This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Whale researchers spotted a baby orca swimming energetically with its mother west of San Juan Island on Friday. Share this: Facebook; Twitter; Reddit; Google Classroom; Email; Print; By Science News for Students. But then they got a 12-hour quiet spell. As a result, populations of sea otters in the Aleutian Islands have declined from an estimated 60,000 animals in the mid-1980s to under 10,000 by 2000. It's gone. The killer whale, also known as an orca (Orcinus orca), is a toothed whale belonging to the oceanic dolphin family, of which it is the largest member. Scientists found extremely high PCB levels in the animals’ bodies. Serious scientists, like Doug DeMaster, don't think much of it either. This is due to the fact that killer whales are used to eating animals two to five times the size of otters, so they need to eat two to five times as many otters as seals or sea lions. The whales were smaller than other killer whales, and they had rounded heads and pointier fins. An analysis of the DNA will determine if this is actually a completely new species or just an unusual subtype. Before reading: Describe a sea otter. They can tell, even in the darkest parts of the sea, where items are by how quickly their noises bounce back. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Marine scientists suggest the Southern Resident orcas face problems centered on their diet. The team was able to snip off small tissue samples from the whales by firing a harmless dart, attached to a line, into their skin. (B) Global overview of PCB concentrations in killer whale blubber (ppm, parts per million).Light and dark green circles represent males and females, respectively. NPR’s John Nielsen reported that this caused up to an 80% decline in the otter population. John Nielsen, NPR News, Washington. "And you can imagine them thinking, 'Hey, where's our fish?' Second, we evaluated the impact of killer whales on sea otter populations at Adak Island by contrasting otter population trends and sur- vival rates between Clam Lagoon, an area uniquely inaccessible to killer whales, and ad- jacent Kuluk Bay, an open coastal environment (Fig. I should point out that killer whales around the world are doing fine, but this population is listed as endangered on both sides of the border of the U.S. and Canada. "The idea is that, if we can figure that out, we might be able to find some ways that we can further help recover the endangered population, like Southern residents." "This study was really a decade-long look at what do killer whales die from, from California to Alaska all the way out to Hawaii," he sasy. Then in 2005, Pitman met a French biologist at a science conference who showed him a photo of an odd-looking killer whale swimming in the southern Indian Ocean. For the moment this debate is largely academic; nobody is seriously talking about killing orcas to protect otters, seals and sea lions. A group of ecologists says it has solved the mystery of Alaska's missing sea otters. That's the New Zealand killer whale!' "Visibly," she says, "this form is the most unusual and distinct form of killer whale on the planet.". "This was a very different-looking group of killer whales," says Robert Pitman, a marine ecologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Different populations of killer whales make different vocalizations, and different pods within these populations may even have their own dialect. Mr. DeMASTER: The people who really know killer whales, who spend their lives following them around and studying them--they just don't find any evidence that large whales are an important part of their diet. And baby makes 75: newborn orca boosts endangered whale population. (killer whales spouting water) I would see a killer whale on average of probably once every three or four years in the '70s and '80s. Pitman says it must have looked like a fishing line with fish on it — it looked like breakfast. Each pod has distinctive noises, so whales in one pod can sense if another whale is part of its group. Some researchers can distinguish individual pods, and even matrilines (the line of relationship that can be traced from one mother to her offspring), just by their calls. "It's a big ocean, and it's a rough ocean. The team had lowered an underwater microphone over the side on a long cable, with cameras attached. What might threaten sea otters? 2). Since 1990, otter populations off the Aleutian islands have plummeted by as much as 80 percent. Approximately 2,500 killer whales live in the eastern North Pacific Ocean—home to the most well-studied killer whale populations. " he says. Then she multiplies that number by 365 days. Terry Williams, a marine biologist at the University of California at Santa Cruz, says that's because the killer whales eat them. The chemicals were affecting their ability to reproduce. But not everyone is buying the theory. They use these sounds to help travel underwater. December 9, 2011 at 4:12 pm . Their ship at Cape Horn was trapped at anchor for eight days by howling weather. Other researchers are studying why California’s sea otters seem to have become more vulnerable to disease and parasites. Fig. Local fishers had been complaining that some kind of whale was stripping fish off their lines. ", "There they were," Ballance recalls, for a moment at a loss for words. They are easy to identify because of their distinctive white and black colouring. hide caption. The Navy estimates the southern population of killer whales in the Puget Sound region could be subject to the non-lethal take two to 51 times a year during the seven years of Navy activity. These patches were unusually small, in some cases almost nonexistent. Then, when seals became rare, the killer whales turned to sea lions. New Type Of Killer Whale Found Swimming In Southern Ocean The notion that there might be some new kind of killer whale emerged in 1955, when photos from New Zealand showed a … Populations of mammal-eating transient orcas, gray whales and humpback whales are increasing. Scientists are finding the same trend around the world. Increased killer whale predation is the likely cause of these declines. Sea otter numbers were stable from 1993 through 1997 in Clam Lagoon, whereas in Kuluk Bay they declined by 76%. PCBs first came under scrutiny in the 1970s, when birds, seals, and otter populations began rapidly decreasing. If there were more fish, they say, marine mammals and orcas would have plenty to eat. "We left that night," Ballance recalls, and "pounded into the seas so that we could get to our spot at first light the next morning. When the sea lion population crashed, they started fishing sea otters. This suggests that four killer whales, feeding exclusively on sea otters, could have driven the population into decline. Orcas Gobbling Alaskan Otters / Change in Killer whale diet puts ecosystem on edge of ruin Carl T. Hall, Chronicle Science Writer Oct. 16, 1998 Updated: Feb. 3, 2012 4:14 a.m. The primary focus of CWR research is the Southern Resident population of killer whales (orcas). ", There was no mistaking its peculiar look, says Ballance. Ms. WILLIAMS: Followed lastly by sea otters, which, you know, still give you calories, but it's going to take you a bit to fill up on them. Later, they realized why the whales swam up to them. K Pod K pod is the smallest of the three pods in the Southern Resident killer whale community with only 17 members. Last year, he assembled a team to go to Cape Horn, in Chile, to look for what's now technically called the "type D" killer whale. They are found in all the world's oceans, from the cold of the Arctic to the tropical seas. I can't even ... it was thrilling for all of us." He says the authors of the orca paper greatly overestimate the number of sea otters being eaten by the killer whales, partly because he's sure these killer whales are also eating lots of other things, like fish. NIELSEN: Environmental groups say the orca paper does a disservice to the cause of conservation by diverting attention from what they say is the real problem in the Bering Sea: overfishing. He also says the original idea that these orcas once ate the great whales can't be proven. Many people are trying to figure out why. "And I looked down, and there they were, the New Zealand killer whales," he recalls. In recent decades, several populations of killer whales have declined and some have become endangered. The mouth comes up, takes the sea otter, grabs it and gulps it down. Credit: Weiss et al., “Modelling cetacean morbillivirus outbreaks in an endangered killer whale population,” Biological Conservation, 2020. These giant pectoral fins come up on either side of the sea otter. There are fewer fish available for them to eat, more noise in the water affecting their ability to find the fish, and more pollution in the water that impacts their health when they are not well fed. But sea otters living in the Bering Sea off Alaska probably think differently. Mr. DOUG DeMASTER (Director, Alaska Fisheries Science Center): This hypothesis is too simplistic, and it's not ready for the textbooks yet. affected. It's still waiting to be tested. 2). It's one of those moments that biologists live for. Since 1990, otter populations off the Aleutian Islands have fallen by as much as 80 percent. NIELSEN: DeMaster is director of the federal government's Alaska Fisheries Science Center. 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