“Other orcas frequent these waters: residents (fish-eaters) in larger, gregarious maternally-structured pods; offshores (shark-eaters) dipping inshore only rarely to feed on the enormous, fatty livers of Pacific sleeper sharks; and roving Gulf of Alaska transients, combing the shorelines across a thousand-mile range for marine mammal prey. Though they encounter, and certainly hear, one another, with these other populations, the Chugach transients do not interact. They are genetically and acoustically distinct. Why? It’s one of the mysteries. Perhaps they evolved “on a different day,” for a different world, relatively small populations of apex predators robust in an abundant, unpolluted ocean, each occupying a unique niche.
But that is not the world in which the Chugach transients find themselves today. As of this writing, only seven remain on earth. Those (along with other transient orcas) are among the most contaminated creatures known to science, bearing in their blubber dangerous levels of PCBs, DDTs, and flame-retardants. The male named Eyak survived the oil spill, but 11 of 22 Chugach transients did not, succumbing, we believe, to physiological damage caused by breathing hydrocarbons and ingesting oil-coated seals.”
(Read the whole article here: Unique Alaskan Orcas Slip Toward Extinction.)
Killer whales trapped by ice in northern Quebec
Federal team of experts to arrive Thursday aiming to help the orcas
A dozen killer whales appear to be trapped about 30 kilometres off the coast of Inukjuak, Que., and the federal government is expected to send a team of experts to help save them.
Twelve orcas have been spotted in a small patch of open water, at the eastern top of Hudson Bay.
Peter Inukpuk, mayor of the small Inuit village, called on the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to send out an icebreaker to help the whales.
He said the water froze later than usual this year, and it could be why the whales appear to be in trouble.
Martha Asudluak, 21, hitched a ride on a snowmobile Wednesday morning to go out to see them.
“I saw the big head popping out of the waters … I couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” she said.
Asudluak says she feels blessed to have been able to see the whales, but she also wants them to be freed as soon as possible.
A spokesperson for the federal department said it’s not unusual for marine mammals to become trapped in ice.
The department is sending a team of experts, who are expected to arrive in Inukjuak on Thursday.
