(J pod southbound in Puget Sound November 2023, by M. Sears – Permit 21348)

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

More than 40 people filled C & P Coffee (WSB sponsor) Thursday for The Whale Trail‘s winter gathering – with the theme on that solstice night, as executive director Donna Sandstrom put it, “finding light in the darkness.”

She opened with The Whale Trail’s origin story, going back to her involvement with the rescue of Springer the orphaned orca 21 years ago, fast forwarding to the challenges the Southern Resident Killer Whales face today – they could be extinct within a century if the factors contributing to their decline don’t change. At its heart, The Whale Trail is a long stretch of viewing spots with interpretive signage along the Pacific Coast (inland waters like Puget Sound too, with locations including four signs in West Seattle), “from San Diego to Prince Rupert, B.C.,” but in practice it’s much more – like Orca Talks and gatherings such as this one, dating back to 2010 – plus other forms of advocacy (Sandstrom served on the Southern Resident Killer Whale Recovery Task Force created by Gov. Jay Inslee in 2018).

That task force addressed many threats to the resident orcas’ survival; Sandstrom’s special interest was shipping noise, including that generated by whale-watching boats. Now there are rules to reduce it, as well as a voluntary pledge program for other boaters. Then, starting in 2025, all boaters will have to stay 1,000 yards away. Sandstrom told attendees that she is serving on an advisory group working on how to ensure all boaters learn about this rule – “we want to make it easy for (boaters to help whales).”

Though the SRKWs’ population isn’t growing, there is reason for hope, Sandstrom said – their three pods (J, K, and L) have nine calves under 5 years old, and six of them are female. She said it’s important for people to leave gatherings like this one “inspired.”

She also paid tribute to longtime supporter Chas Redmond – “he was a super-connector and a joyous human being.” Now, highlights from the guest speakers:

STATE ORCA RECOVERY COORDINATOR: Tara Galuska holds that job, and she was the night’s first speaker. She said it’s a relatively new position, created because the Southern Resident orcas are listed by the state as endangered as well as with the feds. She said the state of Oregon has been petitioned to list the SRKWs too. Funding for recovery work – restoration and improvement of habitat, for example, especially the riparian areas along streams – has been increasing. She also mentioned the recent federal announcement of the Columbia River Basin initiative – $100 million for work there – which will help with salmon recovery, and therefore help with the Southern Resident orcas’ food source.

In addition to the state efforts Sandstrom had mentioned, Galuska talked about Quiet Sound, which just received an award – it’s working on commercial-shipping noise in parts of Puget Sound, and “they have some great statistics” in their second year, she said. She also mentioned a “cetacean desk” is being set up to increase awareness of when whales are in Puget Sound.

Regarding another threat to orcas, contaminants, Galuska said the state has been working on regulations to reduce use of dangerous chemicals that get into the water and endanger wildlife (as well as humans). She noted the tire-dust problems – “almost an instant killer for coho” – that have gotten a lot of attention recently, and efforts to ban the deadly chemical in that dust, though “that may take a long time,” she warned There’s research under way to find a replacement chemical.

(2018 photo by David Hutchinson – Mark and Maya Sears heading out on a research voyage)

MARK AND MAYA SEARS: The West Seattle-based orca researchers brought their fall update about the Southern Resident Killer Whales. Mark Sears showed some of his photos – including one of J1 and J2, once thought to be mother and son, then revealed by genetic work to actually be brother and sister. The Sears family has spent generations as resident caretakers at Lincoln Park’s beachfront Colman Pool and Mark calls it “one of the very best places to see killer whales.” They work with federal and other collaborators, with permits, to study the SRKWs when they’re in the area.

He showed a chart of the whales’ up and down population that dramatically depicted “the capture years” as well as a sharp drop in the ’90s, which led to the orcas being placed on the endangered-species list. (According to NOAA, they were first officially counted in 1971, at 74 whales, then peaked at 97 in 1996; today the population stands at 75.) The Searses’ research work includes photo identification, predation event sampling, fecal and mucus sample collection (which tells them a lot about the whales’ health). He is “the designated boat driver” and tracks the whales’ location when they’re out; Maya is designated photographer. She said that while keeping a “census” isn’t officially their task, they work hard to record who’s present when they’re out. She talked about how they ID who’s who – markings and fin shape, for example. The orcas group in “matrilines” – mothers and their offspring.

Maya Sears shared some interesting orcas’ facts – males’ puberty can last from age 10 to 25, for example! Mark Sears talked about what they eat. Once the whales get a fish and share it amongst themselves, the researchers go look for scraps from which they can tell what kind of fish, maybe even which hatchery or river the fish came from. “We’re trying to figure out which salmon runs are most important to them and perhaps should be protected,” he said. (Transient killer whales eat other mammals, he noted.) He showed the “flukeprints” whales leave on the water – that’s where they sometimes find “fecal material” to collect for research.

Maya then took over to talk about Seadoc health assessments for the whales – that’s also where material samples can come into play, as well as sampling that goes onto slides that a lab analyzes for such things as parasites.

Most recently, they encountered Southern Residents over six days in October and November but did not catch up with the K Pod whales who visited. (This was before J-Pod’s visit to local waters today – we don’t know if they were out this time.) Mark Sears also explained an area off south Whidbey Island where the residents can find food and may hang out for days. That led to a mention of the orcas’ unusual visit to Quartermaster Harbor between Vashon/Maury Islands – 18 hours, “very unusual,” he said. They emerged early in the morning and swam back past our area. While the orcas were in Quartermaster, he added, they were very active – breaching, spyhopping, etc.- and when they left they made it to Whidbey Island “in record time.” They’re still not sure why the orcas took that side trip, though – Mark said he had originally theorized it might be to mark some major event like a birth or death, but none of those had occurred: “They do crazy things.”

BRAD HANSON: The NOAA researcher discussed the ongoing studies to assess the Southern Resident Killer Whales’ health – “research that IS making a difference for the Southern Residents,” said Sandstrom when introducing him. He’s not a veterinarian, Hanson noted, but works with many talented ones. He also took care to tell attendees that that he was presenting work to which a lot of other people contributed.

It all goes back, he began, to 2005, when SRKWs were listed as endangered, which meant a recovery plan had to be developed, and critical habitat had to be identified.

The action plan for 2021-2025 includes investigation of contaminants and health – not just toxics but also pathogens and microbes affecting the whales. In 2002, they had only two paragraphs of knowledge about disease and pathogens affecting them, Hanson said, but they’ve learned much more in the ensuing 20+ years. They’ve taken biopsy samples to learn about contaminants. Different pods spend time in different areas and therefore show different effects, he said. Female whales offload 85 percent of their contaminants to calves through nursing, he noted, while males don’t do any offloads.

Circling around to prey (food) availability, he said SRKWs definitely are “chinook (salmon) specialists.” But they’re not necessarily starving because of a lack of food, he said – some may be suffering reduced appetite because of disease. They studied the causes of death for more than 50 whales:

Research they’ve been doing includes detecting pathogens and examining microbiomes – that includes the bacteria in their exhaled breath. The microbiomes they found in the breath were different from those found from other sources.

Regarding the threat posed by the small size of the SRKW population, Hanson talked about a study of whether “inbreeding” was raising the risk of problems. For example, they found that most of the calves in a particular time span were the offspring of just two males. (They don’t have recent data on this because they’ve stopped biopsying them for now, for fear of infection from the wounds created by that sampling.) Hanson said “whole genome sequences” were done for almost 150 orcas – Southern Residents, Alaska Residents, Transients, Northern Residents, and Offshore whales. That research was published last year. They did find that “in fact, Southern Residents are the most inbred.” That leads to lower survival rates. Highly inbred whales “are unlikely to reach old age.” Females only produce one calf every five years before their reproductive years end in their 40s. The problem is called “inbreeding depression” – not a mental health situation but “yearly survival accounting for empirical effects of inbreeding.”

Now they’re working on tools for a health index. Hanson is part of the original project team along with a SeaDoc Society vet and a vet from the San Diego Zoo. Their work includes visual assessments of the orcas, looking at skin lesions, dive duration, respiratory rate while traveling. They also have a partnership with a lab at Harvard studying the difference between orca populatione, related to their gut microbiomes.

Explaining specific research techniques, Hanson noted use of a microphone to listen to their breathing and a camera to do thermal imaging. That shows what the whales’ dorsal fins too – enable them to shake off some body heat (since they don’t sweat). They use drones (UAV) to do the breath sampling – the drones fly right through the breath plumes! (He showed the drone’s perspective on that.) Do the whales notice the drones? He said that’s a common question but the whales don’t seem to notice. or care.

They’re creating individual medical records for whales they study – hoping that will help with “intervention determination for sick animals,” as well as providing “information on emerging diseases” and enabling “development of a conservation medicine program to prepare for and address threats we might find in the future.” Climate change and other factors will bring new challenges with diseases they’re just beginning to see, Hanson said. They know a lot about the orcas but need to know more, and this will help tremendously, he added. He also noted that the work is funded by grants as well as general government funding.

Q/A: 75 whales in the SRKW population right now, with new calves, and “it’s particularly exciting to have females” – One question dealt with salmon and Hanson talked about how “extraordinarily complex” the whole salmon ecosystem, and what SRKWs eat, involves. Another question involved whether there was anything more that could be done about genetic diversity. Short of “setting up a killer whale dating service,” Hanson said, basically …. no. Unfortunate, he suggested, saying that even if they could just breed a few times with other populations, that would help … but it’s not in their culture. All in all, they remain largely a mystery – “because we dpn’t see them much of the time” – Hanson said.

Speaking of which: Do whales rest at night? Yes, and during the day too. But they also feed at night, said Hanson. “Daytime/nighttime does not necessarily dictate what they do.” Sometimes they’ll spend an entire day socializing, he added.

Any favorite memories? the guest speakers were asked.

Hanson said he feels like he sees something different every time he goes out. Maya Sears said “too many” – asked to single in on one or two, she recalled seeing one orca “riding” on another for a ways – imagining that whale “going wheee.” Another time, she saw a whale breaching 20 to 35 times in a row, traveling that way. Hanson saw one whale with a flounder in its mouth teasing another one by moving it frequently to keep it just out of the other orca’s reach. He also mentioned the Quartermaster Harbor visit as memorable.

Wrapping up the evening, Sandstrom reminded attendees: “Our job is to keep these whales alive long enough that they have a chance, to control every environmental factor that we can.”

(Here’s a state webpage with some suggestions on what you can do toward that goal.)