And I said, 'That's it! They are easy to identify because of their distinctive white and black colouring. Sea otter numbers were stable from 1993 through 1997 in Clam Lagoon, whereas in Kuluk Bay they declined by 76%. A. Estes,* M. T. Tinker, T. M. Williams, D. F. Doak After nearly a century of recovery from overhunting, sea otter populations are in abrupt decline over large areas of western Alaska. When the big whales got hard to find, Williams says, the orcas switched to big, stellar sea lions and then to medium-sized seals. Question Sheet: Sea Otters, Kelp, and Killer Whales. The killer whale (also known as the orca) generally did not consume sea otters in the past, but now consumes thousands of otters. You know, they're killing cute, little, fuzzy sea otters.' "And I looked down, and there they were, the New Zealand killer whales," he recalls. Photos from New Zealand showed a bunch of whales stranded on a beach. Serious scientists, like Doug DeMaster, don't think much of it either. Washington’s sea otter population isn’t growing as fast as it once was. Since 1990, otter populations off the Aleutian Islands have fallen by as much as 80 percent. Danita Delimont/Getty Images Reproduction and Offspring . He also says the original idea that these orcas once ate the great whales can't be proven. Many people are trying to figure out why. Scientists recently found that as many as half of the world’s killer whale populations may not survive the next 100 years because of PCB pollution. Scientists say they've found a mysterious type of killer whale that they've been searching for for years. New Type Of Killer Whale Found Swimming In Southern Ocean The notion that there might be some new kind of killer whale emerged in 1955, when photos from New Zealand showed a … Fig. I'm Michele Norris. The killer whale, also known as an orca (Orcinus orca), is a toothed whale belonging to the oceanic dolphin family, of which it is the largest member. In recent decades, several populations of killer whales have declined and some have become endangered. The photograph above was taken on July 7, 2010. Local fishers had been complaining that some kind of whale was stripping fish off their lines. They use these sounds to help travel underwater. John Nielsen, NPR News, Washington. Each pod has distinctive noises, so whales in one pod can sense if another whale is part of its group. ", "There they were," Ballance recalls, for a moment at a loss for words. They live in pods. Although the future looks grim for the otters at the moment, there is some hope on the horizon. NIELSEN: Williams is part of a team that first observed these sneak attacks seven years ago when they were studying the otter die-off along the Aleutian Islands. NPR's Allison Aubrey reports on a new development among sea otter populations off the coast of Alaska. Scientists are finding the same trend around the world. Before reading: Describe a sea otter. Orcas have mostly black skin with white patches. It is estimated that there are around 50,000 killer whales globally. When the sea lion population crashed, they started fishing sea otters. Ms. WILLIAMS: And you end up with a whopping 300,000 sea otters in a single year potentially eaten by these animals. Killer whales in the north Pacific switched to eating Harbor seals, Northern fur seals, Steller sea lions, and finally Sea otters, thinning each species’ populations out one-by-one. "This study was really a decade-long look at what do killer whales die from, from California to Alaska all the way out to Hawaii," he sasy. The Navy estimates the southern population of killer whales in the Puget Sound region could be subject to the non-lethal take two to 51 times a year during the seven years of Navy activity. Since 1990, otter populations off the Aleutian islands have plummeted by as much as 80 percent. Increased killer whale predation is the likely cause of these declines. They can tell, even in the darkest parts of the sea, where items are by how quickly their noises bounce back. A rare photo of "type D" killer whales off South Georgia island, located between South America and Antarctica, shows the whales' blunt heads and tiny white eye patches. Mr. DeMASTER: The people who really know killer whales, who spend their lives following them around and studying them--they just don't find any evidence that large whales are an important part of their diet. . I should point out that killer whales around the world are doing fine, but this population is listed as endangered on both sides of the border of the U.S. and Canada. NIELSEN: DeMaster is director of the federal government's Alaska Fisheries Science Center. PCBs first came under scrutiny in the 1970s, when birds, seals, and otter populations began rapidly decreasing. Either way, the mystery killer whales of the Southern Ocean have been found. Ms. WILLIAMS: Followed lastly by sea otters, which, you know, still give you calories, but it's going to take you a bit to fill up on them. Copyright © 2005 NPR. But then they got a 12-hour quiet spell. What might threaten sea otters? 2). The killer whale is easy to identify by its size and its striking coloration: jet black on top and pure white below with a white patch behind each eye, another extending up each flank, and a variable “saddle patch” just behind the dorsal fin. (B) Global overview of PCB concentrations in killer whale blubber (ppm, parts per million).Light and dark green circles represent males and females, respectively. Then, when seals became rare, the killer whales turned to sea lions. We had type D killer whales swimming around our boat. Lull for killer whales. December 9, 2011 at 4:12 pm . And a lot of people don't like hearing that. For the moment this debate is largely academic; nobody is seriously talking about killing orcas to protect otters, seals and sea lions. One killer whale would need to eat 1,825 otters a year to live. Pitman adds: "It's like seeing a dinosaur or something. Their ship at Cape Horn was trapped at anchor for eight days by howling weather. The chemicals were affecting their ability to reproduce. The team was able to snip off small tissue samples from the whales by firing a harmless dart, attached to a line, into their skin. Although the population size and status of killer whales in the Aleutian Islands are unknown, these animals are commonly seen. Pitman says it must have looked like a fishing line with fish on it — it looked like breakfast. People raised on movies like "Free Willy" tend to think of killer whales as well-meaning, fence-jumping giants who want nothing more than to live in perfect harmony with all the other creatures in the ocean. An analysis of the DNA will determine if this is actually a completely new species or just an unusual subtype. Last year, he assembled a team to go to Cape Horn, in Chile, to look for what's now technically called the "type D" killer whale. Killer whales have a diverse diet, although individual populations often specialize in particular types of prey. Populations of otters along the Alaskan and Canadian coast, which had recovered to a few hundred thousand, were driven back down to just a few thousand. 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