Namu’s Journey

Orca ◽  
2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason M. Colby
Keyword(s):  
Chinook Salmon ◽  
Killer Whale ◽  
Puget Sound ◽  
Washington State ◽  
Killer Whales ◽  
The West ◽  
West Side ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
First Time ◽  
The Brain

The call came by ship-to-shore radio from a Washington State ferry. The skipper on the Seattle-Bremerton route had just spotted killer whales headed south, and he thought Ted Griffin should know. Shouting his thanks, the aquarium owner raced down the dock, leapt into Pegasus, and tore off in the direction of the sighting. Clocked at sixty miles per hour, the shallow-draft runabout may have been the fastest boat on Puget Sound, and it overtook the orcas near Vashon Island. But as Griffin throttled down, he realized to his disbelief that someone else was already chasing them. There, clear as day, was a blue helicopter hovering over the whales. Incensed, Griffin steered Pegasus closer, until he could almost touch the helicopter’s pontoons. Looking up, he spotted a burly man leaning out the cabin door and eying the pod. “Get away from my whales!” Griffin shouted. “Your whales?” the man laughed. “You’ll have to catch them first.” It was the first time Griffin had met Don Goldsberry, ex-fisherman and animal collector for the Point Defiance Aquarium (formerly the Tacoma Aquarium). The two men’s shared pursuit of orcas would soon bind them together. On this day, however, Griffin left feeling a bit embarrassed, having behaved, as he put it, “like a rancher possessive of his herd.” Some part of him knew his quest to capture and befriend a killer whale was becoming unhealthy. He had a struggling aquarium in Seattle and a growing family on Bainbridge Island. Orcas were his obsession, but they weren’t paying the bills. At home, he still talked and laughed with Joan and played with his little sons, Jay and John. But he had whales on the brain. He dreamed of them when asleep and sometimes mumbled about them when awake. With each reported sighting, he dropped everything—to Joan’s increased annoyance. In time, Griffin had come to see patterns in the animals’ migrations and behavior. He noted that they appeared when chinook salmon were running and that they seemed to cling to the west side of Puget Sound when headed south and to the east side when swimming north.

scholarly journals Estimates of Chinook salmon consumption in Washington State inland waters by four marine mammal predators from 1970 to 2015

2017 ◽  
Vol 74 (8) ◽  
pp. 1173-1194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brandon Chasco ◽  
Isaac C. Kaplan ◽  
Austen Thomas ◽  
Alejandro Acevedo-Gutiérrez ◽  
Dawn Noren ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Chinook Salmon ◽  
Marine Mammal ◽  
Oncorhynchus Tshawytscha ◽  
Interspecific Interactions ◽  
Puget Sound ◽  
The United States ◽  
Washington State ◽  
Killer Whales ◽  
Protected Species ◽  
Annual Biomass

Conflicts can arise when the recovery of one protected species limits the recovery of another through competition or predation. The recovery of many marine mammal populations on the west coast of the United States has been viewed as a success; however, within Puget Sound in Washington State, the increased abundance of three protected pinniped species may be adversely affecting the recovery of threatened Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) and endangered killer whales (Orcinus orca) within the region. Between 1970 and 2015, we estimate that the annual biomass of Chinook salmon consumed by pinnipeds has increased from 68 to 625 metric tons. Converting juvenile Chinook salmon into adult equivalents, we found that by 2015, pinnipeds consumed double that of resident killer whales and six times greater than the combined commercial and recreational catches. We demonstrate the importance of interspecific interactions when evaluating species recovery. As more protected species respond positively to recovery efforts, managers should attempt to evaluate tradeoffs between these recovery efforts and the unintended ecosystem consequences of predation and competition on other protected species.

scholarly journals First verified sighting of a Western Fence Lizard (Sceloporus occidentalis) in British Columbia, Canada

2020 ◽  
Vol 134 (3) ◽  
pp. 210-212
Author(s):  
Ron Farrell ◽  
Gavin Hanke ◽  
David Veljacic
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Baja California ◽  
Puget Sound ◽  
Washington State ◽  
The West ◽  
West Side ◽  
Sceloporus Occidentalis ◽  
North Central ◽  
Western Fence Lizard

Western Fence Lizard (Sceloporus occidentalis) is known from Baja California, Mexico, north to north-central Washington State, including Puget Sound, where scattered populations extend from the Cherry Point area south to Tacoma and along the west side of Puget Sound to Port Townsend. On 6 June 2020, a single juvenile S. occidentalis was photographed in a Cloverdale area garden, Surrey, British Columbia, representing the first verified sighting of this species in Canada. No other S. occidentalis were sighted in the area, and we could not determine how the specimen entered the province.

scholarly journals Late Triassic (Tuvalian – Carnian, Tropites subbullatus/Anatropites spinosus zones) ostracods from Monte Gambanera (Castel di Iudica, Central-Eastern Sicily, Italy)

2020 ◽  
Vol 191 ◽  
pp. 36
Author(s):  
Sylvie Crasquin ◽  
Francesco Sciuto ◽  
Agatino Reitano ◽  
Rosa Maria Coco
Keyword(s):  
Upper Triassic ◽  
Late Triassic ◽  
The West ◽  
West Side ◽  
Central Eastern ◽  
First Time

Ostracod associations coming from the Upper Triassic (Tropites subbullatus/Anatropites spinosus zones of the Tuvalian substage) clays and sandstones of the Mufara Formation outcropping along the west side of Monte Gambanera (Castel di Iudica, central-eastern Sicily) have been analysed for the first time. The specimens are relatively abundant, silicified, well preserved and often preserved as complete carapaces. Over 200 specimens have been determined. They belong to the families Healdiidae, Bairdiidae, Bythocyprididae, Acratiidae, Cytheruridae, Limnocytheridae, Candonidae, Cavellinidae, Polycopidae and Thaumatocyprididae. Thirty-seven species are identified of which nine species are new: Hungarella forelae n.sp., Hungarella siciliiensis n.sp., Bairdia andrecrasquini n.sp., Bairdia gambaneraensis n.sp., Ptychobairdia iudicaensis n.sp., Ptychobairdia leonardoi n.sp., Petasobairdia jeandercourti n.sp., Kerocythere dittainoensis n.sp. and Mockella barbroae n.sp.

A Skipper, Thymelicus lineola (Ochs.) (Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae) and its Parasites in Ontario

1962 ◽  
Vol 94 (10) ◽  
pp. 1082-1089 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. P. Arthur
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Present Author ◽  
The West ◽  
West Side ◽  
Southern Ontario ◽  
First Report ◽  
History Of ◽  
Lake Simcoe ◽  
First Time ◽  
Extensive Damage

The European, or Essex skipper, Thymelicus (= Adopaea) lineola (Ochs.), was accidentally introduced into North America at London, Ontario, sometime before 1910 (Saunders, 1916). The history of its subsequent spread through southern Ontario and adjoining parts of Michigan and Ohio was reviewed by Pengelly (1961), who received the first report of extensive damage to hay and pasture crops by this insect in Ontario from the Markdale area of Grey County in 1956. A survey in 1958 (Pengelly, 1961) showed that the skipper “appeared to be present throughout the southern part of the province except for the Bruce peninsula and possibly the Windsor area. The northeasterly boundary appeared to he along a line from Midland, south around the west side of Lake Simcoe, east to Lindsay and south to Whitby.” The present author collected T. lineola larvae from the Belleville area for the first time in 1959.

The Old Northwest

Orca ◽  
2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason M. Colby
Keyword(s):  
Salt Water ◽  
Washington State ◽  
Killer Whales ◽  
The West ◽  
Amusement Park ◽  
Old Northwest ◽  
Local Newspaper ◽  
Black Skin ◽  
Coney Island ◽  
The City

On the morning of Monday, October 12, 1931, early risers in northern Portland noticed a strange creature with smooth black skin in Columbia Slough, right next to the Jantzen Beach Amusement Park. Locals debated its identity. Some argued it was a sturgeon, others a sei whale all the way from Japan. Finally, an old salt tagged it as a small “blackfish.” News of the novelty spread like wildfire, drawing thousands of spectators and causing gridlock on the interstate bridge between Portland and Vancouver, Washington. A local newspaper warned that killer whales were one of the ocean’s “most vicious” creatures, but this one promptly stole Portland’s heart. “From the looks of things,” declared Deputy Sheriff Martin T. Pratt, “nearly everyone in the city is determined to see the visitor,” and when some locals began shooting at the animal, Pratt and his men arrested them. The number of sightseers grew each day, and that weekend, tens of thousands crowded into Jantzen Beach to catch a glimpse of the whale, while enterprising fishermen charged twenty-five cents for whale-watching rides. By that time, someone had dubbed the orca Ethelbert, and the name stuck. Why the little whale had arrived there, a hundred miles up the Columbia, remains a mystery. It had probably become separated from its mother and lost its bearings, wandering up the great river that divides western Oregon from Washington State. But Columbia Slough was no place for an orca. In addition to lacking salt water, it was the main outlet for Portland’s sewage. In summer, the waterway grew so foul that workers refused to handle timber passing through it. As the days passed, observers grew worried. The whale seemed sluggish, and its skin began to show unsightly blotches. The owner of Jantzen Beach proposed capturing the animal with a net and placing it in a saltwater tank. It would have been an extraordinary attraction for his amusement park—already known as the Coney Island of the West. But members of the Oregon Humane Society denounced the scheme as rank cruelty. Instead, they proposed blowing the young orca up with dynamite.

Target Strength of Southern Resident Killer Whales (Orcinus orca): Measurement and Modeling

2012 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 74-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinshan Xu ◽  
Z. Daniel Deng ◽  
Thomas J. Carlson ◽  
Brian Moore
Keyword(s):  
Killer Whale ◽  
Bottlenose Dolphins ◽  
Turbine Blades ◽  
Puget Sound ◽  
Target Strength ◽  
Killer Whales ◽  
Free Swimming ◽  
Active Monitoring ◽  
High Knowledge ◽  
Active Monitoring System

AbstractA major criterion for permitting the deployment of tidal turbines in Washington State’s Puget Sound is management of risk of injury to killer whales from collision with moving turbine blades. An active monitoring system is being proposed to detect and track killer whales within proximity of turbines and alert turbine operators of their presence and location to permit temporary turbine shutdown when the risk of collision is high. Knowledge of the target strength (TS) of killer whales is critical to the design and application of active acoustic monitoring systems. In 1996, a study of the TS directivity of a 2.2-m-long bottlenose dolphin at an insonifying frequency of 67 kHz was performed. Noting that killer whales, which are dolphins, are morphologically similar to bottlenose dolphins and then assuming allometry, we estimated the relative broadside and tail aspect TS of a 7.5-m-long adult killer whale at an insonifying frequency of 67 kHz to be −8 and −28 dB, respectively. We used a three-layer model for plane wave reflection of sound at 200 kHz from the lung of killer whales to estimate their TS. We assessed the accuracy of our killer whale TS estimates by comparing them with TS estimates of free swimming killer whales obtained using a split-beam active acoustic system operating at 200 kHz. The killer whale TS estimates based on the preliminary model were in good agreement with those obtained for free swimming killer whales.

scholarly journals Southern resident killer whales encounter higher prey densities than northern resident killer whales during summer

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Mei Sato ◽  
Andrew W. Trites ◽  
Stéphane Gauthier
Keyword(s):  
Chinook Salmon ◽  
Oncorhynchus Tshawytscha ◽  
Killer Whale ◽  
Orcinus Orca ◽  
Foraging Success ◽  
Killer Whales ◽  
Juan De Fuca ◽  
Abundance And Distribution ◽  
Juan De Fuca Strait ◽  
Growing Population

The decline of southern resident killer whales (Orcinus orca) may be due to a shortage of prey, but there is little data to test this hypothesis. We compared the availability of prey (Chinook salmon, Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) sought by southern residents in Juan de Fuca Strait during summer with the abundance and distribution of Chinook available to the much larger and growing population of northern resident killer whales feeding in Johnstone Strait. We used ship-based multifrequency echosounders to identify differences in prey fields that may explain the dynamics of these two killer whale populations. Contrary to expectations, we found that both killer whale habitats had patchy distributions of prey that did not differ in their frequencies of occurrence, nor in the size compositions of individual fish. However, the density of fish within each patch was 4–6 times higher in the southern resident killer whale habitat. These findings do not support the hypothesis that southern resident killer whales are experiencing a prey shortage in the Salish Sea during summer and suggest a combination of other factors is affecting overall foraging success.

scholarly journals Killer Whales (Orcinus orca) Off the North Carolina Coast 1709–2011

2012 ◽  
Vol 128 (2) ◽  
pp. 39-43
Author(s):  
John Hairr
Keyword(s):  
North Carolina ◽  
Killer Whale ◽  
Popular Literature ◽  
Historical Record ◽  
Orcinus Orca ◽  
Killer Whales ◽  
The West ◽  
Outer Banks ◽  
The North ◽  
North Carolina Coast

Abstract Killer whales, Orcinus orca, were first reported off North Carolina by naturalist John Lawson in 1709, and during the 20th century were documented from North Carolina eight times in the scientific and popular literature. The most recent confirmed sighting of killer whales off North Carolina was in the spring of 2011. There have been no reports of killer whale deaths from North Carolina. There has been only one killer whale stranded along the North Carolina coast, with the animal being alive when it was returned to the sea. All sightings have been in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, none on the west side of the Outer Banks in the waters of Pamlico or Currituck sounds. Only three confirmed reports are from nearshore waters, while the rest were spotted more than 20 km offshore. Orcas are most frequently reported from the waters off the Outer Banks from Cape Lookout north to the Virginia border. A 200 yr gap exists in the historical record of killer whales from North Carolina.

The moss flora of the alpine – high subalpine Chowder Ridge area, western North Cascades Range, Washington State, U.S.A.

1986 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 146-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
John R. Spence
Keyword(s):  
Rocky Mountain ◽  
High Elevation ◽  
Washington State ◽  
Western North America ◽  
North Cascades ◽  
The West ◽  
The North ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Ridge Area ◽  
First Time

Chowder Ridge, a high elevation area near Mt. Baker, Washington State, possesses a moss flora of 77 species based on collections made during two visits. Three species, Dicranum muehlenbeckii B.S.G., Rhacomitrium microcarpon (Hedw.) Brid., and Mnium arizonicum Amann, are reported new to Washington State. Coscinodon calyptratus (Hook.) C Jens. and Grimmia ovalis (Hedw.) Lindb. are noted for the first time from the west slope of the North Cascades. Chowder Ridge harbors an unusually large number of disjunts of the Rocky Mountain interior compared with typical sites on the west slope of the North Cascades, while the Pacific North American element is underrepresented. The bulk of the flora consists of species widespread in western North America.

scholarly journals Circulating inhibin and testosterone during sexual maturation and reproductive seasonality of captive male killer whales (Orcinus orca)

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-222
Author(s):  
Hiroshi Katsumata ◽  
◽  
Etsuko Katsumata ◽  
Sukanya Jaroenporn ◽  
Yoko Ueda ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Maturation ◽  
Killer Whale ◽  
Mature Stage ◽  
Killer Whales ◽  
Pubertal Stage ◽  
Seasonal Breeder ◽  
Northern Atlantic ◽  
Autumn And Winter ◽  
First Time ◽  
Male Killer

The present study aimed to investigate the reproductive biology of male killer whales. Changes in the concentrations of two circulating testicular hormones, inhibin and testosterone, were monitored during sexual maturation of two male Type 1 Eastern Northern Atlantic killer whales over a period of 20 years. The two killer whales grew rapidly at the pubertal stage and reached a plateau at the age of 23 and 20 years, respectively, after which growth slowed down. In the younger male, circulating inhibin was higher in the juvenile than in the pubertal and mature stages; whereas circulating testosterone exhibited the opposite trend. The pubertal period was estimated to last approximately 5 years, from 12 to 17 years of age. In the elder male, circulating testosterone was high from the onset of this study (12 years of age), when the animal also sired successfully for the first time. This finding shows that the male killer whale is possible to sire even if it is not socially matured, if there is opportunity for copulation. During the mature stage, both animals exhibited significantly higher circulating testosterone concentrations in spring compared to autumn and winter; whereas no seasonal change was observed for circulating inhibin. These results clearly demonstrate that the male killer whale is a seasonal breeder, even though it is fertile throughout the year. This is the first study to elucidate the inhibin concentration and secretory source in the male killer whale.

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