As an expert marine biologist who has studied Killer Whales in the
wild for 23 years, Nancy Black has been interviewed by over 100 different
media outlets to respond to the issue of captive Killer Whales and the
death of a Killer Whale trainer at Sea World on February 24, 2010. She
has prepared this feature story to provide information about wild Killer
Whales, with special emphasis on the Killer Whales of Monterey Bay.
I would like to briefly describe the lives of wild Killer Whales in Monterey
Bay, off central California. Killer Whales occur year-round in Monterey
Bay, although on an unpredictable basis. We can encounter them on our
whale watching trips any time of the year, although the peak time for
sightings is April and May, when they frequent Monterey Bay to hunt Gray
Whale calves.
In addition to Killer Whale sightings, our Monterey Bay Whale Watch trips
focus on watching Humpback Whales, Blue Whales, Gray Whales, several dolphin
and porpoise species, seals, sea lions, and sea otters. It's not unusual
for us to see groups of thousands of dolphins, as Monterey Bay is an extremely
nutrient-rich and productive area for a tremendous diversity of marine
life. Given this large diversity of marine mammals that feed or migrate
through Monterey Bay, Killer Whales frequent this area to hunt other marine
mammals as their natural prey, making Monterey Bay an ideal place for
me to conduct my year-round and life-long study of these truly amazing,
highly intelligent social mammals.
Types of Killer Whales
Three different eco-types of Killer Whales occur in Monterey Bay: 1)
Transient Killer Whales (mammal hunting), 2) Resident Killer Whales (fish
eating), and 3) Offshore Killer Whales (feeding on fish, sharks, and squid).
Each population type is genetically distinct from the others, and they
do not interact among types. They have distinct vocalizations, look physically
different to the trained person, exhibit different social groupings and
hunting tactics, and specialize on different prey. They may eventually
each be considered separate species, as they do not intermix.
Resident Killer Whales Visiting Monterey Bay
 I
was the first to discover that the "resident type" or fish hunting Killer
Whales that are normally found in the Pacific Northwest (Southern Residents
- J, K, and L pods) traveled all the way to Monterey Bay. Since this first
sighting in 2000, we have observed them at least once during the winter
on several years since then. These whales are now considered endangered
as their preferred food source, Chinook Salmon, has drastically declined
and the Killer Whales appear to have expanded their range in search of
these fish. All our sightings of these whales are immediately reported
to Ken Balcomb at the Center for Whale Research in Friday Harbor, Washington
as Ken has been studying this group for over 30 years. See our earlier
feature articles about Resident Killer Whales in
Monterey Bay in 2000 and again in 2003.
Offshore Killer Whales
Less is known about the Offshore Killer Whales as they are unpredictable
in occurrence and we generally observe them during the winter, in large
groups of 50 -100 whales. We found that these whales have the longest
range movements discovered so far for any Killer Whale population and
we have recently co-authored a scientific paper on them. Individual whales
identified in Monterey Bay have traveled to southern California and as
far north as the Bering Sea in Alaska.
Transient Killer Whales
The "transients" or mammal hunting Killer Whales are the type most frequently
sighted in Monterey Bay and we have over 130 individual whales in our
catalog. The whales seen in Monterey Bay range from southern California
to Washington, with a few sighted as far as British Columbia and Alaska.
Certain groups are seen more often than others with a home range centered
more around Monterey Bay. These whales are famous for hunting Gray Whale
calves in Monterey Bay during the spring and our work with these whales
has been featured on many nature programs on Television. For one example,
see our feature about the National Geographic Explorer
TV Program on Killer Whales of Monterey Bay.
 We
have observed these whales hunting other mammals as well, such as Harbor
Seals, Elephant Seals, California Sea Lions, Dall's Porpoise, Harbor Porpoise,
Minke Whale, Pacific White-sided Dolphins, Long-beaked Common Dolphins,
Risso's Dolphins, and Bottlenose Dolphins.
Monterey Bay is the only place in the world where Killer Whales can be
observed in an easily accessible area hunting and feeding on Gray Whales.
This is a natural event and although Killer Whales are found throughout
the world and are the most widely distributed whale, occurring from both
poles to the tropics, and they do hunt large baleen whales in other areas,
Monterey Bay is the only place to predictably observe this truly amazing
event in nature, a battle among whale species, rivaling any other incredible
predation events in nature, such as lions hunting buffalo or elephants,
cheetahs chasing down antelopes at high speed, or wolves hunting bison
and moose.
Killer Whale Culture
Killer Whales are true predators and are highly intelligent, social
mammals living in a matriarchal society (with groups based on adult females
and their offspring), exhibit complex communication patterns (similar
to a language), and exhibit culture - with hunting strategies and knowledge
of where to find prey, time of year to find specific prey and how to hunt
different prey species successfully passed on among generations by females
to their young. Even the males will generally stay with their mothers
through life and mate with different family groups that are not closely
related to them but still part of their population type. Females can live
up to 80-90 years and males 50-60 years, with males reaching lengths of
30' and 6 tons and females up to 26' and 4 tons.
Killer Whales Hunting Dolphins
in Monterey Bay
  As
a recent example of the natural life of these incredible animals, I am
including photos of a recent event, as it is impossible to describe here
all the amazing predation events we have observed over the years. On January
10th of this year (2010) on our whale watching trip we encountered a group
of over 800 long-beaked common dolphins as they were fleeing from a group
of eight Killer Whales. The dolphins were flying out of the water at high
speed away from the Killer Whales. We passed the dolphins and caught up
with the Killer Whales just after they caught a dolphin. When hunting
dolphins, Killer Whales often track a distance of a quarter mile or more
behind the school without alerting the dolphins to their presence. The
Killer Whales are usually spread out over several hundred yards and wait
for an opportunity to catch a dolphin by surprise. The whales will try
to isolate a dolphin and come from below and often will toss the dolphin
in the air by their head or flukes, while the other Killer Whales will
all gather and several whales will work together to eventually kill the
dolphin.
  On
our January trip, we arrived just after the Killer Whales caught the dolphin
and had begun to feed on it. They spent just over 30 minutes feeding and
sharing the prey among the group members before they started to continue
on. After they fed on the dolphin, they became very social as they often
do after such feeding events. The Killer Whales began to breach and spyhop,
with lots of vocalizations (as they are very quiet vocally before a kill),
exhibiting a very excited and high-energy state. It was incredible to
observe their social behaviors as they continued this for nearly an hour,
possibly a sort of "celebration" after the hunt. After this they continued
traveling north and eventually slowed down and spread out again over half
a mile. We followed them for several miles into the sunset before we headed
back.
Killer Whales don't stay in one area for long, otherwise their prey would
move away; instead they range hundreds of miles along the coast and frequent
Monterey Bay periodically. Passengers on the trip were completely awestruck
to have witnessed such an amazing event and felt it was once in a lifetime
opportunity for many.
Rewards of Viewing Whales and Dolphins in the Wild
 I
expressed to everyone that seeing Killer Whales in the wild is so much
more rewarding and enriching than watching them in captive "shows" where
they are kept in an unnatural and small environment for such highly intelligent
social animals. Times have changed and I think many people would prefer
to see animals in their natural environment rather than in a captive situation
where they are made to perform for crowds of people.
If you have more questions about wild Killer Whales, please send an email
or call and I will try to answer your questions. The upcoming months of
April and May (best mid April through mid May) are the next best time
to view these animals in the wild. Although we don't see the Killer Whales
every day – generally several times a week or more – we see
humpback whales daily and dolphins at this time as well. Many people come
out with us more than once at this time of year to increase their chances
of viewing Killer Whales and have an opportunity to see them hunt Gray
Whales.
The humpback whales are also a highlight as they arrive in Monterey Bay
to feed on small fish and squid from April through December and Gray Whales
migrate through the area from December through May. Several dolphin species
occur year-round and are frequently seen on our trips as well.
Chemical Contaminants and Killer Whales
During my research in collaboration with the National Marine Mammal
Laboratory (NOAA) I collected small biopsy samples of several different
Killer Whales and found that the whales have extremely high levels of
chemical contaminants such as PCB's, DDT's, and flame retardants, all
of which can be detrimental to these animals by affecting their reproductive
rate and immune system. However, it's hard to prove a direct link from
these chemicals to physical effects on the whales.
The California transients I sampled in Monterey Bay have some of the highest
known levels of these chemicals sampled so far for any Killer Whales.
Unfortunately, California is a highly populated area and previous dumping
and runoff of these chemicals into the oceans has taken place. Although
some of these chemicals are banned, flame-retardants are still in use
and all of these toxic chemicals do not degrade in the ocean and can linger
in the marine environment over many years.
Since Killer Whales are top predators, they bioaccumulate these chemicals
from the food chain as it's passed up to higher level prey. The males
can never get rid of the chemicals they accumulate but the females pass
these chemicals along to their offspring and their first-born whales have
the highest levels.
This is something we hope to continue monitoring in the future as well
as looking at the survival of calves. In general, calf mortality could
be as high as 40% and this could be related to the chemicals. Although
the transients are not currently endangered, the chemical contaminants
that are already in the ocean could pose a risk to their population and
flame-retardants are still in use, though they are slated to be banned
in the near future.
About Nancy Black and Monterey Bay Whale Watch
Besides leading whale watching trips as captain and marine biologist/naturalist
guide, Nancy Black has also been conducting research on these whales for
over 20 years and often uses her small research inflatable for this purpose.
She has co-authored several research papers on these whales (see list
below), published and was lead author on the first photo-identification
catalog of Killer Whales for California and Mexico (as each whale can
be identified by distinct markings on the dorsal fin and saddle patch),
provided updated research poster presentations during each Biennial Conference
for the Society of Marine Mammalogy (see PDF
of this poster), often gives public presentations on Killer Whales
(for such organizations as the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary,
Monterey Bay Aquarium, American Cetacean Society, Long Beach Aquarium,
Long Marine Laboratory/UC Santa Cruz, Point Lobos State Reserve Docents,
and others); and her research has been featured on many nature shows (Blue
Planet - Discovery Channel; Secret Killer Whales of Monterey Bay - National
Geographic; Whale Attack - Animal Planet; Killer Whales/Gray Whales TV
Series with Jean Michael Cousteau of Ocean Futures on PBS, and others).
Nancy Black started Monterey Bay Whale Watch because she has a true passion
for these animals and wanted to observe and learn more about them year-round
in the wild. The Monterey Bay Whale Watch group stands alone as true experts
on these animals, therefore providing the highest quality whale watching
trips in the area and U.S., carefully respecting these animals by following
all whale watch guidelines.
Research Papers Co-authored by Nancy Black
Harbor Porpoise Mortality
in the Monterey Bay Halibut Gillnet Fishery, 1989 (1994)
Low worldwide genetic
diversity in the killer whale (Orcinus orca): implications for demographic
history (June 2002)
From wind to whales: trophic links
in a coastal upwelling system (March 2005)
Use of chemical tracers
in assessing the diet and foraging regions of eastern North Pacific killer
whales (July 2006)
Evolution of
Population Structure in a Highly Social Top Predator, the Killer Whale
(March 2007)
Killer whales and marine mammal
trends in the North Pacific—a re-examination of evidence for sequential
megafauna collapse and the prey-switching hypothesis (October 2007)
Eastern temperate North
Pacific offshore killer whales (Orcinus orca): Occurrence, movements,
and insights into feeding ecology (July 2008)
Additional Photos
Links
Killer
Whales approaching boat with prey (Roger Wolfe video on YouTube)
Killer
Whales attacking a baby gray whale (BBC video on YouTube, narrated
by David Attenborough)
Note: pdf files and external web pages will open in new windows.
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