Researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration last week temporarily halted the use of satellite tags after a 20-year-old male Southern Resident killer whale known as L95 was found dead with prongs from a device lodged in its dorsal fin.
The orca was tagged on Feb. 24 off the coast of Washington state, but satellite transmissions stopped three days later, “suggesting premature tag detachment,” NOAA said in a statement. L95’s highly decomposed carcass was found on March 30 near Vancouver Island.
“We are concerned that parts of the tag were found retained in the dorsal fin,” the agency said. “The team has halted tagging activities until a full reassessment of the tag design and deployment is completed.”
According to NOAA, of 533 satellite tags deployed in whales and dolphins in recent decades, only 1 percent are known to have left prongs in animals.
A preliminary necropsy performed by Fisheries and Oceans Canada found no apparent cause of death. A complete necropsy report will be finished in three to four weeks.
Brad Hanson, a wildlife biologist at NOAA Fisheries, said the second necropsy will look for signs of infection. “It could be a possible connection between what was seen internally and the tag site itself, but there was nothing at the tag site to suggest anything going on there,” he said.
NOAA deploys tags to track Southern Resident orcas, which spend much of the year in the Puget Sound area. Their movements have been thoroughly documented while in inland waters, but data on where they go in the open ocean is lacking. The tags are important for determining the full extent of their critical habitat, which is required under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.
Eight Southern Residents have been tagged since 2012, Hanson said. Since the program began in 2004, 66 killer whales have been darted.
Critics contend that tagging is overly invasive and that prongs remaining in the animals can cause harm.
“Not enough thought was given during tag design and development to the issue of tag damage to the whales or whether they would tolerate it,” Ken Balcomb, executive director of the Washington-based Center for Whale Research, wrote in an email. “These whales are endangered, and any stress or injury to them should be avoided, not maximized to facilitate attachment.”
Balcomb noted that two other killer whales, both mammal-eating “transients,” disappeared after being tagged. “T14 was tagged May 18, 2010, and our last photo is in September 2010, maybe he was still alive after that, but he is sure missing now,” Balcomb wrote. “T99A was tagged in July 2010 and our last photo of him is in April 2012.” The disappearances could be coincidental, he said.
He added that darting whales makes them skittish around boats, making it harder to approach some animals for photo identification.
Michael Harris, executive director of the Pacific Whale Watching Association, agreed.
“We have seen NOAA vessels pursuing whales and being extremely aggressive,” said Harris, who called for a permanent ban on pronged tags. “It’s pretty clear it has altered their behavior. Anytime you’re chasing wild animals and sticking things in their dorsal fins, they’re going to avoid you like the plague.”
But Hanson said NOAA researchers had not observed any behavioral changes in tagged whales.
Lance Barrett-Lennard, senior marine mammal researcher at the Vancouver Aquarium, said he noticed changes in behavior during tagging operations in Alaska three years ago.
“The whales did become more elusive,” Barrett-Lennard said. “We couldn’t tell if [it was] because of the pain of the tags or because we had to approach them very closely. Those repeated approaches could have an effect.”
Canada prohibits the use of pronged tags because of their invasiveness. Canadian researchers instead rely on visual sightings and underwater hydrophones to track the whales.
Alfonso Herrera back to you an exclusive look at the suffering at SeaWorld
Costa Rica surfers rescue baby pilot whale in Puntarenas.
Mauricio Camareno, one of the surfers who discovered the baby whale shortly after 5 a.m., said that they first noticed what appeared to be a “black lump” near the bank of a river before they heard the animal crying in distress as they approached closer.
“She was very weak and could not keep afloat,” Camareno told Amelia Rueda, who said that the whale had made its way about 50 meters up river from the sea.
Camareno and his surfing companions labored to carry the heavy animal back to the river month, where they stayed with the animal for more than six hours as it regained its strength.
Camareno said that during that time, several locals called the authorities from Costa Rica’s Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE) and the Coast Guard, but neither agency responded to the scene.
“They told us that they had to follow a protocol to check if the whale had any disease. MINAE said they would send a [veterinarian] but during the whole time we were there no one ever arrived,” Camareno said.
Failing to receive a response, the group of surfers waited for the tide to rise in order to guide the animal back to sea. Camareno said it took several tries, but the baby whale eventually dived and disappeared into the sea, presumably in search of its herd and mother.
When fully grown, the species typically measure between 21 and 24 feet in length, with females weighing up to 1,300 kg and males up to 2,300.
One Look Into This Orca’s Eyes Will Inspire You To Fight For Their Freedom.
Have you ever wondered what it’d be like to come face-to-face with a giant orca? If that moment ever happened, what would you do? How do you think you’d feel?
Thanks to photographer Joshua Barton, we no longer have to wonder. He captured the incredible gaze of an orca in this beautiful photograph:
According to a Facebook post from Orca Project Sri Lanka, the encounter went like this: “As Joshua gently entered the water 100m away the orcas began to approach in curiosity, swimming right under the boat. A singular adult female came in for a much a closer look, approaching Joshua within a few feet, inquisitively gazing up at him before arching underneath. This was a truly mutual encounter, two beings from different worlds brought together in a moment of shared curiosity.”
And this is the way we believe all our interactions should happen with marine life – from the other side of a glass wall or at a marine park. As you can instantly tell from the photo, whales are intelligent, emotional, and downright fascinating. The brain of the orca is four times larger than the human brain, weighing in at 12 pounds. Their brains have been evolving for millions of years, while modern-day humans first emerged about 200,000 years ago, it is safe to assume that their cognitive development is at least as advanced as ours – if not considerably more so! And with complex familial and social relationships, we can gather that these creatures are highly self-aware, adaptable, and intelligent.
Moreover, orcas are highly social animals. They live in tight matrilineal pods, composed of grandmothers, mothers, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, and cousins. They typically choose to remain with their immediate family group for the rest of their lives. So you can imagine the damage done to orcas when they’re cruelly torn from their natural habitat and relegated to a life spent in captivity.
This is a highly traumatizing experience for this sensitive beings. Throughout their lives in captivity, orcas display zoochotic (psychotic) behaviors, similar to symptoms of prison neurosis. Some stereotypic behaviors include swimming in circles repetitively, establishing pecking orders, and lying motionless at the surface or on the aquarium floor for relatively long periods of time.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. This orca’s gaze tells you all you need to know that they deserve to be free. To join the fights, here’s what you can do:
- If you want to see orcas, the best way to do so is to witness them in their wild, natural habitat.
- Educate yourself. If you want to be a more outspoken advocate for captive whales, make an effort to find out more about the complex legal, political, and financial factors at play in the whale captivity industry. “Death at SeaWorld,” David Kirby’s disturbing exposé of the industry, is a good place to start.
- There are many marine protection groups dedicated to the well-being and preservation of orcas – both wild and captive – including Whale and Dolphin Conservation, the Oceanic Preservation Society, the Humane Society of the United States, and Keep Whales Wild. You could make a financial donation, or volunteer with initiatives such as event planning, fundraising, or petition drives. Image Source: Joshua Barton/Facebook
