Humpback song & oil spill update

Hello everyone,

As a change of pace, we want to pass along something wonderful for you to listen to. It’s the first true “song” from humpback whales that we’ve heard since they started returning to the inland waters of northern Vancouver Island 25 years ago, after having being totally wiped out by the last gasp of North America’s whaling industry in 1967. Year by year, especially over the past decade, the humpbacks have been becoming more & more comfortable in these waters that were home to their ancestors, and now it seems they are bursting into song!

Please enjoy the sounds we were mesmerized by in the early hours of October 11th. Click on the link to the sound clip. Best to download the whole 150mb file first.

Also, to bring you up to date on the aftermath of the August 20th oil spill in Robson Bight, please check out our most recent story and the latest episode of Twyla Roscovich’s video diary.


As you’ll see, oil is still upwelling from the bottom of Robson Bight, Canadian governments are still doing nothing of substance, and NGOs led by Living Oceans and Greenpeace, having raised the funds needed to do the job, will soon conduct an underwater inspection of the spill site. We can only hope that the imagery obtained from Nuytco’s mini sub will compel Canada’s governments into a full cleanup of the contamination, and launch a formal inquiry into the incident and the broader issue of marine safety in British Columbia’s vulnerable coastal waters.

As always, this comes with our very best wishes to you all,

Paul & Helena
orcalab.org

Saving Luna Premiere

Members of the Maquinna family and the Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nation sing and dance at the Saving Luna Vancouver Premiere


Suzanne & Mike talk about winning top award at the prestigious Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival in Wyoming.



Encore screening of SAVING LUNA Tuesday, October 9th at 6 pm, Empire Granville 7 Theatres in Vancouver. Tickets are available online or by phoning 604-685- 8297.

SRKW Call Catalogue

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Protest Japan's brutal slaughter of over 22,000 dolphins

NEWS RELEASE - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Nancy Morris (206) 533-6155
Howard Garrett/Susan Berta, 1-866-ORCANET

ACTIVISTS GATHER AT JAPANESE CONSULATE TO CALL FOR END TO BRUTAL DOLPHIN SLAUGHTER AND EXPOSING JAPANESE CHILDREN TO TOXIC MERCURY
WHERE: Japanese Consulate, 601 Union Street, Seattle
WHEN: TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 12:00PM (NOON)
WHAT: Orca Network joins many local and international organizations in a day of worldwide protests against Japan's brutal slaughter of over 22,000 dolphins and for deliberately not informing their citizens about mercury contaminated meat.
Activists in Japan are asking the world community to speak out; they believe this is the best way to make their government stop the brutal killing of over 22,000 dolphins, including some species that are endangered. Japanese officials force Japanese children to eat mercury contaminated meat. Most of the Japanese people do not know this slaughter happens or that they are exposed to toxic levels of mercury. There is a media blackout in Japan regarding the dolphin slaughter and mercury contamination. The mercury levels exceeded the numbers that caused Minimata Disease in the past, which killed or caused severe birth defects in innocent children. The slaughtered dolphins are also processed and used as pet food or fertilizer still containing toxic levels of mercury.

The dolphin drive hunts destroy defenseless, highly intelligent, self-aware mammals in the most brutal way imaginable. These socially complex mammals witness the screaming slaughter of their close family group in a sea turned red with blood, but won't abandon their pod. Some of the survivors are captured and sold to unscrupulous dolphin traders.
For more information on the dolphin slaughter, mercury contamination, and the dolphin captivity industry, please visit Orca Network's web site at: www.orcanetwork.org/captivity/dolphinslaughter.html .
Demonstrations will be held at Japanese embassies and consulates around the world including numerous cities in the U.S. For a complete list of protest cities and organizations, visit: www.savejapandolphins.org.

Save Robson Bight

Many of you already know about the August 20th oil spill that happened when a barge tipped its load of logging equipment into the waters of the Robson Bight (Michael Bigg) Ecological Reserve in British Columbia, Canada. The Reserve was created in 1982 to protect vital orca habitat. Nearly 60 orcas, fully 25% of the Northern Resident orca community, were exposed to toxic diesel vapours in the aftermath of the accident. Severe health consequences (e.g. lung lesions, pneumonia) are possible, though it may take considerable time for them to appear. Next year, we may know more. In the meantime, the equipment, which carried 19,000L of diesel and other oils, remains on the bottom in an unknown state. It needs to be inspected as a matter of urgency, before winter storms arrive, to assess the remaining danger. Canada's Coastguard, the responsible agency, is dragging its feet on the inspection issue, despite pressure from provincial and local governments, and the public at large. NGOs, led by the Living Oceans Society and Greenpeace, have vowed to undertake the inspection if Canada's federal government refuses. The orcas are simply too important to allow uncertainty.

We are writing this to ask you to do two things that will help:

1. Go to the Living Oceans web site and send a message to Canada's Minister of Fisheries and Oceans.

2. Contribute what you can to NGO funds being raised for the underwater inspection.

Canada's government needs to hear our voices. NGOs need our support, so they can act if governments refuse.
What we are asking will take just a few minutes of your time, and money you can afford. Please act now.

For the orcas, thank you very much!

Paul & Helena

Background:
OrcaLab
SaveRobsonBight
LivingOceans
SignPetition

Makah Hunt Gray Whale

Five members of the Makah of Washington State harpooned and shot a gray whale off Neah Bay in Juan de Fuca Strait last Saturday. The whale later died and sank form its injuries. The hunt was unauthorized by the band or government officials. The Makah were successful in an authorized gray whale hunt in 1999, with many of the same members now involved in this week's incident. Each man could face up to a $20,000 fine and a year in jail if convicted of violating the Marine Mammal Protection Act. The tribe will continue to seek a permit to resume authorized whaling. Even though the gray whale population is not endangered there are special sub populations of animals that utilize the bays of Washington and British Columbia each year called 'resident' grays. Through genetic analysis of gene variation researchers estimate as many as 118,000 gray whales roamed the Pacific before commercial whaling started in the 1800s. Today there are only about 22,000 Pacific gray whales, including about 100 in the western Pacific. A rise in sea temperatures may have limited gray whale prey availability. The recent increase in gray whale deaths suggests a limited food source in their feeding grounds of the Bering Sea.

http://www.kirotv.com/news/14084695/detail.html
http://www.komotv.com/news/9665342.html

SRKW Calls - S6

S6_1 x 3

S6_2 x 3

New Calf for L pod - L110

Moonlight / L83, a 17 year old female, has given birth to her first calf L110. This brings the southern resident population of killer whales to a total of 87 individuals, with 25 individuals in J pod, 19 animals in K pod, and now 43 whales in L pod.
Center for Whale Research

Johnstone Strait Fuel & Oil Spill

Times Columnist
A tug and barge towing several vehicles has sunk in Johnstone Strait off of Robson Bight where the northern residents go to rub along several beaches. The diesel spill has spread out and is reportedly flowing towards the rubbing beach area. A barge loaded with logging equipment, including a fuel truck carrying diesel fuel, flipped Monday and dropped its load into the water by Robson Bight, the protected area where threatened northern resident killer whales feed and rub their bellies. An oil sheen, about two kilometres long, could be seen on the water shortly after the accident and environmental groups say it is almost inevitable that some of the 60 whales known to be in the area will come in contact with the oil.

Save the Streams

There are five species of Pacific salmon that die
after spawning; Chinook, Chum, Coho, Sockeye,
and Pink. Salmon return to their natal streams and
rivers each year. Salmon travel thousands
of miles and spend one to five years feeding in the
ocean before returning to their birth streams.
Spawning females dig out a gravel nests, called a
redd. The males then fertilizes the eggs and the
female protects the redd for one to two weeks.
Alveins hatch and mature into fry, developing
vertical bars for camouflage, called parr marks.
After a period of feeding fry migrate downstream
towards the ocean and grow into smolts adapting
to their marine environment.

Threats
On top of natural dangers from predators dangers
to salmon from human activities include poor
farming and forest practices, pollution, destruction
of coastal wetlands and estuaries. The territory of
British Columbia salmon has been decimated for
decades by industrial clearcut logging. Roots of
trees anchor steep slopes. Logging increases the
chances of landslides filling vital spawning
grounds with mud, debris, and boulders. Shade
from trees is lost increasing water temperatures.
Other threats include overfishing, urbanization,
hydroelectric dams, and fish farms.

Actions
Salmon play an important role sustaining
forest ecology. Spawners bring vital nutrients
from the ocean into the forest. Carcasses are dispersed
by bears and eagles providing the trees with fertilizer;
nitrogen, phosphorus, and carbon. Salmon feed the
rivers helping the survival of young salmon. Farmed
salmon does not replicate this vital role and is
detrimental to wild stocks. Dangers from fish farms
include disease, pollution (including contaminating
shellfish), predation on young wild salmon, and
escapement (Atlantic salmon compete for food and
habitat with wild stocks). Conservation actions include
cleaning up salmon streams (ensuring clean and safe
flowing environments), recycling, using biodegradable
and organic products, and choosing wild salmon over
farmed.

Chinook
Oncorhynchus tshawytscha
Spring, Salmon, King, Blackmouth,
Quinnat, Chub, Tyee (14+kg)
Chinooks have a greenish-blue dark back with
long black spots, a red hue develops around
the fins and belly, male teeth are enlarged and
they have a hooked snout. Tyee reach 1.5 m
and 58 kg, average 90 cm and14 kg. Spawning
peak May to June and August to September.

Chum
O. keta
Dog Salmon
Females are a metallic
blue, males have a
checkerboard colouration,
a dark horizontal stripe, and
canine-like teeth. Average
from 4.5 to 12 kg. Spawning
peak month October.

Coho
O. kisutch
Silver Salmon
Spawning males are red on
their sides, and a bright green
on the back and head areas, with a
darker colouration on the belly, spots
on upper tail fin lobe. They also develop
a hooked jaw with sharp teeth. Females
develop a lesser-hooked snout. Coho
reach 1 m and weigh up to 14 kg, they
average between 3 to kg. Spawning
peak July to August.

Sockeye
O. nerka
Kokanee, Red Salmon,
Blueback Salmon
Varying shades of red resulting
in a brilliant scarlet fish with a
green head. Grow to 83 cm
and weigh up to 7 kg. Spawning
peak month August.

Pink
O. gorbuscha
Humpies
Pale grey, males
develop a hump.
Get up to 76 cm
and to 5.5 kg,
average 1.5 to 2.5 kg.
Spawning peak month
October.

SARA Transient Killer Whale & Sea Otter Recovery Strategies

Transient Killer Whale (Orcinus orca)

The ‘West Coast transient’ population of killer whales (Orcinus orca) is acoustically, genetically and culturally distinct from other killer whale populations known to occupy waters off the west coast of British Columbia. This population was designated as ‘threatened’ by COSEWIC in 2001, and currently numbers approximately 250 animals. Transient killer whales are long-lived upper trophic level predators that are considered to be at risk because of their small population size, their very low reproductive rate (one calf every five years) and their extremely high levels of chemical contaminants that are persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic. Their high contaminant burdens, which have resulted from bioaccumulation in their prey, combined with other anthropogenic threats such as physical and acoustic disturbance, warrant their protection under the Species at Risk Act, and they are currently listed as Threatened.

PDF
TEXT
Consultation period: 2007-8-7 to 2007-10-6


Sea Otter (Enhydra lutris)

Sea otters ranged once from Northern Japan to central Baja California, but were hunted almost to extinction during the Maritime fur trade that began in the mid 1700s. As few as 2,000 animals, little more than 1% of the pre-fur trade population, are thought to have remained in 13 remnant populations by 1911. The last verified sea otter in Canada was shot near Kyuquot, British Columbia (BC), in 1929. Between 1969 and 1972, 89 sea otters from Amchitka and Prince William Sound, Alaska, were translocated to Checleset Bay on the west coast of Vancouver Island. Recent population surveys (2001 to 2004) indicate the Canadian sea otter population includes a minimum of 2,700 animals along the west coast of Vancouver Island and 500 animals on the central BC coast. Sea otters are legally listed as Threatened under the Species at Risk Act (SARA) but have recently been reassessed by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) as Special Concern as they have re-populated 25-33% of their historic range and the population is growing and expanding. However, the population is still considered small (<3500) and their susceptibility to oil and the proximity to major oil tanker routes make them particularly vulnerable to oil spills (COSEWIC 2007).

PDF
TEXT
Consultation period: 2007-8-7 to 2007-10-6

BC Lakes & Streams

Shawnigan Lake

Small Mouth Bass

John's Creek



Goldstream

Salmon Fry

Thetis Lake

Humpback Injured by Killer Whale

Humpback whale missing part of left flipper due to killer whale attack.





photos by Amy Valagao

Save the Streams Update

DFO Resident Killer Whale Recovery Strategies

Two distinct populations of killer whales (Orcinus orca), known as the northern and southern residents, occupy the waters off the west coast of British Columbia. In 2001, COSEWIC designated southern resident killer whales as ‘endangered’, and northern resident killer whales as ‘threatened’. Both populations are listed in Schedule 1 of the Species at Risk Act (SARA). These two populations are acoustically, genetically and culturally distinct. Resident killer whale populations in British Columbia are presently considered to be at risk because of their small population size, low reproductive rate, and the existence of a variety of anthropogenic threats that have the potential to prevent recovery or to cause further declines. Principal among these anthropogenic threats are environmental contamination, reductions in the availability or quality of prey, and both physical and acoustic disturbance. Even under the most optimistic scenario (human activities do not increase mortality or decrease reproduction), the species’ low intrinsic growth rate means that the time frame for recovery will be more than one generation (25 years).

Consultation period: 2007-6-21 to 2007-8-20
Files

PDF - Recovery Strategy for the Northern and Southern Resident Killer Whales (Orcinus orca) in Canada (Proposed)

Text -Recovery Strategy for the Northern and Southern Resident Killer Whales (Orcinus orca) in Canada (Proposed)

Comments

Photos for Whales

Print photography available - donate to marine research and conservation by purchasing marine wildlife photography.

aquagreenmarine.org

aquagreenmarine.org is back online!

(aka - aquagreen.org)

Click - Aquagreen Marine Research Website

Sea Otters Holding Hands

New Baby Girl for J pod

Photographs taken May 6, 2007, off Freshwater Bay (west of Port Angeles, WA) lead staff at the Center for Whale Research to believe that J42 is a female based on the distinctive markings on the underside of the belly of this young calf (seen May 2, 2007, J42 joins pod, traveling alongside mother J16).

Willy Sighting!

OrcaNetwork - April 27
Jeff Dodd of Langley called to report what he was pretty sure was a False Killer whale, observed 3 miles north of Protection Island (near Port Townsend). The whale surfaced several times near the boat, & seemed very curious about the boat, then left.
There is a lone False Killer whale in the Salish Sea area that shows up periodically, & seems to like to approach boats - this could be a possible sighting - I have seen it in this area in the past - susan berta

Orca Network Link

Willy Link