Killer whale

Draft Plan:

• Introduction
• Orcas:
  • Classification
  • Morphology
  • Habitation and Distribution
    • The different groups
  • Communication
  • Nutrition
  • Hunting
  • Reproduction
  • Spatial and behavior structure
  • The population growth
• Pollution:
  • Definition
  • Human activity
    • Traffic
    • Farming
    • Hunting
  • Chemical pollution

• Observation of the animal
  • The different techniques to observe the animal

Your text below is still full of typing mistakes. This has to be corrected. Use the computer dictionary in FireFox or in Word to do so!--Pierre.brawand 15 octobre 2009 à 09:27 (UTC)

Introduction

A few years ago I decided I wanted to make my travail de maturité maturity work on orcas, which are marine mammals and are part of the dolphin family. I am interested in these animals as they are amazing and among the most intelligent ones I have ever studied about. Before doing this work I read about their life and mostly about their hunting techniques. Orcas, also called killer whales are huge and intelligent hunters. They are part of the biggest carnivores on earth and the most cunning of all. At the beginning of my project, I wanted to concentrate on the domain of hunting, nevertheless I thought it would not have an impact on people. Would it change anything if I talked about hunting? Everybody could simply read any book about orcas and find about this subject. So I decided to work on a more current subject, we have been dealing with and talking about for a few years, and which concerns orcas. This is when we started to study a bit pollution in geography class. We did not talk a lot about pollution and very little about marine pollution, but it was just enough to open my curiosity and to make myself aware of it.
Pollution is a subject that our society has been dealing a lot with for a few years and than has become a sensitive domain as we try to find solutions to it. So the subject is so a bit recent and the kind of effects it has on marine life is even more recent and unknown. It is harder and harder not to see the impact and evolution of pollution on nature year after year. In addition, pollution is caused by human activities and also affects our health. One of the most contaminated areas on earth is the marine environment and its unknown effects. A lot of pollutants are thrown by or leacks from industries, agriculture activities, boats or ports into oceans and seas. Most of the pollution going into the oceans comes from coastal human activities, nevertheless even the countries that are not near the ocean pollute them as their waste and sewage can reach the oceans or their pollutants simply leacks into rivers until it flows into the marine environment. This means that each country on earth contaminats the ocean and so that we are all concerned by marine life degradation. However, some people do not believe in this impact and think the ocean is so huge that it could never be affected by pollution.
In addition, contaminants and pollutants reach the ocean and kill the marine animals living in the oceans. Pollution can affect their food and then them or directly kill them. Most of the pollutants contaminats marine animals by nutrition. The chemical pollutants accumulate in the food of the animal and when this one eats it the pollutants are released in his body or most of the time stock in the blubber. This is why the more you go up in the food chain the more pollutants accumulate in the animal’s body and the more the animal will be affected. In other words the more the animal is situated in a high level of the chain food, the more it is contaminated by pollution. This is why orcas which are the highest marine animal found in the chain food are one of the most polluted animals on earth. However how are they polluted? Is pollution affecting greatly their life? In what way does it change them, affect them? Will they disappear because of pollution? In conclusion my main question and problem I will try to resolve in this work is: in what way and how much does pollution affect orca’s life?
To answers these questions I found interesting to discuss with biologist and go directly on their field of investigation. The most well known place in the world to observe orcas is situated in the area of Vancouver in Canada. I decided after talking with the director of the Swiss cetacean association, who was my first contact for this work, that I should go there and find some work in a research project dealing with orcas. By doing this I could do my own observation of the animal and have some experience in the marine biology domain. It could help me understand what is happening and have a direct contact with researchers who have been working with orcas for years and may have seen a change in orca's behavior and life.
In the first section of this work I will present on the one hand the orca and on the other hand the different kinds of pollution affecting marine life. I will then explain how I found a job in Vancouver and talk about my stay there. Then using all the information I have gathered thanks to books and interviews I made with biologists specialized on orcas or on marine pollution I will write about how pollution affects orcas. Since I came back from Vancouver I have made plenty of deductions and I will talk about them to finally reach some kind of conclusion.

Classification: Orcas, Orcinus orca

The scientific name of the killer whale is Orcinus orca. Here is the hierarchic classification of the Orca:
Domain: Eucaryote
Reign: Animal
Crotch: Stringed
Class: Mammals
Order: Cetacean
Family: Delphinia
Genus: Orcinus
Specie: Orca
Genus, species: Orcinus orca

Morphology

Orcas have often been taken for whales, because of their extraordinary size. However Orcas are the biggest ever known dolphins. Their other name killer whale can also bring confusion of their real origins which are dolphins.
The size of an orca changes according to its sex and also its geographic location.
Size:

• Male:

When a male orca reaches its maturity, it can be 9.8 m long. It weights on average 3.6 and 5.5 tones, it can even weight up to 11t. The back, codal and pectoral fin can be on average 2 meter.

• Female:

When a male orca reaches its maturity, it can be between 5 and 7.7 meter long. It weight on average an 1.3 and 3.6 tones, it can even weight up to 7.4t. The back, codal and pectoral fin can be on average 1 meter.

• The young:

At birth the young measures between 1.8 to 2.7 meters depending on its location birth. The weight of the new born is on average 180 kg.

Coloration:

We can easily recognize an orca because of its distinctive corporal black and white pigmentation. He has a white oval pigmentation just behind its two eyes called the eye patch. His dorsal and pectoral flippers are black.On the bottom of the animal its body is white and elongates itself between his pectoral flippers and his fluke. In addition each orca has a distinct grey stain behind their dorsal fin. This stain is called the saddle and has different kind of shapes according to the individual. Researchers use the saddle to recognize an individual from a group.

Body shape:

Orcas have an elongated body that allows them swim fast in the ocean easily. This shape is common for dolphins and also similar to whales. However, orcas have been built for hunting as all the other dolphins. This is why they are much smaller than whales and have a sharper body.

Habitation and Distribution

The different groups

In British Columbia, their are 3 kinds of groups. Indeed Orcas are considered to be one specie, as recent research has proven that all the orcas have little variations of their DNA. However, we can distinguish 3 different groups according to their location, nutrition and body shape :

• The resident killer whales: this group is separated into two communities called the southern resident, which is composed of 81 individuals and the northern resident, which is composed of 172 individuals. The residential group is separated in two, because the northern live in the north of the B.C area, while the southern live in the south. It is important to know that these two groups never intersect or have any contacts together. In addition, to this separation of group they are themselves separated into different pods (small separated groups in the main group). Pods of a certain group can interact socially and sometimes travel together.(see chapter on reproduction). The J, K and L pod for the southern resident group. I will not name the sixteen pods of the northern group.

• Transient killer whales is a groups called transient, because we less see them during the whole year in the B.C area. However, we can still observe them in these regions. This group is composed of 79 individuals and is separated into 30 pods. In conclusion they are less numerous than the resident group. One of the reason for this, is that they mainly eat marine mammals, which is not the case of the resident groups. We will more explain this in the chapter nutrition. The transient groups travel in the area of both southern and northern resident, but never interact socially with them.

However, we have to be careful with the names of resident and transient, because the residents are not less transient in the B.C area than the so called transient group. In fact, most of the time the resident do not stay much longer than the transient orcas in the B.C area. However, we still call them this way, because researchers started it this way and will not change it. What definitely separates the transient from the resident group is their kind of nutrition.

• Off-shore orcas is a newly known groups. We know very little about them, apart from the fact that they live offshore and that they never come close to the coasts.

However, there are many other different groups. In Norway there are two kinds of orcas the inshore and the offshore. These two groups are distinct by their nutrition. The offshore eat in generally marine mammals while the inshore eat more fish. There are also different groups in Alaska, but some groups are not really well known as we are not able to observe them a lot. In conclusion, we can see that orcas are shaped and separated by their location in the world and their main nutrition.

Location: Orcas can be seen in every oceans and travel a lot. They do not seem to follow a specific migration. They are observed in open waters and near coasts. Despite the seasonal pack ice, they do not have any restriction of zones, due to temperature or depth. As a result, their travel path mainly depends on their nutrition and the amount of food in certain areas. However, they have a preference for cold waters like:

• North Atlantic
• North Pacific
• Antarctica and Arctic

Moreover, some orcas seem to have different places in the world where they constantly go to and stay for a while. For example the orcas of the B.C are commonly observed, but more specifically from May until September. http://library.thinkquest.org/TQ0311684/orcadietandlocation.html http://www.orcaresearch.org/akwic.htm

Nutrition

Orcas are one of the biggest predators in the world. Their shape, their teeth are specially fit for hunting. As we said many times before there are different groups of orcas, which are all blood relatives and have their own language. Moreover, another element that differentiates these groups is nutrition. As a result the nutrition of these predators depends on their group, location and behavior.

In the British Columbia waters there are 3 groups: The residential, which is separated in two pods: the southern and the northern. They spend about 60% of their time finding their nutrition. This groups eats various kinds of fishes and rarely marine mammals. Furthermore, they have a big preference for salmon more precisely chinooks. (1) As we explained before in the chapter habitat and distribution the nutrition of the different kinds of groups depends on their location. Indeed this is because the northern resident area of hunting is in the north of the B.C, while the southern resident one is more south, in the area of San Juan Island, in the USA waters.

The transient, in contrast to the resident, hunt mainly marine mammals and rarely fish. This is why they are mostly observed near coastlines than the other groups. They use 90% of their time hunting. These groups can eat all kinds of animals. Their main nutrition is composed of harbor seals, but they can also eat sea lions, squids, birds and penguins. The most aggressive ones can even eat polar beares, sharks and even once researcher have found a moose in a orca stomach.

The offshore's nutrition is not well known, as they are a newly known orca group. Researchers are not sure of their precise type of food, nevertheless they are sure that this group eats mainly fish.

The nutrition of orcas varies with their age and sex. Generally the older males will more eat big preys and the ones that are the harder to hunt as they have more experience of hunting than the young orcas.

In conclusion we can see that orcas have a variable nutrition and are always at the highest level in the chain food. This will bring repercussion on their life, because of pollution, as we will explain in the chapter effects. (1) Book dolphins society.

Reproduction and teaching the calf

Most of what we know abot orca's reproduction has been learned by the observation of orcas in captivity. This is because it is really rare to observe orcas reproducing in the wild. There is no seasonal mating for these animals, nevertheless the reproduction period seems to take place during the summer. The orcas have a reproduction mode close to the non aquatic mammals, including ours. The female reaches her sexual maturity near the age of 12 to 18, while the male reaches it a bit later, near the age of 18. Females can give birth to calves for 25 years, afterward, when they are around 40 they stop breeding. Moreover, a female gives birth to a calf each 3 to 4 years. Females and males will stay in the pod of their mother all their life. To prevent interbreeding, orcas will reproduce with other ones coming from another pod, but belonging to the same community of orcas. They do not have a particular partner and generally even prefer to change it.
In this society, it is the female that chooses the male. Unfortunately, there is still no explanation for this. Males are still competitive and can fight to gain a female. They can be extremely violent, as some times they use their teeth to wound until their adversary bleeds. As I explained above, we can recognize some orcas by their scars, that have been made during these battles.
The gestation of the female lasts on average 18 months. When the baby is born the mother brings it to the surface for his first breathing. The calves have generally a yellowish color instead of white. It becomes whiter after its first year. The mother nurses the calf during his first year of life, but can also continue this for 2 years. The calf feeds by applying a pressure to the teats located in abdominal slits and as a result the milk flows. The orcas milk is rich in fat and is very important for the calves survival. Indeed the milk fat is an important source of energy for the calves metabolism and for the development of a thick, isolating layer of blubber. The amount of fat in the milk variates during the calves development. In fact the amount varies to 6% of fat when the baby is born to 43% when he is 1 year old. The mother will takes care and teach her calf for 3 years. They are shown how to hunt and they learn how to behave by their mother and even from other important adults in the pod. After, when the calf reaches maturity, depending in which group he is, he will stay with his mother during his whole life, or go away and find a new pod.(See explanation in the next chapter.)

Social and behavioral structure

The social structure of orcas is matriarchal. In fact the most important member is the dominant female, which is generally the oldest. The social structure of a group still depends on the pods. Indeed in B.C, resident and transient orcas do not have the same social structure. In resident orcas pods, the calf will stay with its mother during is whole life. The group is, in consequence, constituted of several generation traveling together. In contrast to the resident orcas the transient are regrouped sometimes by unrelated females and males. Moreover, some individuals come and go in the group. Some individuals will even start to form a group for a while and than separate. When it reaches maturity the calf in these groups, does not stay with its mother.

We can observe that dolphin members and so orcas are structured as a herd. In fact these animals stay together in group and stay close to each other. We can observe one or two leaders in the herd and the presence of a constant central group. These leaders are stronger and larger than the others and generally have more experience than the others. These members observe the area for potential dangers or investigate if there is something new happening near the group. We sometimes have also two or three members of the group, that are more in front than the others, to watch for inshore areas or danger. The movement of orcas are synchronize and in harmony. However, this structure organization is a generality. Indeed, there is so many different groups of killer whales, that they do not always have this kind of structure. For example researchers are still trying to find out the structure of offshore orcas from the B.C. Nevertheless, what remains constant is that the group structure is organized in a way to allows orcas a good use of the space around them, as for hunting in several different conditions. They are mammals that work in team and are well organized as each individual has his own role.

http://www.acsonline.org/factpack/KillerWhale.htm See book on dolphins

Communication

Sounds for marine mammals is very important, as in water visibility is greatly limited. Even though orcas have a good vision in water, can see below and above the sea level, this capacity is limited by the time of the day and the clarity of water. This is why thanks to their capacity of communication and producing sounds orcas are no more limited. They produce sounds for two related functions : communication and echolocation. Sound in water, travels at a speed of 1.5 km/s, which is four-and-a-half time faster than in the air. Killer whales use sounds to navigate,locate their preys and to communicate with each other. The sounds they produce is a mix of whistles, pulsed calls,echolocation clicks,jaw claps and low-frequency pops. These sounds are variable in their volume, pattern and wavelength. The frequency of whistle, for example, is between 0.5 to 40 KHz. Researcher have found that orcas tend to produce more whistles when they are in group, than when they are separated where they produce whistle irregularly. Orcas produce mainly pulses. The frequency of these calls are about 0.5 to 25KHz. Researchers think that these pulses are used for recognition and coordination of behavior.
Orcas in contrast to human do not have vocal cords. The sounds made by them is produced in the blowhole region. It is made by a movement of air between the nasal sacs. More precisely the orca will force air to go trough the nasal tract, which will reach the phonic lips. This action will make the tissue surrounding the phonic lips call the dorsal bursa vibrate.
IMAGE What is special with these mammals is that the individuals of a pod have the same repertoire of calls. As a result, each group has its own language which is more commonly called dialect.Thanks to these different dialects we can sometimes recombine the family tree and find their family ties. For example some pods have similar dialects and this is because they are genetically linked. (1) The calf will learn it's repertoire of calls from only his mother. The first sound he produces is similar to screams and loud high-pitched calls, which do not resemble to adult calls. The calf will learn his mother dialect until puberty.
Orcas communicate also with their body. They can show their joy or other state of mind by jumping, breaching, peck-slapping, head butting,jaw-snapping and by lot of other gestures.

1 http://orca.dolphins-world.com/killer-whale-anatomy.html 2 http://www.seaworld.org/animal-info/info-books/killer-whale/physical-characteristics.htm

Echolocation

The echolocation is a system that enables to locate and discriminate objects, by projecting high frequency sound waves and listening for echoes. This system is a lot used by orcas to locate preys and determine what could be further away in the water. For echolocation orcas produce clicks in quick succession that can reach a frequency of 35KHz. The click passes trough a region consisting of lipids, called the melon. The melon concentrates these sound waves into a beam that is then project into the water in front of the orca. When this sound waves reaches an object it is reflected and goes back to the cetacean. This echo is than received and brought in the lower jaw to the ear. This will enable to the orca to analyze and determine the size, shape, distance, speed, direction and even sometimes some internal structural information of the object in the water.

image from : http://www.killerwhale.org/fieldnotes/chat.html http://www.seaworld.org/animal-info/info-books/killer-whale/physical-characteristics.htm

Marine Pollution

Par rapport nourriture phytoplankton: The marine pollution influences the way the orcas live in the ocean. The explanation of this contamination is that orcas live in polluted ocean, which will contaminate them and change their behavior and health. In this part I will explain the different kinds of pollutants and their sources, but let’s start by the beginning: we know that 71% of the earth surface is occupied by water and 97% of it is found in oceans. Water occupies an important place on our earth and is essential for its survival. Marine pollution is a big factor in the degradation of our oceans. It flows and can quickly extend as it imprints in the water and cannot afterword be cleaned. This is a great issue as it also causes diseases and when the pollution is chemical it penetrates plants, which pollute each animal that eat them.

The marine’s food chain starts with phytoplankton. This minuscule plant absorbs the sun rays which are used to make photosynthesis and thus produces energy. They are the energy resource of the entire living animals, this is why they are at the beginning of the chain food. In addition, the phytoplankton represent a huge mass of the vegetal specie thus it is the regulator of the earth’s oxygen. Any tiny variation in the ocean temperature as 1C° can cause huge problems, as it alters the phytoplankton’s growth and in consequence changes the entire marine life. After the phytoplankton there is krill, which is in the second place of the food chain. This zooplankton is a bunch of tiny shrimps, which are 3 to 7 cm long. All together they can weight 500 million tons, which represents even more than the weight of the total human population on earth. They essentially grow in zones where the conditions are perfect for phytoplankton growth, which is their nutrition. We can find them in the north pole and mostly in the south pole. The krill represents 80% of the nutrition of sea birds, 100% of certain whalebone whales, most fishes, some penguins and finally some squid. This is one of the only example on earth where only one nutrition exists for so many species. Hence it shows us how important they are and how big the impact they have on the marine worlds. Krill is fragile and if the pollution kills it all the cetaceans, fishes and other ocean mammals will disappear with it.

Our earth is fragile and can be easily degraded by anything as pollution. For these last 100 years human activity has destroyed the earth’s nature and oceans. This is caused by the constant increase in the development of industries and also the high and rapid increase in the earth’s demography and plenty of other factors. For example every day, every month and every year huge quantities of non treated water, of oil, industrial sewage and waste flows into rivers and oceans. All these examples and other pollutants are brought into the oceans essentially by the atmosphere, rivers and marine currents. Even if there is 1’370 billions cubic metres of ocean’s water, which allows it pollution to dilute easily, there is still a major problem. In fact when there is a big ecological catastrophe it can easily spread everywhere as marine currants and so water sweeps it along. This affects a lot marine species and marine plants as they live in water and are attacked by polluting agents. There are plenty of different contaminants that leak into the oceans. We classify them into three different groups: first there is the halogen, than we have compounds containing heavy metals and finally the hydrocarbons derived from petroleum. Halogens: This group is composed of the most dangerous compounds and are POP, which means persistent organic pollutants. DDT is a pesticide mainly used in the agricultural domain. DDT is highly toxic and breaks down hardly in the water, as they are insoluble. As a result it persists in water and hardly degrades. However, they are soluble in lipids, which is an important point. (see chapter effect) PCBs are part of the same group. This contaminant is men made and is created by manufacturing companies and consumers. It is a very dangerous contaminant as it is insoluble in the water and hard to break down, as DDT. It is also only soluble in lipids. PCB is not anymore allowed to be used for a while, nevertheless there is still plenty of it in the oceans and it will still persist in them for another 30-50 years. PBDE a new pollutant, in this group, has been recently discovered, which destroys the marine life............................................................... Heavy metals: They are considered as common transition metals such as mercury, lead, copper, and zinc. However, some animals have evolved to deal with these contaminants in their tissue as some of these heavy metals can be already found in nature.

Petroleum: There are two kinds of oil pollution, the acute, which is for example an oil spilling and the chronic, which represents little amounts of oil leak. In the B.C area there is more likely chronic oil pollution, the oil accumulates in the water and slowly destroys the marine environment.

Sewage contains some of these contaminants and carry them to the ocean. It comes mostly from commercial, domestic, and industrial sources. Sewage is created by different common activities as bath water, toilet flush, laundries, kitchens, dishwashing products in which there are detergents, greases solvents and finally organic waste. There is also sewage coming from animals, vegetable and from food preparation that are sometimes thrown into an in-sink garbage.
Before being directly thrown away sewage generally have to be treated. There are two methods for sewage disposal: first they can be put underground in septic tanks or, after being treated put in a sewage treatment plant, to surface- water (river, lakes, stream and coastal outlet). Nevertheless, when septic tanks are malfunctioning or badly designed sewage will contaminate surface water, groundwater and also coastal waters. As there is a rainfall the sewage pipes tend to overflow and mixes with the storm water drain. Furthermore, even treated sewage contaminates the environment. When they are treated there is a formation of a semisolid byproduct called biosolid. This disposal is commonly named sludge. However, a lot of countries do not prohibit it, which makes the ocean to still be polluted by sludge.
In developed countries non-treated sewage continue to be discharged into opening water in harbors, bays and coastal water. Moreover developing countries, who cannot afford sewage organization, have to throw raw sewage, waste into surface water and coastal water.

Domestic pollution:

Most of the earth’s population, more precisely 60%, lives at less than 60 km of the ocean and seas coasts. This is the reason why, coastal zones are the more touched, because of the presence of human activities, which pollute a lot and in different ways. Moreover, the population is in a constant growth. In consequence, we have even more pollution than before near these sectors.

Sewage is thrown often into the ocean and because the filtration plants are rare near coastal zones, most of these sewages are not cleaned. Besides, most of the time sewage contains human dejection containing microbes. These pathogens will contaminate the oceans when the sewage leaks in it. That I will explain in the chapter ‘’effects’’ what happens then.
In addition human just throw in their sewage heavy metals, plastic, medicines, acids, diluters, detergents and waste oil. These different elements will simply reach the water via the flow of our sewage and damage the marine life in the ocean.
Floating waste: One of the biggest pollution made by domestic activity near the coasts is floating waste. Plastic or other kind of waste on the ground or floating in the water are more and more observed on beaches. A lot of animals die because of these wastes. Scientists say that 80% of these wastes come from coastal areas. These objects reach the ocean by being directly thrown into it or by being pushed by the wind or rivers. The other 20% of these wastes arrive in the water by being thrown overboard from boats and sometimes even from airplanes.
This kind of pollution is persistent for a certain time in the water and will so disappear after a certain time. However, a plastic bottle for example takes more than 4 centuries to be degraded, which leaves a long time for the pollutant to make damages. Most of these wastes are not biodegradable and remain in the water for more than 30 years.

Ports, Harbors and Marinas

One of the biggest sources of pollution in our ocean are ports. These places are constantly rebuilding and have to be constantly maintained. They receive a lot of boats, which rejects some oil and other pollutants and destroys the environment all around them. One of the activities of ports is to maintain and take care of ships by repairing or repainting them. When these factors are not properly taken into consideration they can provoke a huge environment disaster. As a consequence, these places produce chemicals, air emission, solid waste generation and disposals, that will pollute the marine environment around them.

Marinas and harbors also reject a lot of contaminants in the ocean. They pollute like ports but sometimes in different ways. Marinas are little ports, so they reject a smaller amount of pollutants. Ports, harbor and marinas emit hydrocarbons, organic waste and persistent chemicals such as PCPs, TBT, and PAHs in the marine environment. They can also be the cause of the presence of certain toxic metals, such as mercury, copper, lead, nickel, cadmium, silver and arsenic, in the ocean.

Traffic and pollution from boats:

Organic waste and sewage:

Another kind of pollutant discharge in the ocean is organic waste. These wastes are mostly rejected by small recreational vessels. These boats don’t have sewage-treatment or holding tanks. They will directly throw their wastes in the marine environment. Most of these pollutants are found near small crafts harbors as they usually have smaller vessels. Some boats that have holding tanks sometimes are not able to throw the sewage in pumping sewage correctly. As a result they throw directly raw or treated sewage in the ocean. Finally, in most of the world’s ocean there is no regulation for no-dumping zones, provoking an accumulation of wastes and sewage mostly in marinas and harbors. Furthermore, these places are not fit to receive or take sewage and wastes from boats in comparison to ports, which receive a lot of cruises and big boats.

Fuel oil : In most harbors' and marinas' waters, there is a large amount of fuel oils and lubricants. In these places there are a lot of small boats they are often old and so pollute much more than new boats. They eject fuel from their carburetors and lubricating oil as their old engines easily chock than new ones. These two pollutants can also leak into water because of over-priming. Old boats also pollute a lot as they have not changed their engines to cleaner-burning ones. In addition, when boats have to be refueled or when there is a fuel transfer, there are often hydrocarbons lost, that mostly leaks into the ocean. Finally, marinas and harbors have a large amount of fuel and lubricants in their areas, because boats start their cold engines in these places. In consequence they will more likely prime or choke. Engines of boats also reject exhausts, more precisely gasoline. Port's activities contribute to chronic oiling in the environment. There is oil spills from pipelines while the tanks are filled up or when they are emptied. Moreover, some holes where the pipelines enter are outside of the boats, the oil that leak from it, will directly flow in the water. This structured is often seen in old boats, while in new boats the hole is onboard.

IMAGE

Oil even leaks when the tank is broken or just because the tank is no longer fuel tight. Oil can also leak into the ocean while the tank is washed. In addition, often little ports are not equipped for waste disposal or even oil wastes. They will sometimes illegally mix it with the ballast water of ships, which treatment machine is not designed to handle and clean. Ballast water itself pollutes the ocean, when not clean. This is because it can carry some pathogens. Bilge water is the water that is on the deck that does not leak overboard and so goes to the bilge. This water will be cleaned and then thrown into the ocean or be thrown into the water without being treated.

Traffic: Traffic causes pollution by throwing sewage and wastes in the ocean. They are created by the routine operation of the crew on the boat. Boats also create solid wastes. They come from the exhaust of the boat’s engines. It is exactly the same kind of pollution that happen in ports, a part from certain activities such as the pollutants use for painting a boat or other kinds of activities made only in ports. All these points are what we call chronic pollution. In contrast there is also the pollutant released by boat accident. More precisely oil spills, which we call acute pollution. Each year more than one million tons are released in the ocean. A big oil tanker can carry more than 40 million liters of petroleum. Because of its fragility it has to travel near coasts and if it has to stop, he needs a stopping zone. In consequence, if there is any problem on his path it becomes a massive issue. Oil spills occur when the boat collides with something or explodes or takes fire or grounds.

Industries

Industrial pollution has been existing for years. Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, around 1800s, there has been a constant increase in production and at the same time of pollution. Industries dump their wastes such as organic, nitrogenous products or phosphoric and toxic products in waterways. The dumping of the wastes in the waterways contaminates them and as a result pollutes the water in which waterways flow. Which is even more dangerous is that some of these organic wastes are persistent and are hardly degraded.
Another reasons of pollution in the ocean caused by industries is the mixing of their wastes with groundwater (potable water) and waterways. This happens when industries do not use enough efficient spill containment to store their wastes. Because of this their waste will leak into the groundwater and waterways. Furthermore by contaminating groundwater industries pollution is as bad for us as for the marine mammal life.
Liquid waste is discharged into wastewater system, the wastes of both domestic and commercial activities are mixed together. In consequence, sewage has a high level of chemicals and heavy metals. Some waste that has been treated still contains some harmful substances. These ones will be carried into rivers and coastal waters. They will not be degraded along the travel and will contaminate the ocean.

Industries can also pollute the ocean by air. The smokestack of sulfur dioxide made by factories is released into the air and pollutes. The mixture of this air with humidity creates airborne sulfuric acid. This will produce acid rains that fall on land and water, sometimes changing the chemistry and ecosystem of a marine environment.

Agricultural pollution

There are more than 340’000 compounds synthesis that agriculture domain uses for their different activities. They use pesticides such as DDT, herbicides, fungicides and manures for their lands. All these elements will create wastes with also the waste created by animals. In addition agriculture wastes contain nitrogen, phosphorus and other nutriments. All these elements can leak into rivers, lakes, coastal waters and even into groundwater. Wastes that will leak into lakes, rivers and coastal waters will enter into the ocean and contaminate marine life. Wastes can leak also into groundwater and in conclusion alter also human health. One of the waste in the agriculture domain is made by animals. These wastes are not treated as they are made by animals. It reach waterbodies through the surface layers or by crossing the land surface via runoff. Animal waste can also reach the ocean by leaking into rivers that reach the ocean.

Noise pollution

Noise: Navigation causes a lot of noise in the water and disturbs the cetacean. Noise spreads very fast and far in the water, even more than in the air. The engines of boats create a huge amount of noise that spreads then in the water. Tanker and bulks can create sounds levels over 170 dB, while small and pleasure boats produce 145 to 160 dB. Cetaceans have an incredible hearing and can hear 10 times more than a human. Military experiments also disturb the cetacean. In fact they generally make bombs experiments in the ocean, which creates a huge noise that can disturb cetacean the same way as they are disturbed by boats' engines. Furthermore, military experiments create noise with their submarines that make exactly the same kind of noise than boats.

Sonar: Boats while working use a lot of sonar machines. In fact they use them to know the depth of the water and if there is a further obstacle in front of them. These sonar machines create waves that disturb the cetaceans that use the same kind of technique to find their food.
In the military case, submarines create a lot of waves by their sonars. However, submarines make more noise than boats without a sonar machine. Moreover, sonars (which also take in account seismic surveys) create twice more dBs than boats, as they produce 240dB. Furthermore, militaries use low frequency active (LFA) to locate, from far away, silent submarines. These emissions create low infra sounds LFA, so low that they can even kill a marine mammal in a perimeter of 200km. They can also disturb them in other many ways, that As we will see in the chapter ‘’effects’’.
We should not forget the disturbance on cetacean caused by prospecting for oil and gas, which causes disturbance to the marine life, because they emit high-pressure sound waves in the ocean down to the seabed.

Link between marin pollution and the orcas

Each organism is constituted in the same way. We are all, animals and human organized in a certain structure, with similar systems. Moreover, the origins of each of us is exactly the same. During this whole chapter on the link between orcas and marine pollution, I will present the different effects of pollutants found in studies made on various animals. We can often notice similarities between these effects, although they are different animals. I assume thanks to the resemblance of an animal organism, that if there is an effect that appears in a certain animal, it will possibly appear in orcas. As a result this chapter is composed of hypothesis on what a pollutant could create in the orca's organism, taking for example the effects of a certain pollutant on an animal. Pollutants can create plenty of different damage and even in a same specie it can create different problems. In conclusion the field of investigation is so vast that we will never be able to know precisely which damage will appear, nevertheless we know that a certain pollutant creates certain effects, and that it will be possibly fatal.

PCB: There is in everything a mixture of different kinds of toxins. One toxin can produce different types of compounds. PCB can so, when dissolved, create different kinds of toxins. Even though there has been a decrease in the amount of PCB in the water, because it has been banned in 1970, there is still a threat for long living animals like orcas. Indeed when PCB were not banned there was a lot of them in the oceans and orcas, that still live today accumulated the PCB in them. Today there is less PCB, however orcas still digest some little amount. As a result they have a lot of PCB’s in their body even today. PCB is one of the biggest amount of toxins ever found in orcas. These animals are the most contaminated ones in the world, as they contain in their blubber more than what their body should normally have. This is because they are the biggest predator in the ocean, which means they are the highest animals in the food chain. We know that PCBs can contaminate some alga and phytoplankton. If the concentration of PCB does not go higher these contaminants will be stored in them. This creates a bioaccumulation in the organism, which will then be transmitted to the other organism that eats it and so on with each organism, which is higher in the chain food. As we explained in the introduction of marine pollution. The PCB will so accumulate until it reaches the highest predator of the food chain, which in the marine environment is orcas. We can notice the same process with other toxins, such as DDT. In addition, this contaminant affects more when it is digested than when it is not, which is the case for all the toxins presented in this project.
There is a difference in the amount of PCB in the orcas depending on sex and on group. In fact females generally have less PCBs in their blubber as you can see on the image. Females orcas have less toxins in their body when they are in the period of the years where they can have calves. This is because their milk is highly composed of fat, which transmits all its toxins to the calf. As I explained before PCB are attracted to lipids and when they are in the orca's body they will tend to be stored in its fat. The calf which is highly fragile, as it is still developing its organs and immune system, is even more at risk. As a result generally the first calf of a female, which will drink the biggest amount of toxins, will die. Moreover, the mortality rate of the calves has increase, because of this process. Finally, when the female reaches the age of 40 she will no longer give birth and so the PCBs will increase in her blubber. This is the same thing for every toxin that is in the female. Males do not have the same mechanism and cannot get rid of their toxins. Afterword, there is a difference in the amount of toxins in the blubber in accordance to their group. Transient orcas contain the biggest amount because of their nutrition. Indeed, they are higher in the food chain than the resident, because they eat seals and whales. This means that they accumulate even more pollutants and PCB than the other groups. We can see that southern orcas are more affected than northern orcas. Indeed southern orcas are on average 4.4 times more contaminated by PCBs than northern ones, because of the different distribution of the two groups. In fact, this is also the case for other toxins, southern resident orcas are always mostly polluted, because they are exactly in the area where there is human activity, while northern, which are more in the north of B.C, are in areas where there is less human population. As a result of their different location, southern residential orca’s nutrition is way more polluted than the northern. To show this difference, researchers have calculated that the northern residential orcas will be at risk of PCB until 2030, while southern will be until 2060.
Image : http://www.seattlepi.com/local/69418_whale07.shtml

Moreover, contaminated salmon have less fat than before and so orcas have to eat more of them. As a result, orcas, which already eat a lot of salmons, have to eat even more, which means that they digest more PCB. They so eat twice more contaminants than what they should normally do.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/070910094122.htm

PCBs effects have been tested in laboratories on animals such as mice and monkeys by using different kinds of mixture of PCBs produced by industries and other sources. It has been observed that this toxin causes immune system damage, reproductive problems, neurological problems, cancers, and endocrine system disorders. However, there has been research with seals and it has been noticed that PCBs can weaken the immune system, cause physiology disturbance, skin disorder and reproductive problems.

In laboratories when an animal was exposed to a high chlorinated PCB his immune system was often weakened. In some subjects there was a diminution of the size of their thymus a very important gland for the immune system. The response of the immune system has been reduced. And finally a decrease in the resistance to different kinds of disease has been observe. Indeed animals contaminated by PCBs have more chance to develop pneumonia or a viral infection, than if they were not. Here we can see the similarities of the contaminants effects on different kinds of animals, as harbor seals also developed immune system problems.
PCBs have been proven to influence in a various way the reproductive system. In fact it has been observed that animals exposed to PCBs give birth to underweighted babies and the living rate of this ones was reduced. Moreover the conception rate was decreased by this exposition as for the production of sperms. These effects have been also observed with a numerous of different kinds of animals and in a population of fish highly exposed to PCBs. PCBs produce deficits in the neurological development. In fact, new borns, whose mother was exposed to PCBs, seem to have learning and recognizing problems. As we explained before the toxins were passed to the baby through the mother’s milk. Which proves that their is indeed a transmission of female orcas' toxins through the milk to their calf. Nevertheless, long exposition to PCBs can produce in an adult behavior and learning problems. This contaminant can also damage the endocrine system by decreasing the thyroids hormone level. These hormones are important for a normal growth and development, if there is a decrease in them it will create serious body problems.
Moreover PCBs can provoke cancers. There have been a lot of studies on the effects of PCB's on animals and human health to show their carcinogenicity. It has been proven that the mixture of PCBs, which is the one that bioaccumulates in fish, is the most carcinogenic. Tests were made on an organ being exposed to PCBs which created the development of a malignant melanomas in it. In consequence this toxin is considered as carcinogenic. http://www.greenfacts.org/en/pcbs/l-2/7-risks-exposure.htm
Researchers have found in belugas of the St Lawrence (in the north east of Canada) tumors, skeletal abnormalities, reproductive problems and diseases. In addition orcas are 4 to 6 times more contaminated than these belugas. These two animals even though they do not have the same nutrition are physiologically very close. As a result I deduce that if belugas contracted this different problems orcas certainly do.
All these different effects of PCB on these animals should normally be the same for orcas. Indeed why should a mouse, a monkey or a human develop something caused by this toxin and not orcas. Furthermore, orcas are even more polluted than any animal in the world, they should so be the more affected and damaged animal because of PCB.

http://www.bluevoice.org/news_issueseffects.php

http://www.orcafree.org/study/study1.html

DDT : We know that only 0.1 g of DDT per litre of water can affect the growth and the photosynthesis system of some alga and phytoplankton. DDT tends more to accumulate in the organism then to kill it. This creates a bioaccumulation in the organism, which will then be transmitted to the other organism that eats it and so on with each organism, which is higher in the food chain. The DDT will so accumulate a lot until it reaches the highest predator of the food chain as for PCBs, which in the marine environment are orcas. In addition, this contaminant affects more when it is digested than when it is not, which is the case for all the toxins presented in this project. It has been noticed that DDT becomes less toxic for some fishes where the water temperature is warmer. Moreover, this toxin degrades faster in warm water than in cold water. As a result the fishes, which are more north are the most affected ones and so transmit this to orcas. Furthermore the toxicity of the contaminant tends to be higher with big fishes. Resident orcas eat one of the biggest salmon, which is the Chinook. These salmon, notably because they are big fishes, accumulates more DDTs in the body then the other fishes, which is then digested by orcas.
DDT can be tolerated until a certain amount by organisms. Nevertheless, this tolerance has a certain limit, which depends on the weight of an organism. This tolerance is possible as DDTs will be stored into fatty organs. In fact, DDTs, like PCBs are not soluble in water but a lot in lipids, this is why we found them in regions of the body where there is a lot of fat. For orcas the DDTs will be stored in their blubber. The dissolving of this contaminant will create even more persistent contaminants, which are generally even more toxic. It has been noticed that reproductive females have less DDTs in their body than the others. The answer of this is the same as PCBs. In fact, the mother releases the toxins through her milk, which is drunk by her calf. In addition, as for PCBs the concentration of DDT is dependent on the orca's group and sex. The group, which is the most contaminated, is the transient then the southern resident and last the northern resident. The explanation of this variation is the same as the one for PCBs.

DDT can create as PCB’s reproductive, development, immune system and neurological problems. Moreover it has been discovered that is also disturbs the endocrine system and so the hormones.
It has been seen on mouses, that when they eat a big amount of DDT, it can bring sterility, disruption of the oestrus cycle and a decrease of the foetal weight. There has also been observation in harbour seals, which contained a huge amount of DDT, that there was a decline in birth rate and changes in the uterine tissue. ( SEE BOOK) All of these results can also be explained by the disturbance of the endocrine system.
DDT currently disturbs the nerve cells of an organism. Cells are protected by a plasma membrane, which is mainly builT by lipids. As DDTs are soluble in lipids they will pass through the cell’s plasma and enter in it. By passing into it DDTs will leave a tiny hole in it. This hole will be big enough to make the cell leak from the inside and so it will die. Moreover, for nerve cells, where the balance between Na+ in the plasma and the K+ outside of the cell is important for the transmission of an impulse, will no more work. Research has shown that when an organism has DDT in his body it more commonly develops cancer, as tumor in the liver and lungs. It can also create kidney problems. Indeed kidneys is important for the purification of the blood, from all the toxins, which can be in it. If the kidneys do not work anymore the blood is not detoxified anymore and kills the organism slowly.
It has also been observe that DDT can be genotoxic and creates chromosomal damages. However, there has been no observation of mutation, which could have been cause by this toxin. Despite all these effects on animals, there has been the development of resistance in insects. So they have evolve to resist the DDT and are no more killed by it. This shows that an organism can start to be resistant to this contaminant and be used to it. However, there is a huge amount of insects, which have an extremely short life and so there evolution can be rapid. In contrast orcas have longevity, which is quite long and a low birth rate, preventing them from rapid evolution. In conclusion they will have no time to evolve, before their extinction.

Organization of my trip to Vancouver

When I was 12 I made a trip to the côte d’azur with the Swiss cetacean organization. I travelled on a boat for one week to observe whales and dolphins. Later on, when I decided to work on a project based on orcas I called the organization to see if they could help. I went to Lausanne to meet the director of this organization, Mr. Bourcoud. He explained to me that if I wanted I could follow a week-end course at the EPFL on cetaceans and even go to work with researchers as a volunteer in the South of France. I was really looking forward for the course and accepted to follow it, but I was not sure for the volunteer work. I wanted absolutely to work on orcas, and south of France was not the best place to observe these animals. For a year I did not try to go further in my research, because I had a lot of time ahead of me. However, did not stop thinking on an issue as I still did not have one. Finally, in second degree in high school we worked a lot on pollution and in particular on the Exxon case. I felt concerned with this and was shocked to see how much pollutants destroy marine life. So this was the beginning of my project. When I had to officially work on my travail the maturité I was in 3 degree and decided to contact M. Max-Olivier Bourcoud again. I explained to him that I had finally found an issue and wanted to meet him. We met and talked about my work. He gave me books telling me I should be careful with them, because they belong to the association and normally they do not lend books. We discussed about me going to a research centre specialized on orcas and he told me at the end of the meeting that he would get in touch with me as soon as he would have contacts for me. At that moment I decided to go to Vancouver and find a volunteer work during in july. I went back to Lausanne a few times, to take for example a software called mind manager that would help me organize my work. After a while he wrote me an e-mail giving the names of important organization doing research on orcas and different important biologists in the domain. He asked me to go on a website of an important organization call Straitwatch. They organize big trips with researchers that need volunteers or students. I tried to find an expedition based on orcas, but unfortunately this year they did not organize any in the field of orcas.
Therefore, I began writing to researchers directly for months. First I contacted Kenneth C. Balcomb a well-known orca researcher. I wrote him an e-mail in which I presented myself, my project and asked him if he could take me as a volunteer in his team. I then contacted other marine biologists also requesting them whether or not I would be able to join their respective teams. Afterwards I called the University of British Colombia and Greenpeace to find out whether or not I would be able to apply for volunteer work relating to marine biology, specializing in orcas. Problems arose due to the time difference but I was able to work around it. Greenpeace did not have any information, nevertheless the university of B.C told me to call Dr. Lance-Berret, a well known marine biologist, specialized in orcas, working for the Vancouver aquarium. As a result I decided to contact him by e-mail. His secretary, Meghan Mckillop, answered and informed me that Dr Lance-Berret was, during summer, in Johnston Strait or in Alaska and did not take any students or volunteer staff for his team. Seeing as it took a long time to receive the information which I needed, I decided to call him directly. I asked if I could meet and have an interview with him, even if he would not hire me. Dr Lance-Berret replied that, if I were in Vancouver he would be delighted to meet me. I was advised, by the secretary, to volunteer at the Vancouver aquarium. I declined as I still wanted to search for work dealing mainly with orcas. I also contacted Orcalab an organization, led by Dr.Spong, found in San Juan island, which is near Vancouver Island. As time passed, I still had not found a job and July, the day, when I would be traveling to Vancouver, was approaching. Therefore, I increased my efforts and contacted many other organizations and specialists like Dr.Ford and Linda Nichol. Most of them replied that they were not hiring or that I was too young or inexperienced. Finally I decided to look back into the idea of working at the Vancouver aquarium. I found out that I would be working as a part of their voluntary team, with marine mammals, specifically with harbour seals. I thought this was a great opportunity as I would be working in the rescue center, in which they receive ill or abandoned seals. This opportunity would allow me to observe the different effects of pollution on orcas and other animals, which I would be taking care of. As it was an excellent offer I accepted the position as a volunteer worker. In addition I was excited to get to know and meet people who had the experience, knowledge and who could teach me more about orcas and other species. In order to apply for the position, I contacted Meghan Mckillop again and she informed me to speak to Lindsay Akhurst, one of the leading members in the volunteer corps. Through her I was able to find a position in the team, at the Vancouver aquarium, in the marine mammal rescue centre. I bought the tickets for Vancouver for the first of July returning on the 2 of August. Finally my mother contacted an organization program that had families who welcomed students to their house. I registered and I was able to live with the Wang family, who came to pick me up at Vancouver airport.

Vancouver

When I arrived at Vancouver I was picked up by my home stay family. They brought me to their house and welcomed me for the month. They helped me to find how to go to my work telling me I should be careful, because I had to go through the worst neighborhood in Vancouver. The first day I went to work it took me 20 minutes by bus, but that was the last time I took the bus by that way as the neighborhood did not at all reassure me at all. So fond another way to get to work, but it was taken me 45 minutes. When I arrived at the centre all the volunteers and vets welcomed me and explained to me what I had to do. However, I had learned the bases of my work as I had read a file on the rules and work at the marine mammal rescue centre.

So I worked in a marine mammal rescue centre for the Vancouver aquarium.This centre was founded to receive and rescue marine mammals. I personally worked mostly with premature seals. Each day I had to be at my work at 7 o’clock. The seals were fed each morning at 7:30 and we had to be on time. We had to prepare milk miltrex for the youngest pups, which is a mixture of flour, salmon oil, water and vitamins and which looks like orange, thick milk. This milk miltrex is made to replace the seals mother one, nevertheless the mother’s milk is always better. We also had to prepare fish as the healthiest and older pups eat fish. We prepared the tubes and syringes that we used to feed the pups. We then put the tubes into a hot water bucket so that when the vet inserts them into the seals stomach it slides easily inside the oesophagus. We had two vets and two volunteers that generally fed the animal. The vet put the tube into the seal’s stomach and the volunteer use the syringe to pushe the milk miltrex in the tube and inside the stomach. Sometimes it was hard to do, because the seal did not want to swallow the tube and started to move a lot. We then cleaned the tub, weighted the seals, cleaned their wounds and looked after them if they were sick until we had to feed them again. My scheduled finished at 11 o’clock each day, but generally I left work around 2 o’clock. I liked to work there and look after the seals, there was always something to do. In the centre they also had a porpoise, whose name is Daisy, which is the smallest dolphin in the world. I was allowed to play with her if I wanted to, but if I went to see the seals, I could not go to see her anymore during the day. The reason for this is, because she was in quarantine and that the sick pups could transmit her bacteria. I so went to see her each morning before going to work with the seals. We did not prepare food for her as the aquarium sends someone to feed her each day and to train her. In fact unfortunately she was doomed to live in the aquarium, because as she was found when she was premature and so never learn how to live in the wild, she could not go back into the ocean, where she belongs to.

At work I was able to meet plenty of people that were specialized in the field of marine biology. In particular, I met Jeremy Fitz-Gibbon, who spent 30 years hunting, training orcas and working in marine biology. He showed me movies of orca that he took and we discussed an entire afternoon about his experience. He gave me some contacts like Dr.Ross and Dr.Roverty. He told me that if I wanted to watch orcas I should go to Port Hardy where one of his friend had a boat and organized killer whale watching tours. When I went back home that day I tried to figure out how to go to Port Hardy. It is a small city way up north on Vancouver island. I had to take the boat and a bus and finally a taxi for the last 50 km. In addition, I had to pay a hotel and I figure out how much it would cost me, then I realized it was quite expensive! Moreover, I was alone, a 17 year old girl, and Port Hardy was in the middle of nowhere. This was adventure!. Unfortunately, due to my situation and the cost of the journey, I had to decide to drop this opportunity.

However I called Dr. Ross and asked him if we could meet. He lived on Vancouver Island, in Victoria and was from Quebec, like my parents. He told me that we could meet in Victoria whenever I wanted and I would be able to ask him lots of questions. Later on, I discussed with Lindsay and told her I wanted to watch orcas, but could not find a place where to go. She told me that she knew a friend of hers, named Anna Hall that worked for the prince of whales watching. Anna was a biologist working in Victoria, and was writing a PhD on porpoises. I called her and asked if she could take me with her to watch orcas. I also asked if she knew a place where I could stay in Victoria. She accepted and answered that I could stay at her place. She told me then, that she could take me freely on the boat if it was not full. However, the risk was that, I had to wait until 5 minutes before the departure to know if I could go, because I could not make a reservation, if I did not pay. I started to plan my 2 days in Victoria, finding a date where I would be able to see Anna and Dr. Ross When I found it, I bought myself tickets to go to Vancouver Island and notified my work, that I would not be there for 2 days. A week later I took the boat and arrived in Victoria. The boat was full so I could not watch the whales that day. While I was waiting for her I visited the city and met Dr. Ross. We talked together about pollution for an hour. (see interview nb°1) Afterword a biology student working on a master and a man working for the fisheries department arrived. Dr.Ross had to meet them to talk about the master. He invited me to stay if I wanted to. Because Anna was not coming back immediately from her work, I stayed. When Anna came back we went to her house and I spent a long time talking with her and her husband about her PhD, their marine activities, my project and other things. The next day I was able to go with Anna to the ocean.

The morning we went to refuel the boat for the day. The amount was 1100 litres, which is a huge amount of petroleum. IMAGE Anna told me that they fueled the boat each day. I felt quite weird, because I was doing a project against pollution that destroys orcas life and I was still, myself, polluting to see them. We went back to the harbor where we picked up the tourists. Anna told me that I was allowed to go with her in the cabin, if I was cold or just to stay with her. When we went out to the ocean she explained to me how she would find the cetaceans. Each day she reported in a book where she saw them and when. She often had contacts and discussed with the other whale watching boats to find out where the cetaceans were. I was there when she contacted or they contacted her by radio to get some information. Anna explained to me that they located generally grey whales or orcas easily, however sometimes they could just not find them. Moreover sometimes the visibility was disgusting due to fog or rain. Nevertheless, the day I went out in the ocean it was shuny without a cloud in the sky. She hoped that she would be able to find orcas for me that day. After 20 minutes Anna received information that there was a group of orcas traveling near the area we were. I was finally able to see them. I started to take binoculars and watch them. I could see in approximately 6 of them, although I learn later on that they were actually near 40 of them in the water. When I went out, I met one of the crew staff. Her name was Marie O'Shaughnessy. She told me that she was a nurse but worked as a volunteer for the whale watching organization. She was very keen on marine animals and had a huge camera. She was a great photographer and very good in finding out which group we observed. I started to take photos with a digital camera. She also gave me a book containing pictures of the dorsal fin and saddle of each orca from a certain group. This allowed me to compare my photos with those in the book and find out which orca I had taken in photo. I was able to determine that the orca on my photo was called Capuccino and that I was observing the K pod, that is part of the southern resident group. Yet, Marie told me that there was also the J pod. In fact, sometimes while traveling groups join. I was also able to observe 2 baby orcas, from the J pod born near January and February.

It was so tiny in comparison to the other orcas. It was also impressive to see the difference between the female’s dorsal fin and the male’s one. In fact the male’s dorsal fin was as twice as the female’s one, which as a result made it easy to distinguish the two of them. We followed the southern resident group for an hour, as they were traveling. For me the hour passed like a flash. While looking at them, the crew staff presented to the passengers what was an orca. Anna had lent me a coat and the whale watching cap, which, made some people believe that I was part of the staff. They asked me questions on orcas and I was able to answere since I had worked on these cetacean for months. Later on we went back to the harbor, the tourists went away and new ones came on board. Fortunately, I was able to go again with Anna out in the ocean. We went back to observe this time only the J group. This time we observed them near the coast of the San Juan Island on the USA borders. Moreover, we followed them while they were hunting. Unfortunately, they were doing it under water because they were hunting fish. I could not watch how they hunt. However I noticed that while hunting orcas were also playing. What I mean is that they were more jumping and making gestures with their tails than when they were traveling. Anna explained to me that, while traveling orcas were in a kind of sleeping state, while when they hunt they are fully awaken and generally play a lot. At the end of the day, I thanked Anna for her huge hospitality and hurried to get off the boat, as I had to take the bus to go back to Vancouver.

During my month in Vancouver, I called Dr.Lance Barrett-Lennard in order to organize an appointment with him. We met at the aquarium which I was not really keen of. In fact, while I worked at the rescue centre, the other volunteers did not stop telling me that the aquarium was one of the most beautiful ones in North America and that I should go and visit it. In spite of their advise and that I was working for the aquarium, I did not. The reason why, is because the Aquarium has 4 belugas. I am against whales in aquariums, as a pool is not an environment for such a big animal. Of course it is not like marinelands, such things should not even exist, but it is still in the same concept. However, I still went to the aquarium to meet Dr. Berrett-Lennard. While waiting for him I went to see the fish part and seals, which came from the rescue centre and could not be rehabilitated in the wild. Nevertheless, I refused to go to see the belugas. Dr. Barrett-Lennard arrived and we discussed in his office. He helped me a lot and made me think about solution for my issues. He notably showed me orca bones and explained to me that the aquarium had plenty of them, brought by people, who find them on the beach. He also showed me the skull of the last aquarium’s orca and an orca’s ear bone. This was my last meeting with a researcher as I left Vancouver soon after.

Back home

• assembling the data
• main conclusions
• still some open questions...
• solutions for orcas protection

Conclusion

• propose solutions to solve the problem
• propose several directions for this work to be continued in a longer and larger perspective
• personal thinking (personal level, future studies for you???)

Interviews

Good start but there is still a lot to do. I would definitively talk about YOUR EXPERIENCE in Vancouver. This is UNIQUE... and you have done so much to be able to go there that now you MUST talk about it. For what reasons did you go there? What did you do? What was your mission? What did you learn there? At the same time, you should insert all the theoretical points describe above so your discussion is not only based on personal points but on strong scientific data. OK?--Pierre.brawand 26 août 2009 à 21:28 (UTC)

References

Dolphin Societies, discoveries and puzzles, edited by Karen Pryor and Kenneth S.Norris
The Ecology of whales and dolphins, edited by D.E.Gaskin
http://www.seaworld.org/infobooks/KillerWhale/home.html http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2006/03/marine-pollution-how-ocean-became-toxic-waste-dump http://www.seaworld.org/animal-info/info-books/killer-whale/communication.htm http://videos.howstuffworks.com/animal-planet/27912-a-man-among-orcas-orca-matriarch-video.htm

be careful not to loose the references...--Pierre.brawand 26 août 2009 à 21:28 (UTC) http://www.baleinesendirect.net/FSC.html?sct=1&pag=1-3-2-5.html http://www.seaworld.org/animal-info/info-books/killer-whale/habitat-&-distribution.htm