Center for Whale Research

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

L112 washes up in Long Beach, WA

- The following is copied from an email message from NOAA:

"On Feb. 11, 2012, a stranded killer whale washed up just north of Long Beach, Wash. Photographs of the dorsal fin and saddle patch were matched to catalogs of known killer whales by biologists from NOAA Fisheries and the Center for Whale Research.

The whale has been identified as a member of the Southern Resident L Pod known as L112, a female calf of L86. A full necropsy was conducted on Feb. 12.

Samples were taken for a variety of analyses. Processing of samples could take several weeks or months, and will hopefully provide insight into the origin of the traumatic injuries or other factors that may have contributed to the death of this whale. More information is available on the Cascadia Research website at:

http://www.cascadiaresearch.org/examination_of_dead_killer_whale-12Feb2012.htm

5 comments:

Kirsten MassebeauFebruary 14, 2012 at 8:03 PM
It is a shame that sonar is never mentioned. Hush, hush, another unexplained mortality event. Please join us as we fight for putting an end to the cover up of oil and naval ocean noise that is destroying the cetaceans worldwide.
http://championsforcetaceans.com
mrsmassebeau@gmail.com
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AnonymousMarch 5, 2012 at 8:26 PM
1st. I am for some control son teh use of sonar in certain areas to protect marine habitat.

THAT BEING SAID.... where is there ANY insinuation/proof/evidence/whatnot this has anything to do with sonar?!?!?!??!!? Have YOU seen the necropsy? How do you know it was not poisoned? How about patrasites? Maybe it ate a kid's kite?

Another knee-jerk reaction when YOU HAVE NO FACTS.

I await official word from the wahleresearch group and can then make an INFORMED comment.
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AnonymousApril 9, 2012 at 3:37 PM
The whale died of trauma similar to that of an underwater explosion.
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AnonymousApril 13, 2012 at 7:36 PM
Could it be possible the whale was killed by Transient Orcas?
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AnonymousMay 24, 2012 at 10:59 PM
How about fishermen competing for their take?
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Some Background Information on the Orca Captivity Issue from Howard Garrett

"In 1965 a young male orca was captured in the town of Namu, BC. He was sold to Ted Griffin and towed in a pen to Seattle, where he was promoted extensively and made into a worldwide celebrity. Namu died after 11 months of captivity, but by then Sea World had captured their first Shamu from Puget Sound and the revenues from killer whale shows started a stampede to capture and sell orcas from Washington.

For ten years the captures were led by Don Goldsberry and Ted Griffin, who became public enemies after they tried to violently obstruct news coverage of their operations. They caught over 100 in that time, but claimed there were plenty of orcas here so the captures would make little difference on a population level. There was no science to dispute that until the mid-1970's when Canada and the US contracted with marine biologists Mike Bigg and Ken Balcomb, respectively, to conduct a survey to find out how many orcas there were in Washington and BC. They found only a few hundred, mostly north of Vancouver Island, meaning the captures had removed about a third of those resident to Washington waters.

Goldsberry, Griffin, Sea World, and the marine park industry in general disputed the scientists' findings and methods because they didn't like the results, and thus began a deep animosity toward field researchers on the part of the marine park industry. That dislike and disregard for the natural history of orcas that Bigg and Balcomb and many others revealed over the years became part of the marine park culture and continues to this day. The longevity of orcas, for example, was known from field research to be many decades longer than what marine parks told the public in their educational materials.

Needless to say, any organization that criticizes the captivity industry or that attempts to rehab, retire or release captives receives special scorn from the industry (which includes many people on Keiko's care team)."

"... and that's unfortunate because there could be some areas of agreement and cooperation if we could trust one another's information. But for those within the industry survival of the business is often more important than survival of the orcas, so rather than defend against these innuendos, unless there are disputed facts I'll try to give the background for the argument and leave it at that." From Comments by Howard Garrett

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

5 comments:

Candace Calloway Whiting