Killer Factoids

Hey Everyone!

So I realize now that while most people will know what a killer whale is, how many know what they are all about? Well, I think a new "feature" in this blog will be a quick fact sheet on the feature species of an internship. Starting with my second favourite cetacean species, the orca, aka the killer whale.

So. Twenty-five facts on the killer whale.

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1. Killer whales aren't technically whales at all. They are the largest dolphin species in the world.

2. "Orca" means "demon of the underworld". So whether you call them orcas or killer whales, it doesn't really matter. They're pretty hardcore no matter what you call them.

3. An orca's life span is normally between forty and fifty years old. That being said, there is a whale in B.C. that they think is over 100 years old.

4. Killer whales are found around the world. The North Pacific, the North Atlantic, the Antarctic Ocean, and a couple seas as well.

5. Every population has sub divided into two or three "ecotypes" - fish eaters and mammal eaters. They can also be differentiated by colour patterns, eye patch size, foraging/ family behaviours and acoustics.

6. These ecotypes never interact with each other. They avoid each other physically and don't breed with each other.

7. Off the coast of British Columbia there are three ecotypes: The residents (fish eaters), transients (marine mammal eaters) and offshore (fish/shark eaters).

8. The resident orcas feed primarily on chinook salmon. A study that looked at the stomach contents of residents found that over 90% of their diet was chinook. 

9. Transients feed on more of a variety, but only marine mammals. Dolphins, porpoises, sea lions, seals, small(-er) whales. They will not each fish. The Vancouver aquarium's first rescued whale didn't eat for almost a month because they kept trying to feed it fish. They say once you taste red blood you never go back. They're like vampires.

10. We don't know a lot about offshore, but they have found that their teeth are so worn down that we believe they are eating sharks and the skin is grinding down the teeth.

11. Residents live in large pods, between 20-50 individuals. They have matriarchal society, which means each pod has a primary female matriarch. Her offspring stay with her their entire lives, unless a daughter has enough offspring of her own to start their own pods

12. Residents hunt primarily through echolocation, because fish are pretty stupid. They work as a team to take out as many fish at a time as possible.

13. Transients live in much smaller pods, a maximum of 10 individuals. Their society is a lot more fluid, but they also tend to stick close to family.

14. Transients are hunting much smarter animals, and animals that can hear echolocation. So they have to be super sleuth about hunting. They are pretty quiet, working either alone or with only a couple others to bring down their prey.

15. Killer whales share their food. Not just mother/offspring, but any individuals around after a kill will get a piece. And this is transients and residents. There are videos of these massive animals gracefully tearing off small pieces of salmon in order for everyone to have a taste.

16. Chinook salmon are the largest species of salmon on the west coast, which means that not only do killer whales like to eat them, so do humans. This has but a lot of pressure on the killer whales.

17. In the 60s/70s, People decided that killer whales were a pest and a hindrance to the commercial fishing, so the government implemented intense killer whale whaling. A machine gun was set up for the sole purpose of killing orcas. Fortunately, it was never fired.

18. But during the time of whaling and these decisions, the populations took a massive dive. Now, there are about 200 transients, just under 200 Northern residents and only 87 Southern resident killer whales.

19. We don't know yet if the Southern population will ever recover, because they are facing three massive issues: Lack of food, boating traffic and pollution and contaminants.

20. As skillful a hunter as killer whales are (and trust me, they have mad skills), they can't compete with humans. And when they share each kill, and each kill becomes harder and harder to make, the whales really are slowly starting to starve off. British Columbia has some of the most sustainable fisheries in the country, but it might still not be enough. Add on top all the sport and recreational fishers, who are also looking to catch a big ol' chinook, and we have a problem. (If you are buying salmon, ask first if it is wild harvest vs. farmed, and try to avoid B.C. chinook salmon).

21. Orcas are big and can go pretty fast, but boats are faster. If someone is just speeding through a pod of orcas, they might be able to move out of the way fast enough, and those propellers are sharp. Plenty of whales found and assumed dead have been from prop accidents, because usually in nature vs. machine, machine wins. (Go slow in areas known to have killer whales in them)

22. The residents rely on echolocation to find their scarce food source, and boats are extra loud in the water. The sound of motors cover their communications, making it harder, if not impossible, for a pod to hunt. And they are hungry (Don't get close to whales with your motor running. If you find yourself close to whales, shut down to keep quiet).

23. Having to come up for air is hard! Having lots of obstacles in your way makes it even harder! Any kind of water vessel makes it more stressful for killer whales to travel, hunt and breathe, and they can't afford to lose energy stressing out. (Don't get close to whales, and stay out of their path of movement).

24. Southern resident orcas are the most toxic animals in the world. They have accumulated massive amount of toxins in their bodies from pollutants and chemicals found in our waste. Chemicals used as fire retardants, pesticides, herbicides, you name it. (Know what goes into your products!)

25. Entanglements in fishing gear and deaths cause by physical pollution is nothing new to killer whales. Scientists have found tons of garbage in the stomachs of beached whales. (Reduce, reuse and recycle! Replace plastic in your life as much as possible).

Depressed? Don't be! These are amazing creatures and people have dedicated their lives to learn as much as we can about them and through education, learn what we can do to save them!

Speak Loud!

Watching Whale Watchers

Happy One Year Anniversary everyone!!

Yes, one year ago today, I thought it would be a good idea to share my experiences and knowledge of marine biology with the world. As far as blogs so, it's not going to win any awards, but I think it's come in handy from time to time.

So to celebrate the occasion, I figured I would talk about the biggest part of what I came out to Victoria to do: watch killer whales!

There are three major problems facing killer whales off the B.C. coast: lack of food, pollutants and toxins in the water and boat traffic and disruption. The DFO is doing it's best to balance salmon for people and for whales, and we can all do our part by being aware of the chemicals in our products (like PCPs, DBTs, etc.) and by limiting our waste (excess packaging is the enemy!). But one thing that is hard to deal with is boat traffic.

That's where the straitwatch program comes in.

Killer whales are amazing animals. They are huge, intelligent, majestic animals and seeing them really does make your heart sing. We don't want to take that away from people, so we aren't there to harass people on whale watching tours, because people who 'interact' with animals are more likely to want to help them (see my post on zoos and aquariums here).

But having a lot of boats around the whales is a problem, for three big reasons: motors are loud and disrupt their echolocation and communication, boat propellers do an excellent job of cutting up and potentially killing animals when they collide, and boats are obstacles for travelling and breathing. Imagine you are swimming in a pool, and you need to come up for air. If there are people, noodles, toys or boards all around, finding a place to come up for a breath is more difficult, and it puts physical stress on your body. That's what happens to whales when there are ten, twenty, forty boats around. And these guys aren't eating enough to have any more stress put on them.

So the Canadian government has put guidelines in place for safe whale watching. You can't go closer than 100m, you stay out of their path of movement, front and behind, and you have to slow down within 400m of the whales, to limit motor noise and to avoid accidentally hitting one. Failure to follow these guidelines can be considered marine mammal harassment and that is illegal.

Fairly simple, yes? We think so, but they only work if people know them.

So we go out every day in the summer and are on the water basically to educate. We take half-hourly vessel counts around a focal group of whales, as well as perform incidents scans, where we watch for anyone being non-compliant with the guidelines. In between all this data collection, we're talking to private boaters and making sure they know the rules. Ignorance is the environments biggest enemy.

Most of the people we talk to seem to be unaware of the guidelines, although we take every answer with a grain of salt. Some are really interested in the whales and we'll tell them some of the biology surrounding them (I think I'll do a Killer Whale Facts blog soon...) again, to get them interested in the animals and hopefully in their conservation. Some people aren't so friendly though, and really do see the whales as a pest rather than something to protect. We can't change everyone, but we can do our best.

Beyond killer whales, we see some other really cool animals. Harbour seals, harbour porpoises, and the coolest so far, a minke whale! The waters of British Colombia are full of amazing animals, and it's so important for us to try to make a difference.

One of my favourite stories is one of a young boy walking on a beach, filled with starfish that had been washed up on the shore. Hundreds and hundreds of starfish out dying in the hot sun. In the distance, the young boy sees an old man slowly bending down, picking up a single starfish and throwing it back into the sea. The boy watches the man do it again and again, slowly and surely. The young boy walks up to the old man and says "Sir, there are hundreds and hundreds of starfish on the beach. You are going so slowly, you will never be able to save them all." The old man smiled to the boy and said, "You are right, I can't save them all. But I have saved this one, and that will have to  be enough."

Maybe the positive impact straitwatch is making may seem like a small one, but any sized step towards environmental reconstruction is a step in the right direction, and one I am more than happy to make 4 days a week. Even in the rain. And wind. And waves.

Speak Loud!

PS. Have a piece of cake to celebrate this blogs anniversary! I promise I won't tell!

The Politics of Science

Hey Team!

First I am sorry that once again, this blog is being very sporadic. I know that the makings of a good blog is consistency, but if you haven't learned this by now with this blog, my life in anything but consistent! And as this is all about things I learn as I learn them, there are times that I am not learning much.

Second, this is going to be a very Canada-centred blog post, but if you reading this from another country (hello from Canada!), I hope that it can somehow be relevant to you as well. If not, you might just be lucky (or possibly extra unlucky).

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Canada seems to be going through a very interesting bout of politics at the moment. Almost as interesting to us as the US politics, which is a big deal. We had a lot of fun about a year ago, when we had to have a re-election and the same party that held a minority government got voted in again, but with a majority government.

Which to most people would make you think that Canada wanted them in power, yes? I mean, we a democratic country and we vote in the people we want in government. Personally, I think we have it pretty sweet, considering the alternatives.

But of course, not everyone is happy with our current government. And I don't expect them to be. Democracies function out of a collective of ideas, not singular ideologies.

I'm rambling again, let's re-focus this post...

The Conservative Party, the current Canadian government, has a certain way of running the country. It has kept us out of deep economic turmoil and has some pretty strong opinions on our foreign front. But where it is sorely lacking is in its support of scientific (mostly biological and environmental) research and funding.

The collective "we" of the science community have had some serious issues with government policies over the last few months. Budget cuts have meant cutting entire labs that are looking into some really important labs, prominent scientists are now job hunting and practices that we know are detrimental to the environment (see oil, fishing) are still going with no signs of slowing down.

And, like I've said in the past (over and over again), there is no money anywhere. But sometimes it's difficult to watch government money go to other programs when we are struggling to make ends meet.

Now, I'm not a politician. I don't understand politics. I am the last person to get on a soapbox and say I can do it better than the people in Parliament. And I know that there is so much more to running a country than being concerned about the environment (which is why I never vote for the Green Party). And I also don't believe that either of the other two major parties in Canada would actually do a better job if they were in power. It's really easy to promise the voters change when you have no control over anything (like how I think it should be really easy to change over all electricity to solar power).

Scientists are passionate people. If we weren't, we'd be pretty bad at our jobs. Which means that most scientists have really strong opinions on how the country is run, and we tend to focus on things most important to us, like the environment, the animals and of course, the financial support to do the research that we believe will save the world (which I do actually believe we are doing).

But when you have more than one interest in political parties, it can get difficult. I don't agree with a lot of the choices the Conservatives are making environmentally. I don't think letting go of DFO researchers, shutting down labs and opening new fisheries are smart ideas. I would love for them to stop funnelling money into the Alberta oil companies and start financing solar power research (can you tell I'm super into solar power?).

But, I like that I can still find some kind of job when I really need one. I like that this government seems to be doing its best stand strong against international madness and is actually speaking out against racism here in our own backyard. I like that they aren't trying to create and fund more social programs that we can't afford, because I really don't want to pay more taxes on everything I buy.

So sometimes I feel really stuck. I love the fact that people are passionate about the politics of the country, because we should demand the best of our government. But how do you balance their passionate displeasure with your more neutral approach? Sometimes it's hard to smile and nod and agree with their vehement dislike of the government, because while I agree with the issue at hand, I have a lot more than just environmental interest in our government.

I'm not sure if there is a lesson here, or if this was just a ramble. I definitely believe that you should question whoever is in power, and if they do something you don't like, you should say something. We have the privilege of living in a country that lets us do that. And we won't be able to make the most forceful impact on our environment without governmental support, and I really wish we had more from our current government. But at the same time, we have to remember that there is a lot that goes into running a country, more than just what is good for the environment.

Leave an opinion, I am really curious to hear what people think. Please feel free to agree or disagree, just be nice about it!

Speak Loud!

Talkin' on the Docks

This is probably one of my most uncreative titles, because I'm going to talk about Dock Talks.

Cetus and their straitwatch program is all about making sure people are respecting the whale watching guidelines the government has for killer whales and other awesome cetaceans. So while we do go out and actually try to stop people from doing bad things (more on that in a future blog post), what we are really about it prevention.

I think conservationists and maybe surgeons are some of the few people that would love to have no reason to exist. If there was no reason for conservationists to work, they'd be so happy, because it would mean that no animals were in any danger. That would be awesome!

So part of what we do is go canvassing around marinas, and stop and chat with local boat owners and see how much they know about the guidelines, and educate them on what the guidelines are if they don't know. We try to get them to take a brochure with all the rules and such on it, but it's more important that we talk to them, give them the information and sometimes we get to hear some really interesting stories. One of my favourites so far includes was a man who was given an honourary guardian status from a native american tribe for cleaning the beaches on their island. That was really neat to hear.

For this part of the job, introverts need not apply. You have to be pretty comfortable to walk up to total strangers who think you are going to sell them something and tell them about safe whale watching. It can't sound like you are accusing them, and you have to know how to smile and nod when they say ridiculous things (it happens). If you are shy and too scared to approach people, then you'll never talk to people. I, myself, is in no way an introvert, but even I was a little awkward when I had to do it on my own.

And it can get really monotonous. The marina that I have gone to for all my dock talks so far (the only one I know how to find) isn't huge, but you have to stick about for a couple hours to get as many people as possible. And the weather hasn't been top notch (can you believe I'm missing the weather back home?), so the water hasn't been drawing a big crowd. So I do a complete walk of the marina, talk to a couple people... and it's only been half an hour. I think the last dock talk I did I walked the entire marina at least 4 times in the 3 hours I was there. It wasn't so bad when I had a partner, but alone it can be a little lonely, and a smidge boring.

But I started this entire blog screaming that nothing about being a Marine Biologist is glamourous. This is just another example.

I think I'll learn where another marina is and go there next time. Switch it up and meet some new people.

Speak Loud!

With an Outreached Arm...

No, that's not the right quote, but I am allowed to paraphrase, it's my blog.

So I am out in Victoria, BC! It's beautiful out here, so much so that I wish I never lived anywhere else, but logistically it would be tough to stay here. But I think I'll have to start planning yearly pilgrimages to Vancouver Island just to get my fix of the landscape.

One of the first things I did for Cetus was help out with an outreach effort. We went to Maple Bay during their boat festival.

Instead of telling you all about it... I'm going to (once again) direct you to the Cetus website, where I have already put my blogging skills to use in writing out it for them!

So click here to see what I had to say about the Boat Festival!

Speak Loud!

PS. The last two photos were of my own taking. More pictures to follow (including ones of killer whales!)

Good News!

Hi Everyone!!

Wow, it's been a while! Sorry, but April was pretty boring. Finished up on inventory (I looked at over 7200 samples. Oy.) and I just finished helping out on some data conversion (I might post about that in the future). But in terms of Marine Biology, it's been a quiet month.

Until Now!


I have been accepted as an intern with the Cetus Research Society for this summer! It's out in Victoria, BC, Canada and I am so excited to (finally) get out to the West Coast and live like a hippie (kidding). The internship will get me out on the boat but also talking to people about killer whales and the impacts of boating. I'm really excited to get experience in both aspects.

So keep your eyes peeled starting in a couple weeks for updates on my adventure!

Speak Loud!

It's a Mans World... Or Is It?

Hi Everyone!

 This might seem a little out of place, but my grandmother sent this video to me because it reminded her of me, and not to seem conceited or anything, it reminded me of myself as well.

 Science has always been a mans world. It seems like only within the last generation or so am I reading women names in my journal articles. It's no surprise that the farther up you go in the chain of research, at the end of it all you are more likely to find a man than a woman.

 But it's changing, and I am one of the many trying to change it.

 When I was finishing grade 6 and figuring out where to go for middle school and potentially high school, my dad was pretty adamant about placing me in an all girls school because, he believed, there would be a better chance of me getting a strong education in math and science, because he understood then (and I definitely didn't) that math and science is a mans world.

 But my love of theatre, my ambition for challenge and my preference for public school won out in the end, and I don't think my education suffered. I lucked out with amazing math and science teachers that certainly but no emphasis on gender in the classroom, and I won't deny that the female population in all my classes kick butt. But looking back, I understand and appreciate my dad's worries. Especially because he thought I was going to be a doctor (just kidding... I think).

 I grew up in a house of feminists. Go get a copy of Cat in the Hat right now. Read through it. Notice how Suzy doesn't say a single word of her own? Her brother talks for her the entire time. This is not the story my sister and I grew up with. It wasn't until we were reading on our own did we realize this, because my dad had an extraordinary habit of giving lines to Suzy. That's the house I grew up in.

 So ladies, it's time to break barriers. Yes, our grandmothers did their share, so did our mothers. But there are still walls to take down, and we don't need to call a man in to do it. I am young and naive and I know it, but I do think I'll be able to have a hectic, life-sucking job and still be able to raise a family the way I want to.

 Anyways, this video. Basically saying all the same things I was brought up to believe, but by a woman who has done it. I enjoyed it so much, and I hope you do too. For any men reading this blog, I think you can also enjoy it, and think about what she says on what true equality is in a relationship.

 Speak Loud!