A parasite the size of a thumbtack is flourishing in B.C.'s fish farms - and wiping out the wild salmon, writes Taras Grescoe
Wild salmon are virtually extinct in the Atlantic Ocean, yet tens of millions of Atlantic salmon are being raised in farms in the Pacific; the U.S.-based Safeway supermarket chain has announced that it is curtailing purchases of disease-ridden farmed salmon from Chile; and returns of wild salmon on the British Columbia coast seem to be declining from year to year.
Choosing farmed salmon, some people will tell you, means consuming some of the most toxic chemicals known to humanity. Opting for wild-caught salmon, others insist, could make you complicit in driving already fragile salmon stocks to local extinction. No wonder so many people end up settling for chopped cucumber in their maki rolls at the sushi bar.
Yet there really is no need for confusion. Where you stand on the wild-or-farmed-salmon issue should come down to what you think about a thumbtack-sized crustacean that survives by eating the scales and skin off the same fish that we love to eat - an ugly, creeping, little beastie known as the sea louse.
I was first shown sea lice on salmon smolts by Alexandra Morton, an American-born marine biologist who has lived in a floathouse in Echo Bay, in the Broughton Archipelago, for more than 20 years. The Broughton, a jumbled jigsaw puzzle of islands scattered off B.C.'s mid-coast, is home to sea otters, great blue herons and, until recently, a resident population of killer whales. It is considered one of the richest pockets of biodiversity on the coast - or at least it was until the salmon farms came along.
Aboard her boat one afternoon, Ms. Morton told me how she had welcomed the first net cages when they were towed into local bays in the late 1980s: She hoped that they would provide employment for local people. But then the killer whales were driven away by the acoustic devices the farms used to discourage them and other predators, fishermen started pulling up prawn traps and clams dripping with rotting pellets and salmon feces, and the wild salmon began to disappear.
In the late 1990s, a Scottish tourist at a fishing lodge near Ms. Morton's floathouse asked, "Do you have the scourge of the sea lice yet?" The visitor explained that after the salmon-farming industry came to Scotland, sea lice started appearing in great quantities on wild fish; he had seen the same parasites on the salmon he had just caught in the Broughton.
Alarmed, Ms. Morton took out a dip net and pulled up dozens of wild juvenile pink salmon. They were bleeding from the eyeballs and the base of the fins. Most of them were covered with brown flecks - juvenile sea lice. As they grow, changing their body shape every few days, these parasitic copepods strip mucus, scales and skin from the growing fish. While a full-grown salmon has an armour coating of scales and can survive an infestation, the parasites exhaust the young fish and quickly kill them off.
Using hand seine nets to sample local waters, Ms. Morton established that the salmon farmers were raising millions of adult farmed Atlantic salmon along the migration routes of wild Pacific salmon - in exactly those inlets and estuaries where juvenile wild Pacific fattened up before going to sea. Suddenly, the decline of wild salmon populations did not seem like such a mystery: The 27 farms in the Broughton, had, by crowding normally nomadic fish into tightly packed nets, become ranches for sea lice, concentrating and fatally passing on parasites to wild salmon when they were at their most vulnerable.
In 2002, government scientists predicted that 3.6 million pink salmon would return to the Broughton. Fewer than 150,000 did - a 97-per cent-population crash.
Though the salmon farming industry has done its best to muddy the waters, Ms. Morton has science, as well as some of the leading fisheries scientists in the world, on her side. Analyzing data from Ireland, Scotland and Atlantic Canada, the late Ransom Myers of Dalhousie University showed that disease and parasites spread by farmed salmon reduced the survival of local populations of wild salmon and sea trout by more than 50 per cent per generation. In December, 2007, Ms. Morton and colleagues from the University of Alberta and Dalhousie published a paper in Science, one of the world's most prestigious peer-reviewed science journals, projecting the complete collapse of pink salmon in the Broughton by 2011 if the sea lice continue to infest fish.
The evidence is on their side: Everywhere salmon farms have appeared, from Norway to Chile, they have spread disease and parasites to local fish. This year, Ms. Morton told me, sea lice have for the first time shown up on juvenile herring and sockeye in the Strait of Georgia; she found large numbers of them near a fish farm in Clayoquot Sound (a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve where the multinational Mainstream, which is 45-per-cent owned by the Norwegian government, has been allowed to operate 14 salmon farms).
This spring, thousands of newborn pink salmon are leaving the Broughton Archipelago's Ahta River and schooling near the 600,000 adult Atlantic salmon awaiting harvest at the Glacier Falls farm. Employees have already treated fish in the farm with a pesticide called Slice, a potent neurotoxin that kills not only sea lice, but also affects lobsters and other sea creatures we eat. (Though Slice has never been officially approved in Canada, "emergency" permits are routinely granted to salmon farmers by veterinarians, and Health Canada now allows trace amounts of Slice in the flesh of farmed salmon in our supermarkets.) But even this heavy-duty poison has not killed off all the sea lice this year. Samples taken by Ms. Morton show that 17 per cent of the juvenile fish next to the Glacier Falls site are already infested with the parasites.
In March, she announced plans to "medevac" the fish to safety. Using a technique that is standard in hatcheries, she would net the juveniles, put them in a tank full of ocean water and ferry them past the Glacier Falls farm and back to their migration route. On the day of the proposed operation, a seaplane touched down beside her boat, and she was handed a letter, informing her that the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans had refused to give her permission to transport the fry.
"The department rejected the idea," Ted Perry of the DFO's Pacific Biology Station in Nanaimo told CBC Radio, "because we think it's the best thing for the fish. There's a lot of handling that goes on with the proposed moving. ... It's a very stressful process for young fish."
For Ms. Morton, the DFO's contention that it rejected her plea purely in the interests of the fish is just so much spin. She points out that the department currently has a team in the Broughton netting and killing thousands of juvenile salmon for scientific purposes.
"The government is still trying to make this sound like it's a really complicated issue," she says. "It's not. It's simple: Industrial salmon farms in British Columbia are spreading sea lice to wild salmon. Where political will is behind the wild fish and the salmon farms have been banned, the fish are doing just fine."
She points out that Alaska, whose economy depends on the wild catch and where salmon farms are strictly prohibited, had two of its biggest harvests in history for pink and sockeye salmon last year.
The salmon farmers have accused Ms. Morton of engineering a publicity stunt, using photogenic baby fish to draw attention to their industry.
She and her colleagues counter that their concern is genuine: These may be among the last generations of pink salmon in the Broughton Archipelago. (Ms. Morton's funding comes in dribs and drabs from B.C. fishermen sympathetic to her cause. She is trying to raise money to challenge the government's decision at http://www.adopt-a-fry.org.)
Meanwhile, what is a consumer who is inclined to eat ethically to do? Oddly, the best way to save the wild salmon of the Pacific may be to eat them (in moderation, of course, and paying close attention to which species and stocks are abundant; pink salmon runs from other parts of B.C. are healthy, and Nass River sockeye and most Alaskan salmon stocks are in good shape).
Eating farmed salmon, in contrast, encourages an industry that is insidiously undermining wild stocks around the world. The industry could clean up its act by switching to land-based, closed-containment systems that don't spread parasites and pollutants to the wild. Until then, however, supporting well-managed sport and commercial fisheries, and subsidizing habitat restoration, is the only way to ensure that wild salmon will survive into the future. We need to look at salmon the way we used to: not as the cheap protein in a million in-flight meals, but an occasional luxury - one that is well worth paying more for.
When Robert Burns wrote To a Louse in 1785, the rivers of Scotland - and those of much of Europe - supported healthy populations of wild salmon. Generations of overfishing and habitat destruction in the fjords and firths effectively dug a mass grave for the wild fish; the disease, pollution and parasites that arrived with industrial salmon farms spread the final layer of quicklime on their corpses. In the Atlantic, wild salmon are now considered commercially extinct.
The salmon of the Pacific still stand a chance. Yet when Irish and Scottish scientists and fisheries managers came to B.C. last year to testify before the province's Special Committee on Sustainable Aquaculture about how sea lice had killed off their native salmon and sea trout populations, they were shocked. Why, they wondered, would Canadians risk endangering one of the planet's last great salmon populations to profit a few Norwegian companies?
I have been wondering the same thing myself. The great mystery is what we as Canadians stand to gain from salmon farming. Of the 149 sites in B.C., 130 are fully owned by Norwegian companies, while only 11 are wholly Canadian-owned. The profits go to bank accounts in Oslo, licensing fees are laughably low and companies are allowed to continue operating farms even after their leases have expired. Local employment is minimal and rarely long-term - as I witnessed on my visit to several farms, the staff is mostly college-aged - and as the industry becomes increasingly automated, the ratio of jobs to kilograms of fillet produced constantly decreases.
The province's marine sports fishery, which one day may disappear because of sea lice, employs 4,200 and brings $158-million of revenue to the province. Salmon farming provides only 1,800 full-time jobs and, according to B.C.'s Ministry of Environment, contributes just $61-million to the gross domestic product.
As Canadians, citizens of a country that once had a worldwide reputation for its forward-thinking environmental policies, we should be mortified by our elected officials' shortsightedness. (This month, the B.C. government announced a moratorium on new permits north of Klemtu - a village 275 kilometres south of the border with Alaska. Meanwhile, they quietly approved two new farm permits on the south coast.)
Like the most parochial banana republic of old, we've leased out our natural riches to a handful of distant head offices. They reap the profits, and we pay the environmental price - in the form of ever lousier and increasingly scarcer wild salmon.
zaterdag 26 april 2008
donderdag 24 april 2008
Robson Bight's worrying lessons
We've criticized Environment Minister Barry Penner for the sluggish response after a barge loaded with logging equipment -- including a tanker truck full of diesel fuel -- dumped its cargo in Robson Bight last year.
So it's fair to praise both Penner and federal Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn for launching a salvage effort to recover the equipment, particularly the tanker truck with 10,000 litres of fuel. The operation, expected to cost $750,000 to $1 million, is critical to protect killer whales in the ecological reserve.
The challenge now is to drive the recovery process forward as rapidly as possible, with the maximum safeguards in place for the inherently risky operation.
The migratory whales will return to Robson Bight in late June or July. The recovery work needs to be completed before they arrive, given the risks, or it might have to wait until next spring.
That kind of delay would create new dangers; each month beneath the surface means more corrosion and potentially catastrophic failure of the fuel tanks on the vehicles.
While we applaud the decision, the federal and provincial governments should launch a proper review of this debacle and their slow response. The list of questions requiring answers is long.
- Why was the barge being towed through the reserve in the first place? The area is supposed to be off limits to shipping. (Initial government reports wrongly claimed the barge capsized outside the reserve boundaries.)
- Why did the Canadian Coast Guard say there was no need to inspect the wreckage, arguing -- again wrongly -- that the diesel truck would have imploded under the pressure on the seabed?
- And why did the coast guard claim that underwater inspection would be too costly, citing an exaggerated estimate?
- Why did it take the federal and provincial government two critical months to agree to pay for the underwater inspection, then almost another two months to arrange the mission?
- And why did it take eight months from the time of the incident for the government agencies to make a decision on raising the threatening seabed debris, increasing both the continuing risk and the challenge of raising the equipment?
Of course, care must be taken to ensure the correct choices are made. But these delays are extraordinary, especially when the public would expect protocols and plans to be in place for just such predictable occurrences on our heavily travelled coast.
Given the federal and provincial government's interest in increased tanker traffic and offshore oil and gas development, it's critical that they learn from the poor response to this disaster..
So it's fair to praise both Penner and federal Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn for launching a salvage effort to recover the equipment, particularly the tanker truck with 10,000 litres of fuel. The operation, expected to cost $750,000 to $1 million, is critical to protect killer whales in the ecological reserve.
The challenge now is to drive the recovery process forward as rapidly as possible, with the maximum safeguards in place for the inherently risky operation.
The migratory whales will return to Robson Bight in late June or July. The recovery work needs to be completed before they arrive, given the risks, or it might have to wait until next spring.
That kind of delay would create new dangers; each month beneath the surface means more corrosion and potentially catastrophic failure of the fuel tanks on the vehicles.
While we applaud the decision, the federal and provincial governments should launch a proper review of this debacle and their slow response. The list of questions requiring answers is long.
- Why was the barge being towed through the reserve in the first place? The area is supposed to be off limits to shipping. (Initial government reports wrongly claimed the barge capsized outside the reserve boundaries.)
- Why did the Canadian Coast Guard say there was no need to inspect the wreckage, arguing -- again wrongly -- that the diesel truck would have imploded under the pressure on the seabed?
- And why did the coast guard claim that underwater inspection would be too costly, citing an exaggerated estimate?
- Why did it take the federal and provincial government two critical months to agree to pay for the underwater inspection, then almost another two months to arrange the mission?
- And why did it take eight months from the time of the incident for the government agencies to make a decision on raising the threatening seabed debris, increasing both the continuing risk and the challenge of raising the equipment?
Of course, care must be taken to ensure the correct choices are made. But these delays are extraordinary, especially when the public would expect protocols and plans to be in place for just such predictable occurrences on our heavily travelled coast.
Given the federal and provincial government's interest in increased tanker traffic and offshore oil and gas development, it's critical that they learn from the poor response to this disaster..
maandag 21 april 2008
Orca Stranded on Sandwood Bay
A stranded Orca has been found at Sandwood Bay on the John Muir Trust’s Sandwood Estate in Sutherland. The eight and a half metre long adult is thought to be a male and has been stranded for too long to establish a cause of death.
According to Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust(2) this is an unusual find. ‘Since 1992 there have been only 11 killer whale stranding incidents in Scotland, so this is quite an unusual occurrence. The last reported killer whale stranding in Scotland was a juvenile in the Firth of Forth in May 2007,’ commented Susannah Calderan, the Biodiversity Officer for the Trust.
In the past month large groups of killer whales have been seen around the northern coasts of Scotland and the Isle of North Rona, some of which have been seen taking seals. It is possible that the Cape Wrath animal was a member of one of these groups, although currents in the area are quite strong, so it could equally have been carried in from offshore. The other possibility is that it could be one of a small population thought to be resident in Scotland’s Hebridean waters.
Orcas are one of the ocean's top predators. Different pods tend to specialise in what they eat, but diets can range from fish, octopus and squid, to birds, seals, sharks and large whales. Males are much larger than females, and it is easy to tell adults apart, males having a tall straight dorsal fin measuring up to 6 foot high, whilst females have a more dolphin-shaped fin. Despite the name ‘killer whale’ orcas are in fact the largest member of the dolphin family.
Orcas have been hunted in the past for commercial whaling, and are still captured for public display, although there are no captive dolphins in the UK. At the top of the food chain, they have no natural predators, and are at risk only from man's activities. The natural life span of a wild orca is up to 60 years for males and 90 years for females.
According to Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust(2) this is an unusual find. ‘Since 1992 there have been only 11 killer whale stranding incidents in Scotland, so this is quite an unusual occurrence. The last reported killer whale stranding in Scotland was a juvenile in the Firth of Forth in May 2007,’ commented Susannah Calderan, the Biodiversity Officer for the Trust.
In the past month large groups of killer whales have been seen around the northern coasts of Scotland and the Isle of North Rona, some of which have been seen taking seals. It is possible that the Cape Wrath animal was a member of one of these groups, although currents in the area are quite strong, so it could equally have been carried in from offshore. The other possibility is that it could be one of a small population thought to be resident in Scotland’s Hebridean waters.
Orcas are one of the ocean's top predators. Different pods tend to specialise in what they eat, but diets can range from fish, octopus and squid, to birds, seals, sharks and large whales. Males are much larger than females, and it is easy to tell adults apart, males having a tall straight dorsal fin measuring up to 6 foot high, whilst females have a more dolphin-shaped fin. Despite the name ‘killer whale’ orcas are in fact the largest member of the dolphin family.
Orcas have been hunted in the past for commercial whaling, and are still captured for public display, although there are no captive dolphins in the UK. At the top of the food chain, they have no natural predators, and are at risk only from man's activities. The natural life span of a wild orca is up to 60 years for males and 90 years for females.
zaterdag 19 april 2008
Salvaging of wreckage at Robson Bight OK'd
A fuel tanker and other logging equipment containing pollutants will be recovered from the ocean floor near Robson Bight, the provincial and federal governments announced yesterday.
But the salvage operation might not happen before the annual visit of orcas in June, Environment Minister Barry Penner said.
"We'll try to avoid the time when we know they'll be there, just in case something went wrong," Penner said, adding it's possible the operation will be delayed until after the migration.
"My preference is to do it first, but for the last week or two, my ministry staff have been canvassing various salvage operators to check on their availability and interest ... and it's going to be a real challenge to marshal enough equipment and resources to do this before mid-June."
Eleven pieces of equipment tumbled off a barge when it tipped on Aug. 20, 2007. The gear went into water that's 350 metres deep and is in an area designated as an environmental reserve. The equipment, belonging to Ted LeRoy Trucking of Chemainus, contained an estimated 19,000 litres of petroleum, some of which immediately started leaking into the famed killer whale habitat, where threatened northern resident killer whales rub themselves on pebble beaches.
Penner and federal Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Loyola Hearn made the joint announcement to split the cost of the operation, which could be between $750,000 to $1 million.
The chances of recovering the costs from Ted LeRoy Trucking are slim, since the firm has filed for bankruptcy.
The cost "is very dependent on weather conditions," Penner said. The cost will also depend on the number of pieces of equipment recovered, and the priority will be those that pose the greatest risk of pollution, he said.
"The price tag will go up as you try to recover additional pieces, which are more dispersed," Penner said.
The government wants to minimize potential impacts on orcas and other wildlife.
"We think this is great news," said Jennifer Lash of Living Oceans Society. "Hopefully, they'll be able to move on it really quickly and they'll get that equipment removed before the whales come back in June."
Paul Spong, director of OrcaLab, a whale research station on Hanson Island, was jubilant upon hearing the news.
"I'm very relieved, I have to say. We're right on the brink on the time where a decision needed to be made in order to do the job before the orcas return this summer," he said.
The orcas could pass through in late June or even early July, Spong said, so "they need to aim for getting that tanker out of there by the middle of June."
Spong said the salvage operator could use a shroud that would go over the tanker "and if there's leakage as the tanker came up, it would be contained."
Recent video footage of the sunken equipment shows the vehicles are mostly upright and relatively undamaged. The tanker, which carries 10,000 litres, doesn't appear to be leaking.
Great care must be taken in the salvage operation, Lash said.
"We need to make sure we're working with salvage experts who will not just get the equipment to the surface but will minimize the amount of oil leaking out of the equipment, because [a major spill] would be a disaster," she said.
Lessons can be learned from this experience, Lash said.
"We want to know why a barge with logging equipment was even in Robson Bight in the first place. The amount of traffic going up and down the coast is increasing every day," she said.
"We'd like to see the government have a plan for this area that manages the traffic and looks after the environment."
But the salvage operation might not happen before the annual visit of orcas in June, Environment Minister Barry Penner said.
"We'll try to avoid the time when we know they'll be there, just in case something went wrong," Penner said, adding it's possible the operation will be delayed until after the migration.
"My preference is to do it first, but for the last week or two, my ministry staff have been canvassing various salvage operators to check on their availability and interest ... and it's going to be a real challenge to marshal enough equipment and resources to do this before mid-June."
Eleven pieces of equipment tumbled off a barge when it tipped on Aug. 20, 2007. The gear went into water that's 350 metres deep and is in an area designated as an environmental reserve. The equipment, belonging to Ted LeRoy Trucking of Chemainus, contained an estimated 19,000 litres of petroleum, some of which immediately started leaking into the famed killer whale habitat, where threatened northern resident killer whales rub themselves on pebble beaches.
Penner and federal Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Loyola Hearn made the joint announcement to split the cost of the operation, which could be between $750,000 to $1 million.
The chances of recovering the costs from Ted LeRoy Trucking are slim, since the firm has filed for bankruptcy.
The cost "is very dependent on weather conditions," Penner said. The cost will also depend on the number of pieces of equipment recovered, and the priority will be those that pose the greatest risk of pollution, he said.
"The price tag will go up as you try to recover additional pieces, which are more dispersed," Penner said.
The government wants to minimize potential impacts on orcas and other wildlife.
"We think this is great news," said Jennifer Lash of Living Oceans Society. "Hopefully, they'll be able to move on it really quickly and they'll get that equipment removed before the whales come back in June."
Paul Spong, director of OrcaLab, a whale research station on Hanson Island, was jubilant upon hearing the news.
"I'm very relieved, I have to say. We're right on the brink on the time where a decision needed to be made in order to do the job before the orcas return this summer," he said.
The orcas could pass through in late June or even early July, Spong said, so "they need to aim for getting that tanker out of there by the middle of June."
Spong said the salvage operator could use a shroud that would go over the tanker "and if there's leakage as the tanker came up, it would be contained."
Recent video footage of the sunken equipment shows the vehicles are mostly upright and relatively undamaged. The tanker, which carries 10,000 litres, doesn't appear to be leaking.
Great care must be taken in the salvage operation, Lash said.
"We need to make sure we're working with salvage experts who will not just get the equipment to the surface but will minimize the amount of oil leaking out of the equipment, because [a major spill] would be a disaster," she said.
Lessons can be learned from this experience, Lash said.
"We want to know why a barge with logging equipment was even in Robson Bight in the first place. The amount of traffic going up and down the coast is increasing every day," she said.
"We'd like to see the government have a plan for this area that manages the traffic and looks after the environment."
donderdag 17 april 2008
Transient killer whale hunt captured on film by researchers
Two researchers from the Center for Whale Research, Dave Ellifrit and Adam U., were out in a boat Wednesday when they encountered a group of seven transient killer whales near Edwards Point off the west side of San Juan Island.
They noticed some action in the distance, then observed a chase involving a Dall's porpoise and her calf, both of which probably got eaten. The whales then moved south of Eagle Point and took a harbor seal quite close to the two researchers, Adam reports.
For the first dramatic photos, go to the Center for Whale Research. Webmaster Kelley Balcomb-Bartok told me he hopes to post more photos once they get processed.
Speaking of the Center for Whale Research, you've got to check out the new "OrcaCam," which provides a clear view from the deck of the center. The most impressive feature is the ability for anyone to operate the camera -- pan and zoom -- with only an Internet connection and a browser with JAVA.
Please read the instructions carefully and practice if you have the intent of operating the camera when whales are present. Otherwise, I hope folks will give up control to someone else when whales are moving through the area.
woensdag 16 april 2008
WITNESS-Get down! Orcas on the attack
PLAYA PUNTA NORTE, Argentina (Reuters) - The park rangergestured forcefully, ordering me to throw myself down on thesand and stay quiet.
Some sea lion pups paddled tentatively in the shallow surf,learning to swim at Punta Norte beach in eastern Patagonia, andwe were staring at the sea, watching for a huge black fin.
It was my first visit to see orcas hunting baby sea lionson the Valdes peninsula, a natural phenomenon unique to thekiller whale group in this region.
I tried to stick carefully to the instructions the parkranger gave us before leading us to a thin stretch of sand nearthe ocean where Mel, a giant orca, was preparing to hunt.
Six of us -- a Reuters cameraman, the park ranger, threenature photographers, and I -- were waiting to see one of theanimal world's most spectacular attacks on this beach, wherekiller whales swim up a channel of deep water to get right ontothe sand. They risk death if they become stranded.
Stretched out like sharp-shooters 30 yards from water'sedge, we watched, transfixed, as an enormous black finapproached one wobbly pup in the shallow water.
An instant later, Mel torpedoed toward the beach at fullspeed, hidden in a wave and throwing his nine-yard-long bodycompletely out of the water to grab the pup in his jaws.
It was almost soundless. All you could hear was the breakof the waves as the orca shook the sea lion and wiggled hisenormous body on the sand to get positioned for the next waveto carry him back into the water.
SURVIVORS
On the beach, the other pups in the group emerged unscathedfrom the explosion of foam kicked up by the attack.
They were so close to us we could see their eyes. We wereunder strict instructions not to move and mess up the hunt. Anygesture or noise could distract them from the ocean, where theblack fin of another orca loomed.
Having travelled far and waited for hours to see an attack,at first I mentally urged Mel on so we could get a good story.But the little sea lions were cute, and I started to questionmy enthusiasm as Mel's killing continued.
The orcas, the oceans' fiercest predators, come to PuntaNorte every March, staying up to 45 days and building upblubber on a diet of sea-lion pups.
The surviving sea lions are swimming well enough by theSouthern Hemisphere winter to elude the killer whales.
Our visit was carefully orchestrated because experts fearhuman intervention could affect the hunt, perhaps permanently.
Only a few visitors -- researchers, nature photographersand journalists -- are allowed here each autumn, payinghundreds of dollars for the privilege, and escorted byspecialists who control every movement as they record detailsof the hunt for research.
"Grounded with capture, grounded with capture," the rangerbreathed into his two-way radio as Mel took the pup out to seaand shared it with another killer whale.
I stayed face down on the sand until the guide told me Icould sit up for a bit to work out the cramps.
After the first attack, as petrels scarfed up sea lion bitsspit out by the orcas, Mel cruised up and down the coast again,turning 45 degrees on his side to hide his 5-foot (1.5-meter)high fin and watching for more unsteady pups.
For the next several hours only bigger sea lions crossedthe channel area the orcas hunt in. Mel didn't bother pursuingthe strong swimmers, but when the pups returned, the huntstarted up again.
During the two days we spent on the beach, the magnificentanimal, believed to be more than 40 years old, launched himselfonto the sand 14 times and almost always got his pup. A smallerwhale also made a few attempts but failed.
On the third day, the wind changed and the orcas didn'tcome into the channel, but experienced photographers who havespent several seasons watching the orcas said we had been luckyto witness a spectacular two days of hunting.
Some sea lion pups paddled tentatively in the shallow surf,learning to swim at Punta Norte beach in eastern Patagonia, andwe were staring at the sea, watching for a huge black fin.
It was my first visit to see orcas hunting baby sea lionson the Valdes peninsula, a natural phenomenon unique to thekiller whale group in this region.
I tried to stick carefully to the instructions the parkranger gave us before leading us to a thin stretch of sand nearthe ocean where Mel, a giant orca, was preparing to hunt.
Six of us -- a Reuters cameraman, the park ranger, threenature photographers, and I -- were waiting to see one of theanimal world's most spectacular attacks on this beach, wherekiller whales swim up a channel of deep water to get right ontothe sand. They risk death if they become stranded.
Stretched out like sharp-shooters 30 yards from water'sedge, we watched, transfixed, as an enormous black finapproached one wobbly pup in the shallow water.
An instant later, Mel torpedoed toward the beach at fullspeed, hidden in a wave and throwing his nine-yard-long bodycompletely out of the water to grab the pup in his jaws.
It was almost soundless. All you could hear was the breakof the waves as the orca shook the sea lion and wiggled hisenormous body on the sand to get positioned for the next waveto carry him back into the water.
SURVIVORS
On the beach, the other pups in the group emerged unscathedfrom the explosion of foam kicked up by the attack.
They were so close to us we could see their eyes. We wereunder strict instructions not to move and mess up the hunt. Anygesture or noise could distract them from the ocean, where theblack fin of another orca loomed.
Having travelled far and waited for hours to see an attack,at first I mentally urged Mel on so we could get a good story.But the little sea lions were cute, and I started to questionmy enthusiasm as Mel's killing continued.
The orcas, the oceans' fiercest predators, come to PuntaNorte every March, staying up to 45 days and building upblubber on a diet of sea-lion pups.
The surviving sea lions are swimming well enough by theSouthern Hemisphere winter to elude the killer whales.
Our visit was carefully orchestrated because experts fearhuman intervention could affect the hunt, perhaps permanently.
Only a few visitors -- researchers, nature photographersand journalists -- are allowed here each autumn, payinghundreds of dollars for the privilege, and escorted byspecialists who control every movement as they record detailsof the hunt for research.
"Grounded with capture, grounded with capture," the rangerbreathed into his two-way radio as Mel took the pup out to seaand shared it with another killer whale.
I stayed face down on the sand until the guide told me Icould sit up for a bit to work out the cramps.
After the first attack, as petrels scarfed up sea lion bitsspit out by the orcas, Mel cruised up and down the coast again,turning 45 degrees on his side to hide his 5-foot (1.5-meter)high fin and watching for more unsteady pups.
For the next several hours only bigger sea lions crossedthe channel area the orcas hunt in. Mel didn't bother pursuingthe strong swimmers, but when the pups returned, the huntstarted up again.
During the two days we spent on the beach, the magnificentanimal, believed to be more than 40 years old, launched himselfonto the sand 14 times and almost always got his pup. A smallerwhale also made a few attempts but failed.
On the third day, the wind changed and the orcas didn'tcome into the channel, but experienced photographers who havespent several seasons watching the orcas said we had been luckyto witness a spectacular two days of hunting.
Killer whales bring the hunt onto land
PLAYA PUNTA NORTE, Argentina (Reuters) - A six-ton orca, or killer whale, torpedoes toward the beach, its dorsal fin cutting the Patagonian sea. It launches itself onto the sand in an explosion of water and foam.
Before the waters die down, the orca is shaking its immense head from side to side with a sea lion pup clamped between his jaws.
Then the orca wriggles into position to catch a wave to carry it back out to sea.
This is a rare occurrence, in which a whale seems to defy its instincts by coming onto land, risking death if it becomes stranded on the inhospitable beach.
Only seven orcas in the world are known to hunt this way, all of them members of a pod that patrols the coast of Patagonia's Valdes Peninsula at this time of year. It happens almost exclusively in March and April -- early autumn in the southern hemisphere -- when baby sea lions are learning to swim.
One of the favorite hunting spots is at Playa Punta Norte, the northern tip of the peninsula, where a deep channel leads up to the sand, passing between two rocky areas where sea lions breed.
The sea lion pups learn to swim by crossing the channel between the rocks. Once they can swim well, they are too fast and agile for the orca. But the youngest ones, who stay on the sand at water's edge, are perfect prey.
The orcas can beach themselves several times a day, but this hunting method is risky. Whales can die if they remain out of water, so they have to time the waves and judge distances carefully.
They use sonar -- orcas are members of the dolphin family -- to hunt, and only beach themselves in high tide, on steep and pebbly beaches that help them roll back.
APPRENTICE KILLER
Orcas are highly social and long-lived: females can live up to 80 years and males almost 60. But the pods grow slowly because orcas take at least 15 years to mature, the females have calves only every five years or so, and many of the calves die young.
"It's a culture at risk," Roberto Bubas, a ranger with 15 years of experience observing orcas in Patagonia, said of the hunting method, noting that of the seven, only five are teaching the technique to younger members of the pod.
Mel, the 30-foot (9-meter) male who caught the baby sea lion on the beach was shadowed by a smaller apprentice, who shared the spoils of the hunt and followed the big expert up near the sand, but did not dare to beach itself.
The orcas, sea lions and penguins attracted 340,000 tourists to the Valdes Peninsula last year, when 36 cruise ships made stops nearby, three times as many as in 2002.
"Tourism is growing and growing. It's massive. What we're trying to do is redistribute the tourists," said Sergio Casin, Conservation Director for Protected Areas in the southern Argentine province of Chubut.
The government asks tour companies to spread their groups around the peninsula, where they watch penguins and whales from lookout points on cliffs. Walking on the beaches is prohibited in most of the peninsula's 1 million acre (400,000 hectare) reserve.
"The problem is trying to control all the people who don't know how to respect the animals on the beach," said Juan Copello, whose family owns the land at Playa Punta Norte.
People like Copello who had owned land on the peninsula before it became a reserve are allowed to remain but must work with the government to protect wildlife.
"In places where people always went down to the beach the animals have moved on and sought quieter areas," said Copello, who runs a small lodge and also observes whales for Punta Norte Orca Research (http://www.orca-puntanorte.com/index.html), a group led by New Zealand researcher Ingrid Visser.
Only documentarians, researchers and some journalists are allowed access to the beach at Playa Punta Norte, and they must pay for the privilege. The money goes to the provincial government, which administers the reserve.
Casin, of the provincial government, said: "Taking a lot of people there would make the sea lions stampede, which would damage the (whale's) food and the life of the sea lions themselves."
Source: Reuters Canada
Before the waters die down, the orca is shaking its immense head from side to side with a sea lion pup clamped between his jaws.
Then the orca wriggles into position to catch a wave to carry it back out to sea.
This is a rare occurrence, in which a whale seems to defy its instincts by coming onto land, risking death if it becomes stranded on the inhospitable beach.
Only seven orcas in the world are known to hunt this way, all of them members of a pod that patrols the coast of Patagonia's Valdes Peninsula at this time of year. It happens almost exclusively in March and April -- early autumn in the southern hemisphere -- when baby sea lions are learning to swim.
One of the favorite hunting spots is at Playa Punta Norte, the northern tip of the peninsula, where a deep channel leads up to the sand, passing between two rocky areas where sea lions breed.
The sea lion pups learn to swim by crossing the channel between the rocks. Once they can swim well, they are too fast and agile for the orca. But the youngest ones, who stay on the sand at water's edge, are perfect prey.
The orcas can beach themselves several times a day, but this hunting method is risky. Whales can die if they remain out of water, so they have to time the waves and judge distances carefully.
They use sonar -- orcas are members of the dolphin family -- to hunt, and only beach themselves in high tide, on steep and pebbly beaches that help them roll back.
APPRENTICE KILLER
Orcas are highly social and long-lived: females can live up to 80 years and males almost 60. But the pods grow slowly because orcas take at least 15 years to mature, the females have calves only every five years or so, and many of the calves die young.
"It's a culture at risk," Roberto Bubas, a ranger with 15 years of experience observing orcas in Patagonia, said of the hunting method, noting that of the seven, only five are teaching the technique to younger members of the pod.
Mel, the 30-foot (9-meter) male who caught the baby sea lion on the beach was shadowed by a smaller apprentice, who shared the spoils of the hunt and followed the big expert up near the sand, but did not dare to beach itself.
The orcas, sea lions and penguins attracted 340,000 tourists to the Valdes Peninsula last year, when 36 cruise ships made stops nearby, three times as many as in 2002.
"Tourism is growing and growing. It's massive. What we're trying to do is redistribute the tourists," said Sergio Casin, Conservation Director for Protected Areas in the southern Argentine province of Chubut.
The government asks tour companies to spread their groups around the peninsula, where they watch penguins and whales from lookout points on cliffs. Walking on the beaches is prohibited in most of the peninsula's 1 million acre (400,000 hectare) reserve.
"The problem is trying to control all the people who don't know how to respect the animals on the beach," said Juan Copello, whose family owns the land at Playa Punta Norte.
People like Copello who had owned land on the peninsula before it became a reserve are allowed to remain but must work with the government to protect wildlife.
"In places where people always went down to the beach the animals have moved on and sought quieter areas," said Copello, who runs a small lodge and also observes whales for Punta Norte Orca Research (http://www.orca-puntanorte.com/index.html), a group led by New Zealand researcher Ingrid Visser.
Only documentarians, researchers and some journalists are allowed access to the beach at Playa Punta Norte, and they must pay for the privilege. The money goes to the provincial government, which administers the reserve.
Casin, of the provincial government, said: "Taking a lot of people there would make the sea lions stampede, which would damage the (whale's) food and the life of the sea lions themselves."
Source: Reuters Canada
Killer whales making meals of seals
Researchers say an increase in killer whales may be the reason seal populations have plummeted in Scottish seas,
Zoologist Andrew Foote of the University of Aberdeen said killer whales, also known as orcas, may be preying on seal pups in Orkney and Shetland, where the harbor seal population has dropped by 40 percent over the past decade, The Scotsman newspaper reported Tuesday.
Foote's research, presented to the European Cetacean Society, suggests there are 100 to 200 orcas in the Northern Isles. He said other factors in the decline of harbor seals could include disease, fishing nets and a decline in sand eels.
Source: United Press International
Zoologist Andrew Foote of the University of Aberdeen said killer whales, also known as orcas, may be preying on seal pups in Orkney and Shetland, where the harbor seal population has dropped by 40 percent over the past decade, The Scotsman newspaper reported Tuesday.
Foote's research, presented to the European Cetacean Society, suggests there are 100 to 200 orcas in the Northern Isles. He said other factors in the decline of harbor seals could include disease, fishing nets and a decline in sand eels.
Source: United Press International
maandag 14 april 2008
Celebrities rally to free killer whale
Hollywood producer has assembled cast to lobby for Lolita.
Hollywood producer Raul Julia-Levy's current project involves an impressive cast ranging from Johnny Depp, Lindsay Lohan, and Harrison Ford to Elton John, 50 Cent, and Plácido Domingo. He's attracted high-powered producers including Cameron Crowe, Ed Elbert, and Ron Howard. It's a veritable A-list role call, and he's still recruiting.
But the brightest star in Julia-Levy's lineup -- and no doubt the biggest, at 7,000 pounds -- is Lolita, a 40-year-old killer whale living in a 20-foot-deep tank at the Miami Seaquarium.
Taken from her family while still a juvenile, Lolita has been performing for sunburnt tourists twice a day over the last 37 years. The tank she lives in is just four times her size at its widest; she'd have to circle it more than 600 times to travel the same distance her still-wild family members might in an average day. Her only companion -- another killer whale from her pod, or family group -- died 20-some years ago after repeatedly bashing his own head against the enclosure walls. In her native Pacific Northwest waters, whales like Lolita have lifespans similar to humans; in a tank, that life expectancy is cut in half.
"The conditions that she lives in are barbaric," Julia-Levy shouts to me over the phone, unable to contain his anger. He decided to get involved in the campaign to free Lolita last year, when he learned that it was in need of star power. But as spokesperson for the glittery troops he's amassed, Julia-Levy -- the son of actor Raul Julia -- emphasizes that he and the other Lolita-loving producers and celebrities are involved as regular citizens, not activists.
"We are people who have consciences," he says, "and everyone in this campaign from Hollywood has a mind of their own, and we believe that what we're doing is the right thing simply because animals should live in their normal habitat."
Their fight is not a new one. In fact, activists have been trying for years to convince the Seaquarium to retire Lolita -- at times, offering up to $1 million for her release. She made national television in 1995 when played a recording of her pod's vocalizations and viewers watched the whale cozy up to the speaker and listen. In 2003, a documentary about Lolita, Slave to Entertainment, hit film festivals across the country, garnering more attention for the cause. But only in the last few months has the campaign begun to gain momentum again, making news as more and more big names join up.
Julia-Levy's passion for this campaign was evident just a few moments into our conversation -- and his fervor shows no signs of waning. When asked what's next, he hinted at a plan "involving a 'big stick,'" but said he couldn't elaborate just yet. No doubt when he does, he'll have plenty of star power behind him.
How did you first hear about Lolita and get involved in the campaign?
I knew about Lolita for a long time, but it was probably about a year ago when I really got involved with the campaign. I was actually a little depressed because my little dog had just died -- he was 9 years old. It was a very tough time for me, and I was looking at pictures of my dog on the internet and then I came across ... [a video] of Lolita and the conditions of where she lives. And I got even more depressed.
Then I did a little bit of research on the situation and I contacted the Keiko Foundation, which is [under the umbrella of] the Earth Island Institute. They're the ones that have the vast experience relocating animals to their natural habitat -- like Keiko [the star of Free Willy] and Springer.
Who all is on board so far?
The latest one to join the campaign is Elton John. We have some of the most powerful producers on board: Jonathan Sanger, Ed Elbert, Richard Donner (who was behind the Keiko campaign and was extremely instrumental in the release of Keiko), David Permut, Steve Longi. We have a wide range of celebrities, too, including Johnny Depp, 50 Cent, [Hayden Panettiere, Lindsay Lohan, Plácido Domingo, Janet Jackson, Ringo Starr], Harrison Ford ... the list is pretty extensive.
We really just want to send the right message. We want people to educate themselves and to learn and know that it is not possible for an animal of that magnitude, that large, that in her normal habitat is used to traveling long distances -- at least 80 to 150 miles a day -- to be confined in a small, little tank, day after day, night after night for the past 30-something years. That's not normal. That animal needs to go back to her normal habitat.
What does it say about our culture that it wasn't until these famous faces got attached to the campaign that people started to pay attention?
Unfortunately, in our society nobody listens to your next-door neighbor when he raises his voice. ... When celebrities speak loud and stand up, it seems like everybody listens, it seems like everybody takes it more seriously, and I don't understand why normal people do not do the same thing ... This is work that we all have to do as citizens. We all have to raise our voices when something is not right. Why do we have to wait for celebrities to raise their voices first?
Is it the responsibility of celebrities then -- because they are influencing the public this way -- to research these organizations and get involved?
I think it's everybody's issue ... every citizen in this country has the same responsibility as any celebrity in Hollywood. Everybody should be responsible for taking care of our environment, our water, our animals. This responsibility belongs to everyone.
The bed we're gonna be sleeping in tomorrow, we're making it today.
What do you say to the argument that Lolita shouldn't be moved?
Those who oppose this are extremely arrogant. Who are they to say that animals cannot be relocated? If you put a person in a cage for 30 years and you ask him to choose -- "Do you want to get out of that cage or do you want to stay there?" -- what do you think he's going to say? He's gonna say he wants to get out of that cage. Unfortunately, animals cannot speak. That's why we need to speak for those animals who cannot speak for themselves.
For those who say, "Oh, the animal is happy here because we love him," it's completely erroneous. Animals need to be loved by humans -- but in their normal habitat. Meaning: Respected. We need to respect their habitat; we need to respect their privacy; and we need to respect their freedom.
I don't want to love animals in captivity; I want to let them go. And this animal surely deserves to go back to her family, to her normal habitat. This animal has paid the highest price of her life: Being confined to a cage for 37 years. I can tell you 100 percent that animal cannot wait for the day to come that she's going to be free.
Speaking of raising voices -- tell me about the benefit concert. Is that still in the works?
It's part of our plans to put on a benefit concert -- absolutely. We want to do it in Miami, a couple of blocks from the Seaquarium. We're planning a series of events.
But right now, our team is in the process of negotiations with the Seaquarium. We will try every single diplomatic road to resolve this situation properly for both parties. This has to be a winning situation for both parties.
I think [Seaquarium owner Arthur] Hertz should really think about this because he's got a whale that's not going to live more than five years in that tank. And he can come out of this one looking like a hero. It's up to him. But like I said, our team is putting together a diplomatic plan to negotiate the situation, make both parties win, and do the right thing.
So that's the first step ... and if that doesn't work?
Then the campaign goes to a whole new level ...
Source: MSNBC
Hollywood producer Raul Julia-Levy's current project involves an impressive cast ranging from Johnny Depp, Lindsay Lohan, and Harrison Ford to Elton John, 50 Cent, and Plácido Domingo. He's attracted high-powered producers including Cameron Crowe, Ed Elbert, and Ron Howard. It's a veritable A-list role call, and he's still recruiting.
But the brightest star in Julia-Levy's lineup -- and no doubt the biggest, at 7,000 pounds -- is Lolita, a 40-year-old killer whale living in a 20-foot-deep tank at the Miami Seaquarium.
Taken from her family while still a juvenile, Lolita has been performing for sunburnt tourists twice a day over the last 37 years. The tank she lives in is just four times her size at its widest; she'd have to circle it more than 600 times to travel the same distance her still-wild family members might in an average day. Her only companion -- another killer whale from her pod, or family group -- died 20-some years ago after repeatedly bashing his own head against the enclosure walls. In her native Pacific Northwest waters, whales like Lolita have lifespans similar to humans; in a tank, that life expectancy is cut in half.
"The conditions that she lives in are barbaric," Julia-Levy shouts to me over the phone, unable to contain his anger. He decided to get involved in the campaign to free Lolita last year, when he learned that it was in need of star power. But as spokesperson for the glittery troops he's amassed, Julia-Levy -- the son of actor Raul Julia -- emphasizes that he and the other Lolita-loving producers and celebrities are involved as regular citizens, not activists.
"We are people who have consciences," he says, "and everyone in this campaign from Hollywood has a mind of their own, and we believe that what we're doing is the right thing simply because animals should live in their normal habitat."
Their fight is not a new one. In fact, activists have been trying for years to convince the Seaquarium to retire Lolita -- at times, offering up to $1 million for her release. She made national television in 1995 when played a recording of her pod's vocalizations and viewers watched the whale cozy up to the speaker and listen. In 2003, a documentary about Lolita, Slave to Entertainment, hit film festivals across the country, garnering more attention for the cause. But only in the last few months has the campaign begun to gain momentum again, making news as more and more big names join up.
Julia-Levy's passion for this campaign was evident just a few moments into our conversation -- and his fervor shows no signs of waning. When asked what's next, he hinted at a plan "involving a 'big stick,'" but said he couldn't elaborate just yet. No doubt when he does, he'll have plenty of star power behind him.
How did you first hear about Lolita and get involved in the campaign?
I knew about Lolita for a long time, but it was probably about a year ago when I really got involved with the campaign. I was actually a little depressed because my little dog had just died -- he was 9 years old. It was a very tough time for me, and I was looking at pictures of my dog on the internet and then I came across ... [a video] of Lolita and the conditions of where she lives. And I got even more depressed.
Then I did a little bit of research on the situation and I contacted the Keiko Foundation, which is [under the umbrella of] the Earth Island Institute. They're the ones that have the vast experience relocating animals to their natural habitat -- like Keiko [the star of Free Willy] and Springer.
Who all is on board so far?
The latest one to join the campaign is Elton John. We have some of the most powerful producers on board: Jonathan Sanger, Ed Elbert, Richard Donner (who was behind the Keiko campaign and was extremely instrumental in the release of Keiko), David Permut, Steve Longi. We have a wide range of celebrities, too, including Johnny Depp, 50 Cent, [Hayden Panettiere, Lindsay Lohan, Plácido Domingo, Janet Jackson, Ringo Starr], Harrison Ford ... the list is pretty extensive.
We really just want to send the right message. We want people to educate themselves and to learn and know that it is not possible for an animal of that magnitude, that large, that in her normal habitat is used to traveling long distances -- at least 80 to 150 miles a day -- to be confined in a small, little tank, day after day, night after night for the past 30-something years. That's not normal. That animal needs to go back to her normal habitat.
What does it say about our culture that it wasn't until these famous faces got attached to the campaign that people started to pay attention?
Unfortunately, in our society nobody listens to your next-door neighbor when he raises his voice. ... When celebrities speak loud and stand up, it seems like everybody listens, it seems like everybody takes it more seriously, and I don't understand why normal people do not do the same thing ... This is work that we all have to do as citizens. We all have to raise our voices when something is not right. Why do we have to wait for celebrities to raise their voices first?
Is it the responsibility of celebrities then -- because they are influencing the public this way -- to research these organizations and get involved?
I think it's everybody's issue ... every citizen in this country has the same responsibility as any celebrity in Hollywood. Everybody should be responsible for taking care of our environment, our water, our animals. This responsibility belongs to everyone.
The bed we're gonna be sleeping in tomorrow, we're making it today.
What do you say to the argument that Lolita shouldn't be moved?
Those who oppose this are extremely arrogant. Who are they to say that animals cannot be relocated? If you put a person in a cage for 30 years and you ask him to choose -- "Do you want to get out of that cage or do you want to stay there?" -- what do you think he's going to say? He's gonna say he wants to get out of that cage. Unfortunately, animals cannot speak. That's why we need to speak for those animals who cannot speak for themselves.
For those who say, "Oh, the animal is happy here because we love him," it's completely erroneous. Animals need to be loved by humans -- but in their normal habitat. Meaning: Respected. We need to respect their habitat; we need to respect their privacy; and we need to respect their freedom.
I don't want to love animals in captivity; I want to let them go. And this animal surely deserves to go back to her family, to her normal habitat. This animal has paid the highest price of her life: Being confined to a cage for 37 years. I can tell you 100 percent that animal cannot wait for the day to come that she's going to be free.
Speaking of raising voices -- tell me about the benefit concert. Is that still in the works?
It's part of our plans to put on a benefit concert -- absolutely. We want to do it in Miami, a couple of blocks from the Seaquarium. We're planning a series of events.
But right now, our team is in the process of negotiations with the Seaquarium. We will try every single diplomatic road to resolve this situation properly for both parties. This has to be a winning situation for both parties.
I think [Seaquarium owner Arthur] Hertz should really think about this because he's got a whale that's not going to live more than five years in that tank. And he can come out of this one looking like a hero. It's up to him. But like I said, our team is putting together a diplomatic plan to negotiate the situation, make both parties win, and do the right thing.
So that's the first step ... and if that doesn't work?
Then the campaign goes to a whole new level ...
Source: MSNBC
Killer whales blamed for decline of Scottish seals
Attacks by killer whales may be helping to drive the sudden and mysterious decline of seals around the northern coasts of Scotland, new research suggests.
British populations of harbour seals (also known as common seals) are falling steeply, with numbers in Orkney and Shetland dropping by 40 per cent in the five years to 2006.
So far, the declines are unexplained, but a new theory is that killer whales, or orcas, the bulky, black-and-white predators which are in fact the largest members of the dolphin family, have increased their taking of seals to such an extent that it may be causing populations to shrink.
The harbour seal is one of Britain's two native seal species, the other being the bigger grey seal. But while grey seal populations remain buoyant, harbour seal numbers are tumbling, especially in the Northern Isles, where nearly half of them live. Surveys in Orkney and Shetland in 2001 found 12,635 animals, but when the counts were repeated in 2006, they showed that numbers had plunged to 7,277.
Several possible causes have been put forward for the precipitate decline, including viral epidemics, shootings, drownings in illegally set nets and the disappearance of sandeels, the small fish that form an important component of the seals' diet. But research led by Andrew Foote from the University of Aberdeen presented at a conference of the European Cetacean Society has turned the spotlight on to killer whales, suggesting that they may be preying heavily on harbour seal pups at the pupping season in June and July (grey seals reproduce in the autumn).
Orcas are among the fiercest animals on Earth, but in contrast with sharks and terrestrial predators such as tigers and lions, there is no record of them ever attacking people. One of the most gripping pieces of natural history footage ever shot was the scene in David Attenborough's The Trials of Life where killer whales hurled themselves out of the sea and up on to a beach in Patagonia to catch unsuspecting sea lion pups.
The new study is based on analysing inshore sightings of killer whales around Scotland, and in Shetland especially. It showed a clear correspondence between the seal pupping season and peak orca sightings.
The researchers constructed a bio-energetic model of the killer whales to get an idea of how many seals might be consumed by the orcas sighted to meet their daily energy requirements. Over the decade from 1997 to 2006, this worked out at 1,648 harbour seals, if the killer whales were preying on all age and sex classes evenly, and 3,829 if they were specialising in naive pups. These figures, likely to be an underestimate, would be adequate to drive a population decline.
Recent declines of Steller sea lions in the Central Aleutian Islands in the North Pacific could have been caused by fewer than 40 killer whales, according to one estimate, and five killer whales alone could have caused a reduction in Alaskan sea otter numbers in the same area. In Hood Canal, a fjord off Puget Sound in Washington State, two incursions lasting 59 and 172 days by two killer whale pods, 17 whales in total, were estimated to have removed 1,800 seals. In the Southern Ocean, they may also be driving declines in elephant seals and minke whales.
But why would the predator-prey relationship get out of balance? Five years ago, American biologists put forward a theory that orcas were driving declines in several Pacific marine mammals, including harbour seals, fur seals, sea lions and sea otters, because of a phenomenon known as "feeding down the food web" – a 50-year chain reaction set off by commercial whaling. They suggested that killer whales which once preyed extensively on sperm, fin and sei whales, had switched to smaller prey when great whale populations were decimated by humans. The mass slaughter in the Pacific of more than 500,000 great whales between 1949 and 1969, they said, forced the orcas to switch to the smaller mammals, causing their numbers to plunge in turn.
However, this theory is not universally accepted and Mr Foote does not think it explains orca predation on seals in the Northern Isles. "It's more likely that the killer whales have moved into the area following the movements of fish stocks, such as mackerel, and have just found there are lots of seals there, and are staying around feeding on them," he said.
Killer whale facts
Killer whales or orcas are among the largest carnivores on Earth, with the males growing to more than 32ft long and attaining a weight of more than 11 tonnes (the females are smaller). The male's enormous dorsal fin can be six feet high. They are found all over the world, from pole to pole, especially in colder waters, and are at the top of the marine food chain. They hunt in packs or "pods", and will attack anything in the ocean, up to and including the blue whale, the world's largest animal – with the remarkable exception of people. They have never been targeted by commercial whaling ships, although many of the animals were captured when the fad for dolphinaria came along and kept for display in pools, where they can be trained to perform, like other members of the dolphin family to which they belong.
Source: The Independant
British populations of harbour seals (also known as common seals) are falling steeply, with numbers in Orkney and Shetland dropping by 40 per cent in the five years to 2006.
So far, the declines are unexplained, but a new theory is that killer whales, or orcas, the bulky, black-and-white predators which are in fact the largest members of the dolphin family, have increased their taking of seals to such an extent that it may be causing populations to shrink.
The harbour seal is one of Britain's two native seal species, the other being the bigger grey seal. But while grey seal populations remain buoyant, harbour seal numbers are tumbling, especially in the Northern Isles, where nearly half of them live. Surveys in Orkney and Shetland in 2001 found 12,635 animals, but when the counts were repeated in 2006, they showed that numbers had plunged to 7,277.
Several possible causes have been put forward for the precipitate decline, including viral epidemics, shootings, drownings in illegally set nets and the disappearance of sandeels, the small fish that form an important component of the seals' diet. But research led by Andrew Foote from the University of Aberdeen presented at a conference of the European Cetacean Society has turned the spotlight on to killer whales, suggesting that they may be preying heavily on harbour seal pups at the pupping season in June and July (grey seals reproduce in the autumn).
Orcas are among the fiercest animals on Earth, but in contrast with sharks and terrestrial predators such as tigers and lions, there is no record of them ever attacking people. One of the most gripping pieces of natural history footage ever shot was the scene in David Attenborough's The Trials of Life where killer whales hurled themselves out of the sea and up on to a beach in Patagonia to catch unsuspecting sea lion pups.
The new study is based on analysing inshore sightings of killer whales around Scotland, and in Shetland especially. It showed a clear correspondence between the seal pupping season and peak orca sightings.
The researchers constructed a bio-energetic model of the killer whales to get an idea of how many seals might be consumed by the orcas sighted to meet their daily energy requirements. Over the decade from 1997 to 2006, this worked out at 1,648 harbour seals, if the killer whales were preying on all age and sex classes evenly, and 3,829 if they were specialising in naive pups. These figures, likely to be an underestimate, would be adequate to drive a population decline.
Recent declines of Steller sea lions in the Central Aleutian Islands in the North Pacific could have been caused by fewer than 40 killer whales, according to one estimate, and five killer whales alone could have caused a reduction in Alaskan sea otter numbers in the same area. In Hood Canal, a fjord off Puget Sound in Washington State, two incursions lasting 59 and 172 days by two killer whale pods, 17 whales in total, were estimated to have removed 1,800 seals. In the Southern Ocean, they may also be driving declines in elephant seals and minke whales.
But why would the predator-prey relationship get out of balance? Five years ago, American biologists put forward a theory that orcas were driving declines in several Pacific marine mammals, including harbour seals, fur seals, sea lions and sea otters, because of a phenomenon known as "feeding down the food web" – a 50-year chain reaction set off by commercial whaling. They suggested that killer whales which once preyed extensively on sperm, fin and sei whales, had switched to smaller prey when great whale populations were decimated by humans. The mass slaughter in the Pacific of more than 500,000 great whales between 1949 and 1969, they said, forced the orcas to switch to the smaller mammals, causing their numbers to plunge in turn.
However, this theory is not universally accepted and Mr Foote does not think it explains orca predation on seals in the Northern Isles. "It's more likely that the killer whales have moved into the area following the movements of fish stocks, such as mackerel, and have just found there are lots of seals there, and are staying around feeding on them," he said.
Killer whale facts
Killer whales or orcas are among the largest carnivores on Earth, with the males growing to more than 32ft long and attaining a weight of more than 11 tonnes (the females are smaller). The male's enormous dorsal fin can be six feet high. They are found all over the world, from pole to pole, especially in colder waters, and are at the top of the marine food chain. They hunt in packs or "pods", and will attack anything in the ocean, up to and including the blue whale, the world's largest animal – with the remarkable exception of people. They have never been targeted by commercial whaling ships, although many of the animals were captured when the fad for dolphinaria came along and kept for display in pools, where they can be trained to perform, like other members of the dolphin family to which they belong.
Source: The Independant
maandag 7 april 2008
Whale risks rise in Robson Bight
Governments' poor performance in dealing with a truck full of diesel fuel on the bottom of Robson Bight raises concerns about proposals for more tanker traffic and offshore oil and gas development.
The federal and provincial governments have expressed support for both, although the Harper government has not lifted the offshore drilling moratorium in place since the early 1970s. Both governments promise tough environmental controls as part of any change.
Given their response since a barge sank last August in the Robson Bight ecological reserve off the Island's east coast, it's hard to take the promises seriously.
The barge's cargo included logging equipment and vehicles -- one a fuel truck holding 10,000 litres of diesel. There was immediate concern about the threat to northern killer whales and other marine life.
But agencies charged with protecting the coast responded slowly and ineffectually. Officials first said the barge sank outside the reserve, which was created because of the need to protect the endangered killer whales. That proved to be false.
Biologists and environmentalists urged immediate inspection of the wreckage to assess the damage and the risk of spills. The coast guard said that was unnecessary. The diesel tanker would have been crushed by the pressure and the oil released, it said. Using a submersible to inspect the wreckage could cost $300,000, the coast guard said.
After a two-month delay, frustrated whale-watching and environmental groups announced they would pay to have a submersible inspect the wreckage. That prompted the governments to agree to conduct an inspection -- which turned out to cost far less than the coast guard had claimed.
Almost six months after the sinking, the governments revealed that the photos showed the wreckage was sitting intact on the bottom. The diesel tanker was full of fuel. The hazard was real. That was seven weeks ago. The governments are still trying to figure out whether the wreckage can be raised, with no timeline for a decision.
Paul Spong of OrcaLab, a nearby research station, says the delay is putting the killer whales at risk. They will return for the summer in June. The diesel truck, which could begin leaking at any time, is a time bomb.
The governments might ultimately decide the risks of raising the wreckage are too great. But their sluggish, inept performance so far has undermined their credibility.
And it has certainly raised doubts about their ability to deliver the promised protection should offshore gas exploration or greater tanker traffic go ahead.
Source: Time Colonist
The federal and provincial governments have expressed support for both, although the Harper government has not lifted the offshore drilling moratorium in place since the early 1970s. Both governments promise tough environmental controls as part of any change.
Given their response since a barge sank last August in the Robson Bight ecological reserve off the Island's east coast, it's hard to take the promises seriously.
The barge's cargo included logging equipment and vehicles -- one a fuel truck holding 10,000 litres of diesel. There was immediate concern about the threat to northern killer whales and other marine life.
But agencies charged with protecting the coast responded slowly and ineffectually. Officials first said the barge sank outside the reserve, which was created because of the need to protect the endangered killer whales. That proved to be false.
Biologists and environmentalists urged immediate inspection of the wreckage to assess the damage and the risk of spills. The coast guard said that was unnecessary. The diesel tanker would have been crushed by the pressure and the oil released, it said. Using a submersible to inspect the wreckage could cost $300,000, the coast guard said.
After a two-month delay, frustrated whale-watching and environmental groups announced they would pay to have a submersible inspect the wreckage. That prompted the governments to agree to conduct an inspection -- which turned out to cost far less than the coast guard had claimed.
Almost six months after the sinking, the governments revealed that the photos showed the wreckage was sitting intact on the bottom. The diesel tanker was full of fuel. The hazard was real. That was seven weeks ago. The governments are still trying to figure out whether the wreckage can be raised, with no timeline for a decision.
Paul Spong of OrcaLab, a nearby research station, says the delay is putting the killer whales at risk. They will return for the summer in June. The diesel truck, which could begin leaking at any time, is a time bomb.
The governments might ultimately decide the risks of raising the wreckage are too great. But their sluggish, inept performance so far has undermined their credibility.
And it has certainly raised doubts about their ability to deliver the promised protection should offshore gas exploration or greater tanker traffic go ahead.
Source: Time Colonist
vrijdag 4 april 2008
Killer whale sighted off coast of Nova Scotia
Jamie Peterson will never forget the sight he saw in late March while aboard the Gladiator 3 fishing on the Scotian Shelf.
A killer whale spent two days cavorting about the long liner while Peterson and other crewmembers, Kelly Chase and Ricky
Carrigan, hauled up halibut.
“He was playing around the boat. He’d come up and slap his tail in the water,” said Peterson.
“We never had the camera ready and we were steaming away and he was behind the boat and he came right straight out of the water, flipped on his side and landed back in the water. It was quite a show actually. He was showing off for us.”
The vessel, which was skippered by Corey Atkinson out of East Pubnico in southwestern N.S. was about 140 miles off the coast.
Peterson, who took pictures and a video of the orca, said it was eating halibut off their line. He estimated the size of the loner at between 25 to 30 feet long.
These predatory mammals eat fish, marine birds and a large array of marine mammals, from seals and sea lions to dolphins and whales.
Andrew Hebda, curator of zoology for the Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History says
this is within the zone where orcas can occur (from Florida to edge of ice in the Arctic).
“We hear of the occasional sighting, but haven't heard of any in the last couple of years. There have been sporadic reports throughout the North Atlantic including Northern Europe,” he said.
The museum has a tooth from an orca stranded on Sable Island in 1972, and a report of another stranded in the Minas Basin in 1950.
Hebda says the orca may have been in the area for food, but that normally they are encountered in family groups called pods, typically seen in the Pacific Northwest.
Kent Smedbol, a research scientist with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans also expressed surprise at the lone sighting and said that males are more likely to travel alone than females. The DFO has had sporadic sightings of killer whales from Scotia-Fundy waters.
“Most cetacean experts consider orcas to be only occasional visitors to the Maritimes; sightings are more frequent around Newfoundland and Labrador,” he said.
Tara Stevens is a Ph.D. student at Memorial University in St. John's, Newfoundland. For the past two years she has been working with the DFO studying killer whales, humpback whales, fin whales, and other species. She helped to form the Northwest Atlantic Killer Whale Photo-Identification Catalogue and various other works.
“Killer whales do occur throughout the western North Atlantic, including the Scotian Shelf. They are, however, relatively rare on the Scotian Shelf (SS), at least when compared to sightings elsewhere in the northwest Atlantic, such as the Newfoundland/Labrador region.
“They might be seen on the SS a couple times every few years, and that is based primarily on opportunistic, non-effort based data,” she said.
“As for the habits of this species in these waters, we are not quite sure. By that, I mean that we do not know if the sightings of killer whales on the SS are simply of animals passing by, such as from Newfoundland/Labrador/Arctic Canada to/from southern regions, or if there is a permanent population within a range defined as the Scotian Shelf, or if they are part of a larger population that extends to
Arctic Canada,” said Stevens.
Scientists, tour operators and Inuit fishermen who crossed Hudson Bay notified Canadian researchers in 2006 about killer whales observations.
Researchers could not determine where the killer whales seen in Hudson Bay were coming from, but they suspect their origin is in the northern Atlantic Ocean, near Iceland or Nova Scotia.
FYI....
Date Latitude Longitude Number of whales sighted
14-Sept-67 44'01.2" 62'36" 1
15-Oct-92 42'02" 62'47" 1
03-Nov-92 42'03" 61'47" 3
23-Aug-99 44'20.73" 66'26.4 9
01-OCT-01 41'45" 63'42" 10
26-APR-03 43'37.38" 57'46.7 3
Source:NovaNewsNow.com
donderdag 3 april 2008
J Pod returns to the west side of San Juan Island!
Friday Harbor, WA -- On April Fools Day, J Pod provided a pleasant surprise by returning to the waters of Haro Strait, off the west side of San Juan Island. The Center for Whale Research confirmed that all members of J Pod were present with the exception of J-43. Born to Samish (J-14) last fall, this new calf has not been seen this year and is now presumed dead.
Source: The Whale Museum
Source: The Whale Museum
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