The National Flood Insurance Program is pushing orcas and several runs of salmon towards extinction, in violation of the Endangered Species Act, according to a regulatory finding issued today by scientists at the National Marine Fisheries Service.
The National Flood Insurance Program is implemented by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA. Without making the changes called for by the Fisheries Service, cities and counties around the Puget Sound could lose their eligibility for federal flood insurance. A total of 252 Washington jurisdictions currently participate in the flood insurance program, including 39 counties, over 200 cities and towns, and two tribal reservations.
The federal fisheries agency issued the finding, known as a biological opinion, as required by a 2004 federal court decision.
In the case National Wildlife Federation v. National Marine Fisheries Service, Judge Thomas Zilly of the federal district court in Seattle found that FEMA's flood insurance program encouraged floodplain development and harmed salmon already listed as threatened with extinction under the Endangered Species Act.
He ordered FEMA to consult with the Marine Fisheries Service to ensure compliance with the Act, and the document issued today is the result of that consultation.
"We have always known that building homes and businesses in the floodplain was dangerous and economically senseless," said John Kostyack, excecutive director of wildlife conservation and global warming at the National Wildlife Federation.
"With global warming causing sea level rise and intensified storms, the risks of such development are now higher than ever. With this decision, we now have a tool for reducing risks to both wildlife and people," said Kostyack.
The biological opinion documents the ways in which FEMA's flood program encourages development within the floodplain area.
Because most private insurers refuse to insure floodplain homes, FEMA's insurance program allows development to occur where it otherwise would not.
In addition, FEMA's minimum development standards for floodplain construction currently fail to include environmental standards.
"Even where flood risk is well established (for example, in Lewis County on the Chehalis River), the National Flood Insurance Program’s current implementation does not significantly restrict floodplain development or encourage the preservation of floodplain natural and beneficial values," the biological opinion states.
It points out that the City of Chehalis has nine percent of its Urban Growth Area in mapped floodplain, and Centralia has 21 percent of its Urban Growth Area in mapped floodplain.
"Development within the floodplain results in stream channelization, habitat instability, vegetation removal, and point and nonpoint source pollution (NMFS 1996) all of which contribute to degraded salmon habitat," according to the biological opinion.
By insuring development in floodplain areas, the National Marine Fisheries Service determined that the program was jeopardizing the survival of Puget Sound chinook, Puget Sound steelhead, and Hood Canal summer-run chum salmon, and adversely modifying their designated critical habitat in violation of the Endangered Species Act.
It also found that by reducing the prey base for Southern Resident orcas, also called killer whales, it jeopardized them as well.
The biological openion warns that implementation of the FEMA program in Puget Sound could result in a 30 percent reduction of chinook salmon in Puget Sound - the orcas' favored food source - in the years ahead.
Puget Sound was once inhabited by at least 37 populations of Chinook salmon, but today only 22 remain. The remaining Chinook salmon are at only 10 percent of their historic numbers, with some down lower than one percent of their historic numbers, according to the Puget Sound Partnership, a coalition of citizens, governments, tribes, scientists and businesses working together to restore and protect the sound.
As required by the Endangered Species Act, the National Marine Fisheries Service set forth an alternative approach for FEMA that would not result in jeopardy to salmon and orcas.
The alternative includes new requirements that development within the floodplain and riparian buffer area be either prohibited or that its impacts to the stream be completely mitigated.
Any development in these sensitive areas should be required to use "low impact development." This type of development specifies protection of native vegetation, pervious concretes that allow rain to flow through to the ground, narrow footprints, and rain gardens to absorb stormwater runoff.
Last month, the Washington Pollution Control Hearings Board declared that low impact development was both more effective than traditional stormwater controls like detention ponds, and cheaper to implement.
"Americans are getting tired of paying to rebuild flooded homes in places that should be left alone," said Jan Hasselman, an attorney with the public interest law firm Earthjustice who argued the 2004 lawsuit against FEMA.
"The good news today is the federal agency scientists have stepped in on behalf of both American taxpayers and its wildlife and said no to building in flood-prone areas," Hasselman said. "We think this is just plain old common sense."
Click here to read the biological opinion, formally known as the "Endangered Species Act – Section 7 Consultation Final Biological Opinion And Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act Essential Fish Habitat Consultation Implementation of the National Flood Insurance Program in the State of Washington Phase One Document – Puget Sound Region."
maandag 29 september 2008
Scientists study rare killer whale
A rare type of orca is prowling the open ocean off Alaska's shores.
Researchers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Alaska Fisheries Science Center have spent the last 20 years learning more about an elusive type of killer whale and recently published their results.
Offshore killer whales range from California to Alaska and can travel great distances quickly.
Researchers found they are genetically different from other types of killer whales, and they have a different size, shape and behavior pattern than other killer whales, as well.
NOAA's scientists recently published a paper summarizing their 20 years of studying the offshore killer whale population.
Researchers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Alaska Fisheries Science Center have spent the last 20 years learning more about an elusive type of killer whale and recently published their results.
Offshore killer whales range from California to Alaska and can travel great distances quickly.
Researchers found they are genetically different from other types of killer whales, and they have a different size, shape and behavior pattern than other killer whales, as well.
NOAA's scientists recently published a paper summarizing their 20 years of studying the offshore killer whale population.
zondag 28 september 2008
Navy’s sonar has a killer sound
The similarity between the sounds made by the killer whale and navy sonar may provoke panic in the mammal’s prey, causing mass strandings.
SCIENTISTS may have found the explanation for the role of naval sonar in the mass stranding of whales and dolphins with the discovery that ships’ equipment uses the same frequencies as killer whales.
They suggest that the bursts of sound emitted by warships to spot submarines resemble the noises used by killer whales to communicate as they track their prey. The similarity may deceive some species into thinking they are about to be attacked, so they swim for their lives.
The research, by a team including scientists from the sea mammal research unit at St Andrews University and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in the United States, follows a spate of mass strandings around Europe and America.
In June this year 26 common dolphins beached themselves along the south coast of Corn-wall. Last week the Ministry of Defence admitted that 30 sonar-equipped naval vessels had been staging an exercise just beforehand.
Peter Tyack, a senior scientist at Woods Hole, said: “Some naval sonar uses pulses of similar frequency and duration to the pulses emitted by killer whales and is very loud. It seems to have a particularly strong effect on species, such as small beaked whales, of which killer whales are the primary predator.”
Suspicion fell on naval sonar after unusual mass strandings of beaked whales were first reported in the early 1960s, when such devices became commonly deployed. However, many nonnaval ships also use sonar without being linked to strandings. Additionally, some species beach themselves when there is no naval activity.
Tyack believes that deep divers such as Cuvier’s and Blainville’s whales are among those most likely to confuse sonar with predators. Dolphins may also be vulnerable.
On a research cruise last year he and his colleagues found a Blainville’s whale foraging over a part of the sea bed that had been equipped with hydro-phones - underwater microphones to detect movements and noises. They tagged the whale so that they could track the direction and course of its dives as well as the sonar pulses it emitted as it searched for food a mile beneath the surface.
The researchers played a recording of the sounds made by a pod of killer whales through underwater loud-speakers, and the Blainville’s whale suddenly switched to “stealth mode”. It stopped emitting the characteristic echo-location pulses normally used to find prey and then glided slowly and silently back to the surface for air before leaving the immediate area.
When the experiment was repeated, this time with naval sonar directed at the animal, it caused a similar disruption to its behaviour patterns.
Such research must be repeated with more animals to be conclusive, but Tyack believes other factors support the link with killer whales.
Naval sonar ranges include low frequencies of 3-10kHz, a range also used by killer whales. The MoD has confirmed that the sonar used in its June exercises had frequencies in the 2-50kHz range.
Civilian ships and fishing vessels, by contrast, tend to use sonar with shorter pulses and higher frequencies. This may explain why they appear not to cause beachings.
One positive outcome of the research could be that navies are able to recalibrate their sonars to avoid harming whales and dolphins.
In Britain the number of strandings of cetaceans has doubled to more than 700 in 10 years. Professor Ian Boyd, director of the sea mammal research unit at St Andrews, is leading the investigation into the cause of strandings aboard the research vessel Roger Revelle off the Bahamas. He is trying to repeat the whale-tracking experiments of last year.
In an e-mail from the ship he said: “One theory is that these whales confuse the sonars for killer-whale calls and have a magnified antipredator response that ends up with them becoming stranded.”
Tyack points out that a far larger threat is that of being hit by ships or caught in fishing nets: 1,000 sea mammals a day are thought to die that way.
SCIENTISTS may have found the explanation for the role of naval sonar in the mass stranding of whales and dolphins with the discovery that ships’ equipment uses the same frequencies as killer whales.
They suggest that the bursts of sound emitted by warships to spot submarines resemble the noises used by killer whales to communicate as they track their prey. The similarity may deceive some species into thinking they are about to be attacked, so they swim for their lives.
The research, by a team including scientists from the sea mammal research unit at St Andrews University and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in the United States, follows a spate of mass strandings around Europe and America.
In June this year 26 common dolphins beached themselves along the south coast of Corn-wall. Last week the Ministry of Defence admitted that 30 sonar-equipped naval vessels had been staging an exercise just beforehand.
Peter Tyack, a senior scientist at Woods Hole, said: “Some naval sonar uses pulses of similar frequency and duration to the pulses emitted by killer whales and is very loud. It seems to have a particularly strong effect on species, such as small beaked whales, of which killer whales are the primary predator.”
Suspicion fell on naval sonar after unusual mass strandings of beaked whales were first reported in the early 1960s, when such devices became commonly deployed. However, many nonnaval ships also use sonar without being linked to strandings. Additionally, some species beach themselves when there is no naval activity.
Tyack believes that deep divers such as Cuvier’s and Blainville’s whales are among those most likely to confuse sonar with predators. Dolphins may also be vulnerable.
On a research cruise last year he and his colleagues found a Blainville’s whale foraging over a part of the sea bed that had been equipped with hydro-phones - underwater microphones to detect movements and noises. They tagged the whale so that they could track the direction and course of its dives as well as the sonar pulses it emitted as it searched for food a mile beneath the surface.
The researchers played a recording of the sounds made by a pod of killer whales through underwater loud-speakers, and the Blainville’s whale suddenly switched to “stealth mode”. It stopped emitting the characteristic echo-location pulses normally used to find prey and then glided slowly and silently back to the surface for air before leaving the immediate area.
When the experiment was repeated, this time with naval sonar directed at the animal, it caused a similar disruption to its behaviour patterns.
Such research must be repeated with more animals to be conclusive, but Tyack believes other factors support the link with killer whales.
Naval sonar ranges include low frequencies of 3-10kHz, a range also used by killer whales. The MoD has confirmed that the sonar used in its June exercises had frequencies in the 2-50kHz range.
Civilian ships and fishing vessels, by contrast, tend to use sonar with shorter pulses and higher frequencies. This may explain why they appear not to cause beachings.
One positive outcome of the research could be that navies are able to recalibrate their sonars to avoid harming whales and dolphins.
In Britain the number of strandings of cetaceans has doubled to more than 700 in 10 years. Professor Ian Boyd, director of the sea mammal research unit at St Andrews, is leading the investigation into the cause of strandings aboard the research vessel Roger Revelle off the Bahamas. He is trying to repeat the whale-tracking experiments of last year.
In an e-mail from the ship he said: “One theory is that these whales confuse the sonars for killer-whale calls and have a magnified antipredator response that ends up with them becoming stranded.”
Tyack points out that a far larger threat is that of being hit by ships or caught in fishing nets: 1,000 sea mammals a day are thought to die that way.
vrijdag 26 september 2008
Stranded orca back at sea
A seven-metre long orca which was stranded after washing up on Papamoa Beach near Tauranga on Saturday morning has been successfully sent back to sea.
"Nobbie" is well known to local conservationists and has been on the beach before.
Several hundred people turned out to the beach where the orca whale had stranded and volunteers helped keep the animal wet and comfortable.
Department of Conservation spokeswoman Katrina Knill says a good tide and a freshly dug trench helped to get Nobbie back into the water sooner than anticipated.
She says he looks like he will be all right but she is urging the public to contact the Conservation Department if they see him getting too close to shore.
Orca beaches at Papamoa Beach (NZ)
Volunteers working to keep orca whale wet after it beached at Papamoa Beach on Bay of Plenty coast.
Several hundred people have turned out to Papamoa Beach on the Bay of Plenty coast where a killer whale has stranded.
The orca is well-known to local conservationists, who have nicknamed him Nobby.
It is not the first time the marine mammal has thrown itself onto the beach. Katrina Knill from the Department of Conservation says despite washing up at 6am, Nobby is in good shape and it is hoped there will be a good outcome. Volunteers are helping to keep the whale wet and comfortable.
A second attempt to herd Nobby back to sea will be made on high tide around 5:30 this evening.
Several hundred people have turned out to Papamoa Beach on the Bay of Plenty coast where a killer whale has stranded.
The orca is well-known to local conservationists, who have nicknamed him Nobby.
It is not the first time the marine mammal has thrown itself onto the beach. Katrina Knill from the Department of Conservation says despite washing up at 6am, Nobby is in good shape and it is hoped there will be a good outcome. Volunteers are helping to keep the whale wet and comfortable.
A second attempt to herd Nobby back to sea will be made on high tide around 5:30 this evening.
vrijdag 19 september 2008
Declining salmon runs blamed for wilderness tourism slump
Few people in British Columbia know how to find killer whales better than Bill MacKay, who tracks them in a high-speed, super-quiet boat from Port McNeill, on northern Vancouver Island.
But Mr. MacKay, who with his wife, Donna, runs MacKay Whale Watching, has had an increasingly difficult time finding large numbers of killer whales to show his customers this year.
All along the B.C. Coast, wilderness tourism operators who run bear-viewing, whale-watching and sport-fishing resorts are reporting tough times because of declining salmon runs.
But the biggest impact may be occurring in the Broughton Archipelago, where Mr. MacKay operates, and where pink salmon runs have all but vanished, sending a shock wave through the region's ecosystem.
"Some of the northern pods are just not here," Mr. MacKay said yesterday. "And we've had three occasions [this summer] when we did not see any orcas at all. That's pretty weird."
He said northern killer whales visit the area during the summer months, collecting in big social gatherings where breeding takes place.
"When they get together like that it's called Super Pod Day, and we will see over 100 dorsal fins out there at a time," Mr. MacKay said. "That didn't happen this year, for the first time since we've been collecting data, which is almost 30 years."
Mr. MacKay said it's not coincidental that the whales have vanished along with the salmon.
"It's pretty simple. ...What do you think these orcas eat?" he said.
Surveys by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans indicate pink salmon stocks have fallen to extremely low levels in the Broughton Archipelago. In Glendale Creek, a key indicator stream, there have been only 19,000 spawners counted this year, compared with 264,000 last year.
Pink salmon, which usually spawn in prodigious numbers, are a keystone species on the West Coast. Chinook salmon, the mainstay of the orca diet, feed on young pinks, while grizzly and black bears depend on spawning adult pink salmon to bulk up for hibernation.
Howard Pattinson, owner of Tide Rip Tours, a grizzly-bear viewing business based in Telegraph Cove, said the pink collapse has forced bears to rely on late berry crops and sedge grasses for nutrition.
"We're used to seeing bears eat 15 to 20 fish an hour. Now once a day we might see a bear catch one fish," Mr. Pattinson said. "We are seeing big male bears killing [yearling] cubs and eating them. ...It's pretty shocking for the tourists when they see raw nature like that."
Mr. Pattinson said he's worried about the future of his business.
"The bears are now eating berries and sedges. It's enough to get through the winter, but not enough for pregnant females. They'll either reabsorb their embryos or abort this winter. ...Next spring, I don't think there'll be any cubs," he said.
Brian Gunn, president of the Wilderness Tourism Association, said the collapse of salmon stocks is threatening the survival of ecotourism businesses.
"The bear-viewing businesses, the whale-watching operations, they built up a lot of equity showing people these wild animals. Now the fish aren't there and they are seeing their equity drain away. ...If the salmon go, so does the wildlife, and so does the business."
Mr. Gunn blamed the fish-farming business, saying a heavy concentration of net pens in the Broughton Archipelago has created sea-lice epidemics which kill young salmon.
But Mr. MacKay, who with his wife, Donna, runs MacKay Whale Watching, has had an increasingly difficult time finding large numbers of killer whales to show his customers this year.
All along the B.C. Coast, wilderness tourism operators who run bear-viewing, whale-watching and sport-fishing resorts are reporting tough times because of declining salmon runs.
But the biggest impact may be occurring in the Broughton Archipelago, where Mr. MacKay operates, and where pink salmon runs have all but vanished, sending a shock wave through the region's ecosystem.
"Some of the northern pods are just not here," Mr. MacKay said yesterday. "And we've had three occasions [this summer] when we did not see any orcas at all. That's pretty weird."
He said northern killer whales visit the area during the summer months, collecting in big social gatherings where breeding takes place.
"When they get together like that it's called Super Pod Day, and we will see over 100 dorsal fins out there at a time," Mr. MacKay said. "That didn't happen this year, for the first time since we've been collecting data, which is almost 30 years."
Mr. MacKay said it's not coincidental that the whales have vanished along with the salmon.
"It's pretty simple. ...What do you think these orcas eat?" he said.
Surveys by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans indicate pink salmon stocks have fallen to extremely low levels in the Broughton Archipelago. In Glendale Creek, a key indicator stream, there have been only 19,000 spawners counted this year, compared with 264,000 last year.
Pink salmon, which usually spawn in prodigious numbers, are a keystone species on the West Coast. Chinook salmon, the mainstay of the orca diet, feed on young pinks, while grizzly and black bears depend on spawning adult pink salmon to bulk up for hibernation.
Howard Pattinson, owner of Tide Rip Tours, a grizzly-bear viewing business based in Telegraph Cove, said the pink collapse has forced bears to rely on late berry crops and sedge grasses for nutrition.
"We're used to seeing bears eat 15 to 20 fish an hour. Now once a day we might see a bear catch one fish," Mr. Pattinson said. "We are seeing big male bears killing [yearling] cubs and eating them. ...It's pretty shocking for the tourists when they see raw nature like that."
Mr. Pattinson said he's worried about the future of his business.
"The bears are now eating berries and sedges. It's enough to get through the winter, but not enough for pregnant females. They'll either reabsorb their embryos or abort this winter. ...Next spring, I don't think there'll be any cubs," he said.
Brian Gunn, president of the Wilderness Tourism Association, said the collapse of salmon stocks is threatening the survival of ecotourism businesses.
"The bear-viewing businesses, the whale-watching operations, they built up a lot of equity showing people these wild animals. Now the fish aren't there and they are seeing their equity drain away. ...If the salmon go, so does the wildlife, and so does the business."
Mr. Gunn blamed the fish-farming business, saying a heavy concentration of net pens in the Broughton Archipelago has created sea-lice epidemics which kill young salmon.
vrijdag 12 september 2008
Orca shares the waves with local surfer
Gisborne's Wainui Beach is well known for its waves, and the competition among surfers for Gisborne's waves became unusually fierce this week.
At one stage a surfer feared for his life and opted to give up his wave to a rival with a far bigger fin - an orca.
"The fin was there, and it popped under, and it's other fin came up the side," surfer Michael Smith says. "It went underneath me, I was just like, 'I'm going to die.'"
However Karl McLeod from the Department of Conservation says the surfer was safer than he thought. There has never been a single fatal orca attack on a human in the wild.
"Orcas are very curious, highly intelligent and really social animals," Mr McLeod says. "So it's unsurprising that we have a number of encounters around the country, divers fishermen and stuff like that. Having said that, catching a wave with an orca right beside you, that's pretty exceptional."
Orca have been around since prehistoric times. They are sometimes known as the wolves of the sea, because they hunt in packs. However, if you happen to find yourself in the water with them, the best advice is tobut if you do happen to find yourself in the water with them, the best advice is to leave the area quietly, but not too hastily.
At one stage a surfer feared for his life and opted to give up his wave to a rival with a far bigger fin - an orca.
"The fin was there, and it popped under, and it's other fin came up the side," surfer Michael Smith says. "It went underneath me, I was just like, 'I'm going to die.'"
However Karl McLeod from the Department of Conservation says the surfer was safer than he thought. There has never been a single fatal orca attack on a human in the wild.
"Orcas are very curious, highly intelligent and really social animals," Mr McLeod says. "So it's unsurprising that we have a number of encounters around the country, divers fishermen and stuff like that. Having said that, catching a wave with an orca right beside you, that's pretty exceptional."
Orca have been around since prehistoric times. They are sometimes known as the wolves of the sea, because they hunt in packs. However, if you happen to find yourself in the water with them, the best advice is tobut if you do happen to find yourself in the water with them, the best advice is to leave the area quietly, but not too hastily.
donderdag 11 september 2008
Orcas make rare visit to Port Angeles Harbor
PORT ANGELES — A pod of three orcas made a rare trip Tuesday afternoon into Port Angeles Harbor, trailed by about a dozen boats of whale watchers.
The marine mammals arrived at about 2 p.m. and were headed back into the Strait of Juan de Fuca two hours later.
Observers on land called the Coast Guard Group/Air Station Port Angeles and the Port Angeles Police Department, concerned that the boats had driven the orcas into shallow waters or had trapped them there.
But Coast Guard Operations Specialist 1st Class Ian Banks said the crew of a helicopter that was detoured over the area saw no boats within the 100-yard no-encroach zone set by the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act.
A Coast Guard patrol boat also was sent to the area off the Rayonier pier to enforce both the no-encroach zone and a 400-yard no-wake zone that requires boats to reduce speed.
Hunting fish or seals
Most, if not all, the boats were operated by professional whale tour operators from Canada, Banks said.
Rich Osborne, former director of the Whale Museum of Friday Harbor, now a Clallam County employee, said the orcas could have been hunting fish or seals.
"In either case, they were probably exploring," he said.
Osborne said orcas observed on the Strait side of Ediz Hook probably are hunting fish.
Closer to shore, they may hunt weaner harbor seals, animals newly independent of their mothers and easy prey for orcas, also called killer whales.
Orcas are either fish eaters or marine mammal eaters, according to Howard Garrett of Whidbey Island, co-founder of Orca Network.
Garrett said a pod of orcas had been spotted near Port Angeles on Saturday and near Dungeness Spit on Thursday.
Banks said that, besides staying 100 yards from an orca, observers should approach them only from the side, not from in front of them or behind them.
He said this warning, and more cautions about observing orcas and other marine mammals, can be found in the pamphlet, "Be Whale Wise."
It and other information about orcas can be found at the Orca Network Web site, www.orcanetwork.org.
The site includes both a link to report orca sightings and accounts of recent sightings, plus links to photos, books and other marine mammal organizations.
The marine mammals arrived at about 2 p.m. and were headed back into the Strait of Juan de Fuca two hours later.
Observers on land called the Coast Guard Group/Air Station Port Angeles and the Port Angeles Police Department, concerned that the boats had driven the orcas into shallow waters or had trapped them there.
But Coast Guard Operations Specialist 1st Class Ian Banks said the crew of a helicopter that was detoured over the area saw no boats within the 100-yard no-encroach zone set by the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act.
A Coast Guard patrol boat also was sent to the area off the Rayonier pier to enforce both the no-encroach zone and a 400-yard no-wake zone that requires boats to reduce speed.
Hunting fish or seals
Most, if not all, the boats were operated by professional whale tour operators from Canada, Banks said.
Rich Osborne, former director of the Whale Museum of Friday Harbor, now a Clallam County employee, said the orcas could have been hunting fish or seals.
"In either case, they were probably exploring," he said.
Osborne said orcas observed on the Strait side of Ediz Hook probably are hunting fish.
Closer to shore, they may hunt weaner harbor seals, animals newly independent of their mothers and easy prey for orcas, also called killer whales.
Orcas are either fish eaters or marine mammal eaters, according to Howard Garrett of Whidbey Island, co-founder of Orca Network.
Garrett said a pod of orcas had been spotted near Port Angeles on Saturday and near Dungeness Spit on Thursday.
Banks said that, besides staying 100 yards from an orca, observers should approach them only from the side, not from in front of them or behind them.
He said this warning, and more cautions about observing orcas and other marine mammals, can be found in the pamphlet, "Be Whale Wise."
It and other information about orcas can be found at the Orca Network Web site, www.orcanetwork.org.
The site includes both a link to report orca sightings and accounts of recent sightings, plus links to photos, books and other marine mammal organizations.
woensdag 3 september 2008
Killer whales reported in Bay of Fundy
There is a report of unusual visitors to the Bay of Fundy—killer whales.
Gordon Wilson, deputy clerk with the Municipality of Digby, N.S. was watching a large group of dolphins heading up the bay on Sept. 2 past his waterfront home at Culloden when a large black fin emerged from the water.
“All of a sudden there was a big black fin. I said that looks like a killer whale and sure enough he came up again.”
Wilson grabbed for his binoculars but the next sighting showed the whales about 300 to 400 yards offshore.
He notified marine animal researchers in Halifax and found there were sightings earlier this year of killer whales off the Eastern Shore and the crew of an East Pubnico boat fishing for halibut on the Scotian Shelf in March reported a solitary whale eating halibut off their fishing lines.
Andrew Hebda, curator of zoology for the Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History, told Carla Allen of the Yarmouth Vanguard, that the predatory mammals eat fish, marine birds and a large array of marine mammals, from seals and sea lions to dolphins and whales.
“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,” said Hebda.
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.
Wilson also notified a Digby-based whale-watching firm that raced out to the Bay, but was unable to find the killer whales.
Gordon Wilson, deputy clerk with the Municipality of Digby, N.S. was watching a large group of dolphins heading up the bay on Sept. 2 past his waterfront home at Culloden when a large black fin emerged from the water.
“All of a sudden there was a big black fin. I said that looks like a killer whale and sure enough he came up again.”
Wilson grabbed for his binoculars but the next sighting showed the whales about 300 to 400 yards offshore.
He notified marine animal researchers in Halifax and found there were sightings earlier this year of killer whales off the Eastern Shore and the crew of an East Pubnico boat fishing for halibut on the Scotian Shelf in March reported a solitary whale eating halibut off their fishing lines.
Andrew Hebda, curator of zoology for the Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History, told Carla Allen of the Yarmouth Vanguard, that the predatory mammals eat fish, marine birds and a large array of marine mammals, from seals and sea lions to dolphins and whales.
“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,” said Hebda.
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.
Wilson also notified a Digby-based whale-watching firm that raced out to the Bay, but was unable to find the killer whales.
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