(Chinook Observer)
Where in the winter do our killer whales go?
By TYLER GRAF For the Observer | Posted: Tuesday, February 14, 2012 6:00 pm
CRANBERRY ROAD — Federal biologists are trying to unravel an enduring mystery about where the Northwest's resident orca whales spend the winter. They may have part their answer after another one washed up dead Saturday morning a mile north of Cranberry beach approach.
It's the second orca found decaying on a Peninsula beach in the last three months. A necropsy on the first orca found in November, which was a calf at the time of its death, confirmed it had died of a hiatal hernia.
External signs of decomposition indicate the 12-foot female orca found Saturday died in the water and had been dead for a while, according to Tiffany Boothe of the Seaside Aquarium. On Sunday, the animal was moved for a necropsy that was performed by Portland State University biology professor Debbie Duffield and a team of Cascadia Research biologists.
It's unclear what the necropsy has revealed specifically, but there are signs that the whale suffered some form of blunt-force trauma in the water that resulted in hemorrhaging, said Keith Chandler, the aquarium's general manager.
"There was some some trauma," Chandler said. "There was bruising that was visible on the neck-chest area."
The orca's exact age was also not immediately known, but its size indicates the whale was between 3 and 6 years old.
Boothe said the whale likely belonged to the "L pod," one of three pods that roam the Northwest shores of the Pacific Ocean. It's estimated that fewer than 100 roam the ocean along the Pacific Northwest coast. Deceased orcas in particular don't end up on land very often due to their rarity, Chandler said.
More information will be gleaned from the necropsy, Chandler added.
"This one just happened to hit the beach," he said. "But it was not a freshly killed animal."
Where do they go?
Just last week, Tom Banse from the Northwest News Network reported that researchers are setting off from the NOAA homeport in Newport, Ore., to look for orcas.
Every winter, the three pods of orca whales that call Northwest waters home just disappear into the wild blue yonder. Research biologist Dawn Noren and colleagues from the Northwest Fisheries Science Center are embarking on a three-week mission to find them.
"Sometimes the waves are huge and it's raining," Noren says. "So it's a challenging time to be trying to find these guys, that's for sure."
The Northwest's resident killer whales are on the endangered species list. Noren says that makes it more important to figure out where they're hanging out for as much as half the year.
"They're off the coast of Oregon, or Washington or California. We don't exactly know what risks they may be facing in those habitats," Noren says. "So it's important to determine where they're going, how long they're spending in these areas, what they're eating and any other risk factors that we need to be aware of to start investigating."
Noren says the NOAA research ship will tow an array of underwater microphones and rely on spotters to try to locate the elusive quarry.
A winter of whales
For the staff of the Seaside Aquarium, who are called any time a large ocean animal washes up on one of the region's beaches, having a series of whale beachings is a strange occurrence.
In late January, following a series of storms that stirred up the ocean, a 39-foot sperm whale and a 13-foot newborn gray whale also washed up onto Pacific County beaches.
Chandler said the beachings are unrelated, and the gray and sperm whales were likely carried ashore by strong waves generated by the storms.
In addition to the deceased whales, a number blue, humpback and fin whales have been observed feeding above underwater canyons between 30 and 60 miles off the Long Beach Peninsula. Possibly this area will be a good place to look for orcas? Time may soon tell.
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