Orcas of the Pacific Northwest Are Starving and Disappearing - NY Times

these groups need to focus on the farms , who already killed off all the gophers and rattlesnakes and porcupines and deer and wild grasses and weeds. make ALL farmers give back 50% of their farms for environmental re-hab.
see how far that goes.
Here we dont own the land but have managers DFO and trudeau who collapse to every self interest group of ???
Lets turn the focus to Farmland ...rehab to natural Grassland .
but i guess Orca,s are more dramatic....and New Yorkers and other activists and DFO,s own Le Blanc , dont realize when they get hungry , they will swim >to find food.
 
these groups need to focus on the farms , who already killed off all the gophers and rattlesnakes and porcupines and deer and wild grasses and weeds. make ALL farmers give back 50% of their farms for environmental re-hab.
see how far that goes.
Here we dont own the land but have managers DFO and trudeau who collapse to every self interest group of ???
Lets turn the focus to Farmland ...rehab to natural Grassland .
but i guess Orca,s are more dramatic....and New Yorkers and other activists and DFO,s own Le Blanc , dont realize when they get hungry , they will swim >to find food.

You know somethin? I’ve been saying this for years. Drive around the Bush in my neck of the woods and you’ll see incredible damage from free range cattle. I don’t know if it’s something anybody can do anything about but it’s pretty significant.
 
Hey, I got an idea! If Washington’s Governor is so keen to ban tankers, then maybe he should start at home? Maybe for each new Canadian tanker, he can stop one of the many American ones. Sorry, I’m not pro pipeline but just anti hypocrite! Inslee has no problem with all the tanker traffic transmitting the straits Washington bound and yet continues to tout an anti tanker line regarding Canada. I find that ludicrous. Do as I say, not as I do!
 
I'm attempting to put some pieces together:
1) apparently the SRKW only eats Chinook salmon.
2) Seaworld captured whales from the SRKW population.
3) Sea world taught these whales to eat something other than Chinook.
4) A starving whale could presumably learn to adapt to a new diet rather than die. These are smart animals.
The narrative around "starving whales" doesn't add up.

They ARE having some trouble. That could be as a result of noise making it harder to hunt. It could be pollution and toxins. It could be a disease or infection. It could be factors as yet unknown. But the simplistic correlation between low numbers of Chinook and "starving" whales is not the same as causation. DFO needs to get off their thumbs and do some legitimate research to find out what IS happening.
 
I'm attempting to put some pieces together:
1) apparently the SRKW only eats Chinook salmon.
2) Seaworld captured whales from the SRKW population.
3) Sea world taught these whales to eat something other than Chinook.
4) A starving whale could presumably learn to adapt to a new diet rather than die. These are smart animals.
The narrative around "starving whales" doesn't add up.

They ARE having some trouble. That could be as a result of noise making it harder to hunt. It could be pollution and toxins. It could be a disease or infection. It could be factors as yet unknown. But the simplistic correlation between low numbers of Chinook and "starving" whales is not the same as causation. DFO needs to get off their thumbs and do some legitimate research to find out what IS happening.
Well said
 
I'm attempting to put some pieces together:
1) apparently the SRKW only eats Chinook salmon.
2) Seaworld captured whales from the SRKW population.
3) Sea world taught these whales to eat something other than Chinook.
4) A starving whale could presumably learn to adapt to a new diet rather than die. These are smart animals.
The narrative around "starving whales" doesn't add up.

They ARE having some trouble. That could be as a result of noise making it harder to hunt. It could be pollution and toxins. It could be a disease or infection. It could be factors as yet unknown. But the simplistic correlation between low numbers of Chinook and "starving" whales is not the same as causation. DFO needs to get off their thumbs and do some legitimate research to find out what IS happening.
I agree , and seriously think this is nothing but a smoke and mirror show put on by DFO on behalf of PMO.

what is questionable is: why if they indeed are starving , do they not gorge on the netted fish , maybe they are smarter than we give them credit for... stay away from that chit..
perhaps part of the problem is vehicle traffic's effect on the if not being constantly harassed by whale watchers ... cruise ships... freighters ... perhaps even predation..
 
I'm attempting to put some pieces together:
1) apparently the SRKW only eats Chinook salmon.
2) Seaworld captured whales from the SRKW population.
3) Sea world taught these whales to eat something other than Chinook.
4) A starving whale could presumably learn to adapt to a new diet rather than die. These are smart animals.
The narrative around "starving whales" doesn't add up.

They ARE having some trouble. That could be as a result of noise making it harder to hunt. It could be pollution and toxins. It could be a disease or infection. It could be factors as yet unknown. But the simplistic correlation between low numbers of Chinook and "starving" whales is not the same as causation. DFO needs to get off their thumbs and do some legitimate research to find out what IS happening.

There is a lot of research on the whales diets, and they do at times eat some chum and sockeye, but chinook are the largest with the most calories which is important for a large animal in cold water. These animals evolved to eat them because historically runs of chinook included large runs of early fish, sometimes very large fish. These early runs are the most severely depleted and the very large fish, the "june hogs" on the columbia and a few other rivers are virtually extinct. The lean times for SRKW have been extended from what they historically experienced. Sea world didn't teach the whales anything, they hand fed starving animals herring and forced them to do stupid tricks. SRKW can no more "learn" to eat a Sea world diet than they can decide to eat seals and sea lions like Biggs Killer whales do. They evolved the social systems and physical characteristics to primarily eat chinook salmon, an abundant food source for their entire species history with the exception of the last 50 years. Pollution, and toxins are also studied and documented, as are the effects of noise, and more recently studies showing inbreeding may be an issue, and clearly these are having an impact as well. Which is having the most impact is hard to say, but certainly prey availability is a significant issue.
 
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There is a lot of research on the whales diets, and they do at times eat some chum and sockeye, but chinook are the largest with the most calories which is important for a large animal in cold water. These animals evolved to eat them because historically runs of chinook included large runs of early fish, sometimes very large fish. These early runs are the most severely depleted and the very large fish, the "june hogs" on the columbia and a few other rivers are virtually extinct. The lean times for SRKW have been extended from what they historically experienced. Which is having the most impact is hard to say, but certainly prey availability is a significant issue.
Other populations of orca are doing very well, even expanding into SRKW territory. For DFO to blindly target fishers as a significant cause of the SRKW decline is irresponsible. There are many factors in play, as you note. For the southern residents, misguided and poorly informed DFO actions may be a case of too little, too late.
 
Other populations of orca are doing very well, even expanding into SRKW territory. For DFO to blindly target fishers as a significant cause of the SRKW decline is irresponsible. There are many factors in play, as you note. For the southern residents, misguided and poorly informed DFO actions may be a case of too little, too late.
You may be correct, it may be too little too late, when it comes to government actions that is often the case because the responses are reactionary not anticipatory. I don't interpret DFO as as targeting sport fishers as the cause of SRKW declines, they have identified lack of prey as a cause, and the immediate actions have been to reduce utilization, which as the largest harvester of Chinook, sport fisherman would have to be included in it. Commercial fisherman have also seen reductions, only FN fisheries have been spared, and there are other threads devoted to the reasons for that. You can argue if those actions will be effective or not, I don't think anyone really knows, but everyone has an opinion depending on their personal bias.
 
You may be correct, it may be too little too late, when it comes to government actions that is often the case because the responses are reactionary not anticipatory. I don't interpret DFO as as targeting sport fishers as the cause of SRKW declines, they have identified lack of prey as a cause, and the immediate actions have been to reduce utilization,..
My opinion is that DFO should be taking a multi-faceted approach to the Chinook decline including targeting net pen fish farms, the pollutant plume from the Fraser, habituated seals at estuaries, whale watchers and vessel traffic noise, along with some bubble zone closures. What the DFO has done is to create a backlash that will arouse political interference rather than legitimate, science-based responses.
 
I,m over 70 , born in fishermens cove into a large commercial fishing family.
this whole southern resident killer whale is a new thing or there residence was or neighbourhood was much much larger in area.
we hardly saw a killer whale 50-60 yrs ago except around the sand heads in summer.
I dont think killer whales hibernate like a bear when food gets scarce and winter sets in.
salmon migrate , and winter springs are as we know sometimes not here...they are where the food is also , either out past swiftsure or in blackfish sound in winter. and thats where the killer whales USED to go.
 
3) Sea world taught these whales to eat something other than Chinook.
Who is going to be able to teach the whales to eat seals? These animals are taught by the pod's experience. What do you think will happen is they start eating those cute big eyed seals? A halt to all fishing except food fisheries.
Eating seals is the southern Orca method but there are not so many sandy beaches for them to beach themselves on up here.
My opinion is that DFO should be taking a multi-faceted approach to the Chinook decline including targeting net pen fish farms, the pollutant plume from the Fraser, habituated seals at estuaries, whale watchers and vessel traffic noise, along with some bubble zone closures. What the DFO has done is to create a backlash that will arouse political interference rather than legitimate, science-based responses.
The politicians, who mostly don't fish, will latch on to any possibility that allows them to do nothing or pretend to use a bandaid.

Your comments could be instituted within 24 hours by our elected, BC, officials. Sure a seal cull is not popular, but there are more now than have ever lived in the straight in the last 20 years. The Columbia river seal cull helped/worked, it was part of a plan with the first nations and the results were almost immediate and they have had record numbers until the last few years when a few FFs were allowed in migration paths.

Of all fisheries the sports fishery is one that could best fish for species specific salmon, gillnetters take whatever, seiners ditto, trollers might be slightly better but the fish are not able to be released with a good chance of living.

These politicians are like magicians, lookover here while the trick is over there and some of these anti oil volunteers are playing right into their hands and becoming puppets for politicians to do nothing.

Worried about a tanker spill, how many in the last 25 years world wide? Use double/triple hulled tankers, make each tanker have two/three tugs, create a concrete port containment facility, Germans were doing that in WW2, how many pipeline leaks, how much since it has been there? Install remote pressure gauges to pin point even a table spoon per minute leak, require the pipeline be "wrapped" so if there is a leak it is contained in the dead air space between the oil pipe and the environment, I doesn't have to be made of metal, it could be carbon fibre or a plastic/rubber/wood compound.

But nooo, lets just continue to be distracted from what they can do, sort of like ignoring the money laundering that helped contribute to massive house prices, so money could be laundered, I remember when casinos were closing for lack of money, everyone knew what was going on.
 
Who is going to be able to teach the whales to eat seals?
Maybe some of those NGOs can go swimming w dead seals and try to train the orcas??
The politicians, who mostly don't fish, will latch on to any possibility that allows them to do nothing or pretend to use a bandaid.
ABSOLUTELY fishing? - which is why the Provincial NDP instituted the aquaculture committee/forum for that hot potato.
Your comments could be instituted within 24 hours by our elected, BC, officials. Sure a seal cull is not popular, but there are more now than have ever lived in the straight in the last 20 years. The Columbia river seal cull helped/worked, it was part of a plan with the first nations and the results were almost immediate and they have had record numbers until the last few years when a few FFs were allowed in migration paths.
agreed!
But nooo, lets just continue to be distracted from what they can do, sort of like ignoring the money laundering that helped contribute to massive house prices, so money could be laundered, I remember when casinos were closing for lack of money, everyone knew what was going on.
Which is why our young people - and even old people cannot afford housing. Those campaign and personal contributions from those shell companies for real estate kick backs: https://thetyee.ca/News/2018/06/19/How-Developers-Sway-Vancouver-Elections/
 
Worried about a tanker spill, how many in the last 25 years world wide? Use double/triple hulled tankers, make each tanker have two/three tugs, create a concrete port containment facility, Germans were doing that in WW2, how many pipeline leaks, how much since it has been there? Install remote pressure gauges to pin point even a table spoon per minute leak, require the pipeline be "wrapped" so if there is a leak it is contained in the dead air space between the oil pipe and the environment, I doesn't have to be made of metal, it could be carbon fibre or a plastic/rubber/wood compound.
Refine it at source to maximise value and minimize potential environmental impact. It only takes one tanker of raw bitumen to ruin an ecosystem. I hear we are importing oil in Eastern Canada from the middle east. Why don't we supply our own back yard first? Oh I forgot, its about getting the votes stupid. And the votes are in Ontario and Quebec. Shipping Raw Bitumen through Burrard Inlet out the SOG is not worth the risk. Totally agree with your pipeline safety suggestions but they are not even talking about replacing the one that was built in the 50's so its drill baby drill and like the politicians say - The environment will take care of itself'. Triple hulled tankers would be good too but i'll believe that when I see it.
 
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