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Killer Whale JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CETACEAN SOCIETY Spring 2011 Volume 40, Number 1 Whalewatcher Killer Whale: The Top, Top Predator Special Guest Editor Robert L. Pitman American Cetacean Society ACS National Board Scientific Officers, Directors & Advisors Representatives Kathy Zagzebski John Calambokidis - Cascadia Research President John Ford, Ph.D. - Pacific Biological Station Diane Glim Fisheries and Oceans Canada Vice President Denise Herzing, Ph.D. - Wild Dolphin Project Cindy Rustanius Thomas Jefferson, Ph.D. - Southwest Fisheries Science Center Treasurer National Marine Fisheries Service Patty Geary Robert Kenney, Ph.D. - University of Rhode Island Secretary Graduate School of Oceanography Diane Alps Kit M. Kovacs, Ph.D. - Norwegian Polar Institute Los Angeles Chapter President Bruce Mate, Ph.D. - Oregon State University Beth Cataldo Marine Mammal Program, Hatfield Marine Science Center San Francisco Chapter President Howard Rosenbaum, Ph.D. - Wildlife Conservation Society Uko Gorter Steven Swartz, Ph.D. - NOAA Fisheries Puget Sound Chapter President Office of Science and Technology Ric Matthews Sean Todd, Ph.D. - College of the Atlantic, Allied Whale San Diego Chapter Representative Randall Wells, Ph.D. - Chicago Zoological Society Randy Puckett Monterey Bay Chapter President Hal Whitehead, Ph.D. - Dept. of Biology Dalhousie University Allison Dahle Riehl Los Angeles Chapter Representative Bernd Wursig, Ph.D. - Dept. of Marine Biology Texas A&M University of Galveston Wellington Rogers Orange County Chapter President Kim Valentine San Diego President Learn more about ACS and our vibrant chapters on our web site. We have a new Student Coalition Barbara Bennett chapter currently being formed! Director Jerry Loomis www.acsonline.org Director Flip Nicklin American Cetacean Society National Office Director P.O. Box 1391, San Pedro, CA. 90733-1391 (310) 548-6279 Cheryl McCormick, Ph.D. Executive Director Special thanks to Uko Gorter for the cetacean illustrations in this issue, and to the National Oceanic Kaye Reznick and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for its donation Business Manager towards printing. Cover photo by Bob Pitman. Photo by Robert Pitman Dear ACS Member, I simply could not be more excited or proud to share this issue of Whalewatcher, devoted exclusively to killer whales, with you. Intelligent, highly social, magnificently powerful - they are the unchallenged sovereigns of the world’s oceans. Killer whales captivate our imaginations - they are our sea-faring counterparts – with stable social bonds, languages, ideas, and behaviors that are passed on from generation to generation. They are, indeed, whales with a culture. In killer whale societies, as in our own, identity is defined by the company you keep and what you do. It’s staggering to imagine how far we’ve progressed in our understanding of these cognitively complex, ecologically diverse, charismatic creatures. Once universally reviled as voracious, cold-blooded, multifarious predators, we now know that geographically isolated killer whale populations have evolved an incredibly diverse and divergent array of life history strategies, from acoustics, and prey specialization, to behavior and morphological features. We also now understand that humans and killer whales share much in common – and that some threats to killer whales now intersect with human lives. Persistent, industrial toxins such as PCBs and PBDEs (a group of chemicals used as flame retardants in a wide range of products including clothing, computers, electronic equipment, motor vehicles, carpets, and furniture) have accumulated to such high concentrations in some killer whale populations that individual animals qualify for treatment as “hazardous material.” The fate of some populations is determined by the availability of prey species that have been overfished, while still others suffer from habitat degradation. Our activities are changing the ocean environments in ways that are detrimental and unimaginable, and animals at the top of the marine food chain, like killer whales, quite literally bear the legacy of our past and present mistakes. There may be few other species so like ourselves, and perhaps killer whales and people share another common trait – the ability to connect with and demonstrate empathy toward another species – and each other. In our complicated relationship with nature, it may be a bond unlike any other. The American Cetacean Society is indebted to Robert Pitman for serving as guest editor of this very special issue, as well as the outstanding array of contributing authors, illustrators, and editorial team. And of course, thank you – for your support of ACS – and for caring about whales, dolphins, porpoises, and the healthy habitats on which they depend. Executive Director American Cetacean Society Contents An Introduction to the World’s Premier Predator – by Robert Pitman................................................................................2 How Do We Study Killer Whales? – by John Durban and Volker Deecke..............................................................................6 Killer Whales Around the World Killer Whales of the Pacific Northwest Coast: From Pest to Paragon – by John K.B. Ford.............................................15 Killer Whales in Alaskan Waters – by Craig Matkin and John Durban..............................................................................24 North Atlantic Killer Whales – by Andy Foote.....................................................................................................................30 Crozet: Killer Whales in a Remote But Changing Environment – by Christophe Guinet and Paul Tixier....................33 Centerfold: Ecotypes and Forms Drawn to Scale – by Uko Gorter......................................................................................34 Antarctic Killer Whales: Top of the Food Chain at the Bottom of the World – by Robert Pitman............................39 Killer Whales of California – by Alisa Schulman-Janiger, Nancy Black, and Richard Ternullo.....................................46 Killer Whale Evolution: Populations, Ecotypes, Species, Oh My! – by Lance Barrett-Lennard.......................................48 Predators, Prey, and Play: Killer Whales and Other Marine Mammals – by Robin W. Baird..........................................54 Killer Whale Conservation: The Perils of Life at the Top of the Food Chain – by Lance Barrett-Lennard and Kathy Heise..58 About Our Authors......................................................................................................................................................................63 Selected References......................................................................................................................................................................65 Whalewatcher Vol. 40 #1 Guest Editor - Robert Pitman, Co-editors - Uko Gorter, Kaye Reznick Killer Whale: Editor’s Introduction An Introduction to the World’s Premier Predator An excited Bigg’s (“transient”) killer whale eyes the photographer as it searches for a northern fur seal by the side of our research vessel near the Pribilof Islands, Alaska. Photo by R. Pitman, NOAA Alaska Fisheries Science Center, NMFS Permit No. 782-1719 by Robert Pitman dedicated researchers working from prey for hours at a time, sometimes small boats have spent countless stripping flesh and limbs off live Thirty-five years ago, when I first thousands of hours following killer animals, prefer to call them killer started going to sea, a quite different whales, studying their behavior and whales. Others, perhaps choosing to killer whale roamed the world’s oceans. learning their ways. Their diligence, emphasize the maternalistic social It was a single, worldwide species aided by burgeoning technologies – organization of killer whales, and and the ultimate omnivore, capable satellite tagging, digital photography, people maybe more familiar with the of preying upon any large vertebrate and genetic analyses, to name a few – relatively benign feeding habits of that swam into its purview, including has radically altered our understanding the fish-eating forms, prefer to call fish, birds, mammals or reptiles. Social of this animal, and what has emerged them orcas, as in their Latin name – behavior revolved around dominant is a completely different killer whale – Orcinus orca. Historically, these two adult males, which used their much in fact, several. names have been used interchangeably larger size and aggressive behavior to and the animals that they referred to take command of harems of females Killer whales are also called orcas. were generally considered to be just and young - rather like a lion with Many of us who have seen this two sides of the same coin. Recent his pride. Since that time, armadas of animal relentlessly battering their research, however, suggests that these 2 Whalewatcher Whalewatcher 3 Killer Whale: Editor’s Introduction naming preferences and the different them from their prey, but killer whale for cooperative prey capture. perceptions that they represent, may evolution has apparently run off in the be because these are in fact different opposite direction. This is the kind of For killer whales to conduct a coins. counterintuitive observation that sets coordinated attack on a prey animal, off alarm bells for biologists: Some- they need constantly updated What is an Ecotype? thing interesting is going on here. information on the orientation, speed and direction of travel
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