Center for Whale Research: SRKW's off Westport WA, April 29th

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

SRKW's off Westport WA, April 29th

While on a survey out of Westport, Washington, Cascadia Research Collective encountered a southern resident killer whales including individuals from both K and L pods. From the photos sent to the Center for Whale Research, we were able to ID 36 whales. This is not a complete census. Cascadia was able to photograpg many, but not all of the whales present. Here's a list of the whales we were able to ID from the photos: K12, K13, K14, K20, K25, K26, K27, K34, K36, K37, K38, K42, K43, K44, L5, L25, L27, L41, L53, L55, L72, L79, L82, L84, L85, L86, L89, L91, L94, L103, L105, L106, L109, L113, L116, and L118.
Photograph of L105 by Greg Shore.

4 comments:

AnonymousMay 18, 2012 at 6:39 PM
It seems this is not the group L90 is usually with. Any sightings of her or her group?
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Fishing In WestportNovember 19, 2012 at 2:43 AM
Thanks for letting us know about this. We've been on the seas of Westport, WA and we don't have knowledge about killer whales in the area. Good thing I have read your post.
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UnknownJanuary 28, 2013 at 8:34 AM
I guys,

Check the whales and dolphins page at
http://skaphandrus.com
a comprehensive catalogue of marine species to sea lovers.
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Edmond Carpet InstallationJuly 16, 2022 at 9:39 PM
Great read thankyou
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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, May 8, 2012

SRKW's off Westport WA, April 29th

4 comments:

Candace Calloway Whiting