin can have a fluke length of two feet.

Photo Source.

This low surface area, high volume, and thick fat layer are what keep other large arctic animals like polar bears and walruses warm. The reverse is true for desert-dwelling animals. High surface area and low volume (i.e., small body size) allow heat to release from the animal’s body. Just ask the fennec fox about this effective combination!

Guest Columns

Newborn Orca Calf Dead Within Hours

Photo Credit: Michael Weiss/Center for Whale Research, via Associated Press
By: Sarah Sharkey
A heartbreaking loss was witnessed near Victoria, British Columbia in late July. An orca, J35, of
the critically endangered southern resident population gave birth to a female whale.
Everyone was so excited! This was the first calf to be born alive in the last three years.
Researchers were thrilled that both the mother and baby seemed to be doing well. The pod
also seemed very pleased with their new addition. However, within an hour, the young calf
stopped moving. J35 was forced to watch the baby that she had carried for 17 months die.
The death of this calf was a devastating blow to orcas and researchers alike, but J35 took it the
hardest. She refused to let go of the young calf’s body. She carried the body around on her
head for days. She continued to push the calf to the surface, perhaps in hopes of reviving it.
J35 has kept up with her pod as they travel between 60 to 70 miles a day, with the 400-pound
calf on her head. It is not an easy feat, but the mother is unable to let go of this precious body
yet.
She is clearly grieving in a horribly raw way that tears at our hearts. It is likely that she has not
eaten for days and it is not clear how long she will continue to carry around her dead calf.
In addition to the personal pain of J35, the loss of a calf in a critically endangered population is
heartbreaking. Researchers have speculated that the young calf probably died due to
malnutrition of the mother, likely caused by the lack of Chinook salmon in the area.

It’s Official: The Ocean’s Top Predators Play With Their Food

Featured Image Credit: www.DeviantArt.com
By: Kira Krall

Jorge Cervera Hauser was on a mission to swim with (and record!) the ocean’s top predator. He got more than he bargained for when diving in the Sea of Cortez, also known as the Gulf of California. Curious orca whales appeared and investigated Hauser and the other swimmers. All six of them showed only mild interest until a stingray emerged from deeper water. According to the orcas, that meant play time. Unfortunately for the ray, losing the game was fatal. Watch the video below, taken from over an hour of footage of the interaction.

This orca hunt in Antarctica shows how cooperative hunting makes the largest member of the dolphin family the apex ocean predator. Orcas all over the world eat different things depending on which pod they’re in. This pod learned how to time themselves in order to create a seal-flipping wave. Watch the whole scene unfold on the BBC’s Frozen Planet Credit: Allison Bone

Orca whales are infamous for their tendency to play with their food. Seals, fish, penguins, even sharks have been the target of this behavior. However, orcas don’t always finish what they start. The six orcas in the Sea of Cortez knocked the ray out in minutes but continued to toss it around in the water column. Over an hour later, the orcas let it sink to the ocean floor uneaten.

David Bain of the Orca Conservancy has a few theories to explain this top-predator behavior. While we may like to think it was a show for the divers, the orcas may have had a miscommunication within the pod. Some individuals could have killed it thinking another member would eat it. It could also be younger members playing stingray ball the way human children play soccer. The ray may have served as target practice for the pod, keeping everyone’s skills sharp.

Whatever the explanation, the highly successful predators did what predators do best: hunt. Read more from our source at National Geographic.

Whales

Rare Hybrid Whale Harpooned In Iceland

Featured Image Credit: Hard To Port Facebook
By: Sarah Sharkey

Last week, a group of whalers in Iceland pulled into the harbor with a whale that looked like a blue whale. Whale lovers everywhere were outraged! Blue whales are extremely rare animals that are struggling to survive in the human polluted ocean. These whales are also known to be the biggest animals on the planet. Without a doubt, the loss of a blue whale would be a tragic event.

Although the animal did look very similar to a blue whale, the whalers claimed that it was not quite a blue whale. Unfortunately, whales are killed on a regular basis in Iceland, so the whalers saw nothing wrong with the treatment of this majestic animal. Protestors insisted that the whale was a blue whale.

It seemed like the debate would not end, but eventually, a sample of genetic material was sent to a lab for testing. It turns out that the whale was actually a very rare hybrid between a blue whale and a fin whale. Although the whale was not a blue whale, its death was still tragic.

The Prime Minister of Iceland has announced that her government will be launching a full investigation into the commercial whaling industry in October. Hopefully, this extremely cruel practice will be stopped in the near future.

Learn more from our source.

Whales

Young Humpback Whale Freed From Entanglement In New Zealand

Featured Image Credit Storyful/Facebook/New Zealand Police
By: Sarah Sharkey

A young humpback whale off the coast of New Zealand was recently in an entanglement predicament. Usually, when a whale gets tangled up with fishing gear or other debris, the story ends very badly for the whale. Luckily for this whale, a team of trained professionals was called the scene.

Specifically, a crew responded to the incident off Cape Solander. Peter Bergman, a spokesman with NPWS, had this to say about the rescue. “Once the whale was disentangled, the team collected the rope and continued to monitor the whale to ensure there were not any additional entanglements. Conditions were very favorable today, with a calm sea and the whale appearing during the middle of the day when we had sufficient daylight to complete this dangerous disentanglement operation.”

The team rescue team consisted of people from Roads and Maritime Services, Port Authority NSW, NSW Police, the Department of Primary Industries, Marine Rescue NSW and the Organization for the Rescue and Research of Cetaceans in Australia. The group effort really paid off for this whale!

Other whales are not always so lucky. Many whales and other marine animals are negatively affected or even killed by trash and human debris every single day. The sad reality is that whales will not always be rescued by human helpers. It is important that we continue to make an effort to clean up our oceans.

Learn more from our source.

Whales

The Numbers Don’t Lie! Humpbacks Are On The Rise In Australia!

Featured Image Credit: mucru.org
By: Kira Krall

Every winter solstice, hundreds of people gather on Australia’s East Coast to take part in the annual humpback whale census. Armed with binoculars and a cetacean fascination, they assist the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) and the Organization for the Rescue and Research of Cetaceans (ORRCA) in counting individual whales to estimate the population numbers. On June 25^thof this year, more than 2,257 individuals were counted on the annual winter solstice census, up 10% from last year.

The ranger- and ORRCA-led census events occur at five different locations, with the Tracking Point Lighthouse near Sea Acres National Park consistently boasting the highest whale counts. NPWS rangers educate visitors on how the census works and teaches them how to survey by observing blows. A “blow” is a plume of water that a whale shoots up when it’s at the surface to breathe. The stream is so powerful and the census locations are so high up, they’re easy to spot by surveyors. Once a blow is spotted, it’s up to the census-takers to count individual bodies. They can take the form of the whale of the body itself, a tail engaged in a massive slap, or a breach of a fin.

Whale watchers gather at census locations to get the best view of whales. ORRCA encourages citizen scientists to take and submit their own data while getting in some stellar whale watching. Image Credit: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-25/onlookers-2/9906002

All of this is done to keep track of how healthy the population is. More whales mean more resources to go around. In 2002, the census reported only 233 sightings. The dramatic increase could be due to a couple factors, including better conservation practices, more whale-watchers, and more efficient whale spotting. Regardless of methods, this census event is giving scientists, policymakers, and the public a clearer picture of Australia’s migrating humpback population.

Orca Whale Puts On A Show After Being Freed From Fishing Gear

Featured Image Credit: Youtube
By: Kira Krall

An orca whale making a pit stop near Vancouver came under quite the travel delay. The fishing gear it became entangled in was thankfully stripped away by human responders after over five hours of attempting to free itself. Watch a news clip showing footage from the encounter and rescue, and read about the story below!

The large male is considered a transient orca, whose pods move around from place to place. Resident pods are just that: residents of their given location that rarely move around the map. Researchers can identify individuals by their patterns, fins, and scars. From there, they can figure out what kind of pod they belong to.

Our orca-in-distress was a passerby that got snagged in a long line attached to 50 prawn traps designed to catch the small shrimp-like creatures. Locals and fishers Suzanne Ambers and Keith Simpson noticed the Orca first, and the distressed buking second. His repeated surfacing and tugging on the fishing gear was tiring him out by the minute.

Ambers and Simpson reported the trapped whale to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. Once responders arrived, they carefully approached the 20-foot long mammal and tugged at the ropes until the orca wiggled free. After his great escape, he breached to celebrate his freedom and took off to open water.

Overall, entanglements are on the rise. In 2016, 71 whales were reported entangled along the west coast of the United States alone. Large commercial fishing gear, like the prawn line our Vancouver orca got caught in, is often the culprit. Of the 48 entanglements confirmed by NOAA in 2016, 29 whales were trapped in fishing gear.

Rescuers in California attempt to rescue a blue whale. Their boat is dwarfed by Earth’s largest animal. The yellow pole being held by the man at the front of the vessel has a sharp blade on the end designed for sawing through tough fishing gear rope. Image Credit: CNN

Read about sustainable seafood choices that use responsible fishing practices through the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch and read more from our source here.

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