Orcas Spotted in Northeastern Pacific Ocean Could Be New Population

Orcas swim close to whale watching boats off the coast of California at sundown on Jan. 9, 2024. Mark Rightmire / MediaNews Group / Orange County Register by way of Getty Pictures

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Orca whales are acquainted residents of West Coast waters. The black and white marine mammals are sometimes seen swimming in teams, diving and slapping their tails in opposition to the water’s floor.

Researchers from the College of British Columbia (UBC) consider {that a} group of 49 killer whales seen looking sperm whales and different marine animals within the ocean off the coasts of Oregon and California could also be a separate inhabitants, a press launch from UBC mentioned.

The researchers mentioned the orcas could possibly be a singular oceanic inhabitants or a part of a transient killer whale subpopulation.

“The open ocean is the most important habitat on our planet and observations of killer whales within the excessive seas are uncommon,” mentioned Josh McInnes, lead writer of the research and a UBC masters scholar on the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries (IOF), within the press launch. “On this case, we’re starting to get a way of killer whale actions within the open ocean and the way their ecology and behavior differs from populations inhabiting coastal areas.”

There are three killer whale ecotypes dwelling in waters off the Oregon and California coasts — “offshores,” “residents” and “transients.”

In keeping with the researchers, the unidentified orcas have been seen beforehand. The research places collectively data gathered throughout 9 encounters from 1997 to 2021.

“It’s fairly distinctive to discover a new inhabitants. It takes a very long time to collect pictures and observations to acknowledge that there’s one thing totally different about these killer whales,” mentioned research co-author Dr. Andrew Trites, a professor at IOF, within the press launch.

Descriptions and pictures didn’t match any of the group of 49 with identified orcas.

“In one of many first encounters researchers had with a pod of those oceanic killer whales, they had been noticed taking up a herd of 9 grownup feminine sperm whales, ultimately making off with one. It’s the first time killer whales have been reported to assault sperm whales on the west coast,” McInnes mentioned within the press launch. “Different encounters embody an assault on a pygmy sperm whale, predation on a northern elephant seal and Risso’s dolphin, and what seemed to be a post-meal lull after scavenging a leatherback turtle.”

Based mostly on shark chew scars seen on practically all of the orcas within the new group, the analysis staff believes they largely dwell within the deep ocean removed from the coast.

“The presence of cookiecutter shark wounds offers oblique proof that these unknown killer whales had hung out in hotter oceanic waters,” the research mentioned, as The Canadian Press reported.

The killer whales are additionally bodily distinct from the three principal ecotypes of their white or gray patches subsequent to the fin — often called “saddle patches” — and their dorsal fins.

“Whereas the dimensions and shapes of the dorsal fins and saddle patches are just like transient and offshore ecotypes, the form of their fins different, from pointed like transients to rounded like offshore killer whales,” McInnes mentioned within the press launch. “Their saddle patch patterns additionally differed, with some having giant uniformly grey saddle patches and others having clean slender saddle patches just like these seen in killer whales in tropical areas.”

The research, “Proof for an Oceanic Inhabitants of Killer Whales (Orcinus orca) in Offshore Waters of California and Oregon,” was printed within the journal Aquatic Mammals.

Trites mentioned birding and whale watching expedition passengers, in addition to fishers, gave them extra observations of the unidentified whales.

The analysis staff hopes to doc acoustic information, genetic data and extra sightings to proceed their investigation into the variations between these whales and identified populations.

“We’re simply form of on the tip of the iceberg of what these whales are doing. I imply, are all of them one inhabitants? Are they a number of? We don’t know. So, I really feel like that is form of the massive begin of the following steps in our analysis, and to possibly get extra sightings and extra data,” mentioned McInnes, as reported by The Canadian Press.

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