Killer whales make a splash

A huge pod of killer whales passed the coast of Eden, New South Wales, Australia on Good Friday, their trademark dorsal fins creating quite a ripple as they cut through local waters.
Eden is known globally for its fascination for a regular migrant population of whales and the killer whale sighting has excited scientists and enthusiasts in Eden and abroad.


Spy hop: One of the smallest killer whales from a huge pod which passed Eden on Friday.

On Friday afternoon there were quick reactions by whale enthusiasts Ros and Gordan Butt and the few locals who were lucky enough to be close by, as they leapt aboard the Cat Balou for the chase.

Eden resident Nick Haenig had his camera aboard and captured some special moments during the 45 minute cruise, providing the area with the first shots of killer whales taken for some time.

Whale spotter and retired fish spotter Maurie Egan was at the Eden Killer Whale Museum when he heard about the pod and was ecstatic about its arrival, as the wild orca was something he'd never seen before.

"A game fishing boat called the Coastal Patrol who phoned us," said Mrs Butt on Monday.

"The game fishing boat had seen them in North Bay but it turned out to be two miles outside the bay by the time we caught them.

"We reckon there were between 25 and 30 in the pod, and about six males with the big dorsal fins, one very small baby and the rest we presume were females or juveniles," she said.

The pod was heading south after being spotted off Merimbula earlier in the day.

"They were mainly just swimming, then they'd split into three different groups before joining up again, and at times the males were all hanging together," Mrs Butt said.

"It was amazing.

"Our last sighting was Melbourne Cup day 12 months ago, only the eighth time we've seen them in 21 years."

Whale researcher Dave Donnelly of Melbourne will use some of Mr Haenig's photographs to expand his whale database and will pick them up while in Eden for the launch of the Sapphire Coast Marine Discovery Centre's See our Seas documentary night on Saturday (see Page 8).

The pod had been cruising the Far South Coast with a report that a killer whale was sighted in Mallacoota on Thursday.

A Mallacoota tourist who visited Eden on Friday asked the boys at Fish, Dive, Camp about what she saw.

"A lady from Mallacoota asked us what had a long, fin this high," Michael Mashado said on Monday, indicating the height of his shoulder.

"She had been fishing in a boat off Mallacoota and thought it might have been a sunfish."

The boys saw a small, fast moving pod of killer whales on February 28 this year and also were privy to sperm whales breaching the week before the March fishing competition.

Source: Magnet

Rare White Killer Whale Spotted In Alaskan Waters

ScienceDaily (Mar. 19, 2008) — Scientists aboard the NOAA research vessel Oscar Dyson in the North Pacific have sighted a creature of great rarity and even myth: a white whale.

The white killer whale was spotted with its pod about two miles off Kanaga Volcano, part of Alaska’s Aleutian Islands, on February 23. At the time, Kodiak-based Oscar Dyson was on a research expedition for NOAA’s Alaska Fisheries Science Center, assessing pollock fish stocks near Steller sea lion haulout sites.

The white whale is a fish-eating type of killer whale, as were all the killer whales photographed on the expedition. Fish-eating killer whales are the most frequently seen whales around the Aleutian Islands during the summer. The winter sightings represent important evidence that they may be common year-round.

Holly Fearnbach, a research biologist at NOAA’s National Marine Mammal Laboratory in Seattle, was able to photograph the whale’s white fin and back. “With hundreds of killer whales documented around the Aleutian Islands, this was equivalent to finding a needle in a haystack,” she said.

“Despite the typical stormy weather that makes research operations very difficult in the winter, the scientific team on Oscar Dyson has been pulling in a huge amount of planned research data,” said Alaska Fisheries Science Center director Doug DeMaster. “Extraordinary sightings like this white whale are icing on the cake.”

Few white killer whales have ever been seen, according to Fearnbach, much less scientifically documented.

This whale is likely not a true albino because it still has signs of darker pigmented areas on its body. However, because of its prominent coloring, the white whale serves as an indicator for movements of killer whales in the North Pacific.

White killer whales have been sighted previously in the Aleutian Islands as well as in the Bering Sea and off the Russian coast. Scientists are working to confirm whether or not the whale sighted Feb. 23 is the same animal as any of those previous seen.

Besides fish and marine mammal researchers from the Alaska Fisheries Science Center, Oscar Dyson also carried a bird observer from the US Fish and Wildlife Service. All added to scientific knowledge about the marine ecosystem of the Aleutian Islands in winter.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, an agency of the U.S. Commerce Department, is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and information service delivery for transportation, and by providing environmental stewardship of our nation's coastal and marine resources. Through the emerging Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), NOAA is working with its federal partners, more than 70 countries and the European Commission to develop a global monitoring network that is as integrated as the planet it observes, predicts and protects.

Source: Science Daily

Pod of orcas gatecrashes beach demo

Who needs a plastic model when the real thing comes calling?

These elegant orcas brought an abrupt end to a demonstration of how to save a beached whale when they cruised past Mt Maunganui's Main Beach yesterday.

Star of the demonstration - part of Seaweek at Mt Maunganui - was a blow-up plastic replica of an orca.

But it was quickly forgotten when the real orcas dropped in.

Many of the hundreds of people at the beach ran to the water's edge to catch a glimpse of the creatures, which came within 30m of shore.

The pod of about half a dozen orcas glided around rocks on Moturiki (Leisure Island).

Lifesavers paddled out on surfboards for a close look at them, and a surf club inflatable boat tailed them until they reached the Tay St surf area, about 1km south of Main Beach.

Orcas are not uncommon in the area, especially at this time of year, and sometimes come into Tauranga Harbour in search of food.

They forage along the sandy floor for stingrays - New Zealand orcas are the only known orca group that eats stingrays as a staple food.

Orcas, also known as killer whales, also eat other food such as fish, squid, dolphins, sharks and seals.

Source: The New Zealand Herald

White Killer Whale Spotted Off Alaska

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The white killer whale spotted in Alaska's Aleutian Islands sent researchers and the ship's crew scrambling for their cameras.

The nearly mythic creature was real after all.

"I had heard about this whale, but we had never been able to find it," said Holly Fearnbach, a research biologist with the National Marine Mammal Laboratory in Seattle who photographed the rarity. "It was quite neat to find it."

The whale was spotted last month while scientists aboard the Oscar Dyson, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research ship, were conducting an acoustic survey of pollock near Steller sea lion haulout sites.

It had been spotted once in the Aleutians years ago but had eluded researchers since, even though they had seen many of the more classic black and white whales over the years.

Fearnbach said the white whale stood out.

"When you first looked at it, it was very white," she said Thursday.

Further observation showed that while the whale's saddle area was white, other parts of its body had a subtle yellowish or brownish color.

It likely is not a true albino given the coloration, said John Durban, a research biologist at NOAA's Alaska Fisheries Science Center in Seattle. That's probably a good thing — true albinos usually don't live long and can have health problems.

Durban said white killer whales have been spotted elsewhere in the area twice before: in 1993 in the northern Bering Sea around St. Lawrence Island and in 2001 near Adak in the central Aleutians. There have also been sightings along the Russian coast.

While Alaska researchers have documented thousands of black and white killer whales in the Bering Sea and the Aleutians during summer surveys, this was something new and exciting, Durban said.

"This is the first time we came across a white killer whale," he said.

The scientists observed several pods over a two-week period. The white whale was in a family group of 12 on a day when the seas were fairly rough. It was spotted about 2 miles off Kanaga Volcano on Feb. 23.

The ship stayed with the whale for about 30 minutes.

"Everybody actually came out and was taking pictures," Fearnbach said. "It was a neat sighting for everybody."

The whale appeared to be a healthy, adult male about 25 to 30 feet long and weighing upward of 10,000 pounds.

Scientists spy mythic white orca in the Aleutians

H. Fearnbach, NMML, NMFS permit 782-1719

Fisheries biologists cruising the remote Aleutian Islands on a pollock survey caught sight of one of the North Pacific’s rarest creatures: a white orca.

Rather than sporting the species’ iconic black-and-white markings, the animal swimming with its fish-eating pod two miles off Kanaga Volcano exhibited almost no visible pigment, according to scientists with the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Seeing the animal’s off-white dorsal fin breaking through the roiling waves as it cavorted with its family group made for an extraordinary moment.

“With hundreds of killer whales documented around the Aleutian Islands, this was equivalent to finding a needle in a haystack,” said Holly Fearnbach, a research biologist who was able to photograph the whale’s white fin and back.

The scientists were aboard the NOAA research vessel Oscar Dyson, conducting assessments of pollock fish stocks near haul-outs of the endangered Steller sea lion. About two miles off Kanaga Volcano, on Feb. 23, the white orca swam into view with its pod.

The white whale is a fish-eating type of killer whale, as were all the killer whales photographed on the expedition. Fish-eating killer whales are the most frequently seen whales around the Aleutian Islands during the summer. The winter sightings represent important evidence that they may be common year-round.

“Despite the typical stormy weather that makes research operations very difficult in the winter, the scientific team on Oscar Dyson has been pulling in a huge amount of planned research data,” said Alaska Fisheries Science Center director Doug DeMaster. “Extraordinary sightings like this white whale are icing on the cake.”

Few white killer whales have ever been seen, according to Fearnbach, much less scientifically documented.

This whale is likely not a true albino because it still has signs of darker pigmented areas on its body. However, because of its prominent coloring, the white whale serves as an indicator for movements of killer whales in the North Pacific.

Other sightings of a white killer whale have been reported previously in the Aleutian Islands as well as in the Bering Sea and off the Russian coast. Scientists are working to confirm whether or not the individual whale sighted Feb. 23 has been reported earlier.

Besides fish and marine mammal researchers from the Alaska Fisheries Science Center, /Oscar Dyson/ also carried a bird observer from the US Fish and Wildlife Service. All added to scientific knowledge about the marine ecosystem of the Aleutian Islands in winter.

Source: Alaska Report