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

Introduction

Few years ago I decided I wanted to make a 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, aslo call killer whales are huge and intelligent hunters. They are part of the biggest carnivorous on earth and the most cunning of all. At the beginning of my project I wanted to work 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 concern orcas. This is when we started to study a bit pollution in geography class. We did not talk a lot about pollution and very few 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 a lot dealing with for a few years and than has become a sensitive domain as we try to find solutions to it. 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 cause by human activities and also affects our health. One of the most contaminated and unknown effects areas on earth is the marine environment. A lot of pollutants are thrown or licks 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 licks into rivers until it flows into the marine environment. This means that each country on earth contaminates the ocean and so that we are all concern 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 contaminates 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 more pollutants accumulate in the animal’s body and more the animal will be affected. In other words more the animal is situated in a high level of the chain food, 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 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 to 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 have 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 a work in a research project dealing with orcas. By doing this I could do my own observation on the animal and have some experience in a marine biology domain. It could help me understand what is happening and have a direct contact with researcher who have been working with orcas for years and may have seen a change in orca behaviour and life.
In the first section of this work I will present what is an orca and what kind of pollution is affecting marine life. I will then explain how I fond a job in Vancouver and talk about my staythere. Then with all the information I have accumulated thanks to books and interviews I made with biologists specialized on orcas or on marine pollution will write about how does pollution affects orcas. After coming back from Vancouver I have made plenty of deduction and I will talk about them to finally make a conclusion to this work.

Background

Description of the Orca

• characteristics (size, nutrition, living in pods, reproduction

Description of marine pollution

• blabla

Link between marin pollution and the orcas

• not an answer here...just the idea that orcas are in danger due to pollution
• in order to answer to this: trip to Vancouver

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, call 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 for the volunteer work, I said I was not sure. I wanted absolutely to work on orcas, and south 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 find one. Finally, in second degree in high school we worked a lot on pollution in particular on the Exxon case. I felt concerned of 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 maturity essay I was in 3 degree and decided to contact M. Max-Olivier Bourcoud again. I explained to him that I finally found an issue and wanted to meet him. He gave me his phone number, asking me to contact him that way. 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 july. I went back to Lausanne a few times, to take for example a software program called mind manager that will 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 searchers that needed volunteers or students with them. I tried to find an expedition based on orcas, but unfortunately this year they did not organize any in the domain 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 was 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 with 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 to the 2 of august. Finally my mum contacted an organization program that had families who welcomed students to their house. We inscribe me and I was able to live with the family Wang, who came to pick me up at the Vancouver aereport.

Vancouver

description of your arrival in Vancouver...--Pierre.brawand 14 septembre 2009 à 14:51 (UTC)

When I arrived at Vancouver I was pick up by my famille d'acceuil 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 trough the worst neighbourhood of 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 nieghbourhood did not at all reassure me. I so fond an other to reach my work, but this time took me 45 minutes. When arrived at the centre all the volunteers and vets welcomed me and explained 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.

I so worked in a marine mammal rescue centre for the Vancouver aquarium.This centre was founded to receive and rescue marine mammals. I personaly worked mostly with prematured 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 miltrexd for the youngest pups, which is a mixture of flower, salmon oil, water and vitamins and lookes like orange, thick milk. This milk miltrex is 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 in 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 animals. 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 th 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 prematured and so never learnes how to live in the wild, she could not go back into the ocean, where she belongs to.

• day by day organisation:

• what was your main occupation there
• description of a typical work day in Vancouver

• interviews: main results obtained in order to answer to your question
• whale watching
• Vancouver aquarium in Stanley Park

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???)

Classification: Orcas, Orcinus orca

In common life we give the names of animal according to our own language. However we use a system call binomial nomenclature to have no mal entendu between scientific coming from different language. This is why we use a a scientific language to give names to animals. The binomial nomenclature uses 3 laws. First we say the genus and the specie of the animal in Latin. When we write the scientific name of the animal the first letter of the genus is written in uppercase letter and the hall name is written in italic. The scientific name of the killer whale is Orcinus orca. Each animal is classified in a specify way according to there characteristics. We use for this a system call hierarchic classification. not necessary to explain binomial nomenclature... Go straight to the point... there are two kinds of whales... blablabla... OK? Among them, the Orca (Orcinus orca), blablabla OK? --Pierre.brawand 26 août 2009 à 21:21 (UTC)
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

Here you should think about having a good picture showing an Orca. Your description could then be done according to the Figure... easier for the reader to understand and realize what you are explaining. OK?--Pierre.brawand 26 août 2009 à 21:21 (UTC)

The Orcas as often been merged with whales because of his extraordinary size. However Orcas are the biggest ever known dolphins. There other name killer whale can also bring confusion of there real origins which are dolphins.
The size of an orca changes choosing it's sex and also it's geographic location.
Size:

• Male:

When a male orca reaches it's maturity, it can be 9.8 m long. It wises in average 3.6 and 5.5 tone, it can even wise 11t. The back, codal and pectoral fin can be in average 2 meter.

• Female:

When a male orca reaches it's maturity, it can be between 5 and 7.7 meter long. It wises in average an1.3 and 3.6 tone, it can even wise 7.4t. The back, codal and pectoral fin can be in average

• The young:

At the birth the the young measures between 1.8 to 2.7 choosing it's location birth. The weight of the new born is in average 180 kg.

Coloration:
We can easily recognize an Orca because of his distinctive corporal black and white pigmentation. He has a white oval pigmentation just behind his two eyes call the eye patch. His dorsal and pectorals flippers are black.On the buttom of the animal his body is white and elongates itself between his pectoral flippers and his fluke. In addition orcas have each of them a distinct grey stain behind their dorsal fin. This stain is call the saddle and has different kind of forms chosing the individu. Reaserchers use the saddle to recognise an individu from a group. While I was on a whale watching boat I made photos of orcas. On the boat I was able to have a book in which there is the photo of the dorsal fin and saddle of each orca from a certain group. This permitted me to compare my photos we those and find out which orca I had taken a photo of. I could so determin that the orca on this photo is call capucino and that I was observing the K pod, who is part of the southern residential group.

Body shape: Orcas have an elongated body that permit them to easily swim fast in the ocean. This shape is comon for dulphins and also similar to whales. However killer whales have been built for hunting as all the other dulphins. This is why they are much smaller than wahles and have a more sharp body.

Habitation and Distribution

Again here... maybe if you find a map showing where those animals live... that would be great! Otherwise, concentrate your explanation on the populations living in the Puget Sound and in Vancouver.--Pierre.brawand 26 août 2009 à 21:21 (UTC)

The different species

Careful here... are you talking about different "groups" or about different "species"? Animals from different species cannot reproduce...--Pierre.brawand 26 août 2009 à 21:21 (UTC) It is quite hard to regroup the different kind of killer wahles groups as their names and the groups change chosing which part of the world they can be found. For example in British columbia where I have work for the marine mammal rescue and observes orcas their are 3 kinds of groups.

• The residents killer whales: This groups is seperated into two communities call the southern resudent, which is composed of 81 induvuduals and the northern resident, which is composed of 172 individuals. The residential group is seperated in two because the northern lives in the north of the B.C area while the southern lives in the south. It is important to know that these two goups never intersept or have any contacts together.In addition of this seperation of 2 groups theirself are seperated into pods. The J,k and L pod for the southern reseidential group and i will not name all the northern pods as they are an amount of sixteen pods.

• Transient killer whales is a groups call transient because we less see them in the area of the B.C during the year. However we can still observ them in these regions. This groups is composed of 79 individuals and is seperated into 30 pods. They are in conclusion less than the residential group. One of the reason why is because they mainly eat mairne mammal, which is not the case of the residential groups. We will more explain this in the chapter of nutrition. The transient groups travels in the area of both southern and northern resident, but never interact socially with them. However as I discussed with M..., who worked in the marine mammal rescue with me and who hade pass more than 25 years catching, coaching and observing orcas, he told me that ons there had been an observation of residents killer wahles attaking a southern resident killer whale. Neverthless this is the only time we observed it.

However you have to be carfull with the name of resident and transient, because the resident are not less transiant in the area of B.C than the so call transient group. In fact most of the time the resident do not stay much more longer than the transient orcas in the B.C area. However we still call them this way because researchers start it this way and will not change it. For shure what seperates the transient to the reident group is their nutrition.

• The Off-shore killer whales is a newly known groups. We know really few of it, a part from the fact that they live off shore and that they never come to costs.

However there exist many different groups depending on their distribution and their nutrition.In Nowhere there exist two kinds of orcas the inshore and the ofshore . These two groups are dinstinct by their nutrition. The ofshore eat in generally marine mammals while the inshore eat more fish. There is also different groups in alaska, but some groups are not realy well known as we are not aible to observe them a lot.

Location:

Figure or Map?--Pierre.brawand 26 août 2009 à 21:21 (UTC)

• North Atlantic
• North Pacific
• South hemisphere

http://www.orcaresearch.org/akwic.htm

Adaptation to this middle

middle? are you sure that this is the right term in English...? ;-)--Pierre.brawand 26 août 2009 à 21:22 (UTC)

Nutrition

Orcas are one of the biggest predator in the world. There shape, there teeth are specially fit for hunting. There exist different groups of orcas who eat different nutrition. As we said many times before there exists different groups, which are all blood relatives and have their own language. An other element that differentiates these groups is nutrition. These animals nutrition depends on their behavior, group and location.

In Nowere there exist two groups the inshore and the offshore. During years the searchers noticed, by looking in orca’s stomach and by observation that there was really two different groups defined by their nutrition. The first one, inshore, eat 89.7% marin mammals, 7.1% squid and 3.2% fish. These groups are consisted of 10 to 15 individuals. Their number is in taken account of their hunting strategy. This group is consisted of the most dangerous predator, as it can even attack blue whales and hunt a human thinking it is a seal. The offshore orcas eat 98.5% fishes, 1.1% squid and finally 0.4% marine mammals.

In the British Columbia area there are 3 groups: The resident, the tranisent and the offshore. These groups have also been distinguish because of their nutrition. The nutrition of orcas can also be defined by their age and sex. Generally the older males will more eat big prays and the one that are the harder to hunt as they have more experience of hunting than the young orcas.

In conclusion you can see that orcas have a variable nutrition and are always the highest level in the chain food. This will bring consequence on their living,cause by pollution and that we will explain in the chapter effects.

The nutrition paragraph is too short. Maybe one important is the fact that the Orcas is a SUPER predator... on the top of the food chain... That might be a good way to introduce the impact of pollution.--Pierre.brawand 26 août 2009 à 21:21 (UTC)

Reproduction

The Orcas have a close reproduction mode to the non aquatic mammals and including ours.

not enough... other don't mention it.--Pierre.brawand 26 août 2009 à 21:21 (UTC)

Spatial and behavior structure

During expedition we can observe that dolphins member and so Orcas are structured as a herd. This point is ESSENTIAL. Orcas live in groups... those groups are well structured with a very important and defined hierarchy. This is definitevely very important.--Pierre.brawand 26 août 2009 à 21:21 (UTC)In fact these animals stay in group together and stay closer to each other than to an animal from an other group. 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. These dominant member observed the area for potential danger or investigates 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 of the others to watch for inshore areas or danger. When there is a danger the animals immediately regroups there self in a packed group with the youngest in the middle protected by the other members. There movement are synchronize and in harmony. The group structure of orcas allows them a good use of the space around them as for hunting in several different conditions.

==> protection of the baby

I was aible to observe while I was on a boat the traveling of orcas, how they are distribute and how they act. The fact is I could notice some of the poits explain just before. In fact while we knew there was in the water 45 orcas we were aible to see only 9 of them. First because some were in the water and came out after other ones went back to the water. Second for sure some of the orcas were way beyond the group which we explained why just before. Than there was two important orcas of the group, the central mother, who is the older female of the group and her older son who was always next to her. Finaly I was aible to see that these two important orcas were often in front of the group or next to the new born baby with his mother. While they travel orcas do not react a lot with their surroudings a part from the fact that they try to find food. As we explained before orcas will find food by using their .................................................................

+ Herd = family !

Communication

Sounds for marine mammals is very important,as in water the visibility is greatly limited. Even though killer whales have a good vision in water, can see below and above it 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 killer whales are no more limited by these limitations. Killer whales use sounds to naviguate,locate their preys and to communicate with each other.What's special with these mammals is that each group has his own languange which is more communly call dialect.Thanks to these different dialects we can sometimes recombine the family tree find the lien de parenter between them. The sounds orcas produce is a mixter of whistles, poulsed calls,echolocation clicks,jaw claps and low-frequency pops. These sounds are variable in their volume, pattern and wave length.
Orcas in contrast to human do not have vocal cords. The sounds made by them is produce in the blowhole region. It is made by a movement of air between the nasal sacs. More presicely the orca will force air to go trough the nasa passage, which will reach the phonic lips. This action will make vibrate the tissue surrounding the phonic lips call the dorsal bursa.
Orcas communicate also with thei body. They can show their joy or other state of mind by jumping, breaching, pec-slapping, head butting,jaw-snapping and by lot of other gestures.

While I observed orcas I saw that they more likely jump and play when they are chasing. In fact I saw them during two diferent states: traveling and chasing. Unfortunately for me I was observing a south resident group, I am saying this because these animals eat fish, I was so unable to see their technic because it was underwater. If it would have been resident orcas I cold have seen them chase seal and at that moment it would have been on the beach. So, I was saying that I observed them and saw that they more likely jump and play when they hunt than when they travel.

Identification

Searchers mostly identifiy orcas by observing specific characteristic on one individu]]. Some of these specific characteristic are natural marking that we can find on the animal dorsal fins or marks all around the body. This identification is the most used as it is the easiest technic to recognise an individu.

Pollution

The pollution part should be introduced. Why did you decide to focus on pollution and on its effects on Orcas. Then of course you have to explain the nature of pollution by itself, blablabla, and then explain the consequences that pollution has on Orcas. OK?--Pierre.brawand 26 août 2009 à 21:24 (UTC)We are dealing here with the marine pollution. In fact orcas live in ocean and are influence by the pollution which is taken place in oceans. 71% of the earth surface is occupied by water and 97% of this water is found in ocean. On earth we have 5 million animals and plants. Even though only 5% of these animals and plants live in the ocean, because of the so important place water has on our blue earth we are touch and cetacean even more than us by the marine pollution, which is increasing. Pollution is a big factor in the degradation on earth’s water health. It is fluent and can quickly extend as it print itself in the water and cannot after be clean. This is a great problem as it also causes diseases and when the pollution is chemical it prints itself in plants which pollute each animal that eats them.

Let’s start by the beginning of food chain. First in the marine’s food chain starts with the phytoplankton (plant plankton). This miniscule plants absorb the sun’s rays which are use to make photosynthesis and thus to produce energy. They are the energy resource of the entire living animal, this is why they at the beginning of the food chain. In addition the phytoplankton represents a huge mass of the vegetal spicy thus it is the regulator of the earth’s oxygen. They allow us to live and breathe. 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’s live. We than, have the Krill, which is in the second place in the food chain.-., This zooplankton is bunch of very small and tiny shrimps which are 3 to 7 cm long. All together they can weight 500 million tones 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 so 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 whales a fanon, of most fishes, also of some penguins and finally of some squid.This is one of the only example on earth were only one nutrition exists for so many species and which shows us how important they are and how big the impact on the marine worlds would it have if there was no more krill and zooplankton. In addition we can see that the krill is fragile and if the pollution kills it all the cetacean, fishes and other ocean mammals will disappear with it.

Different kinds of pollution: Our earth is a fragile matiere and can be easily degradated by anything as pollution. During these last 100 years the 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 of the earth’s demography and plenty of other factors. For example every day, every month and every year huge quantity of use water not treated, of oil, industriel rejet and déchets. All these examples and other pollutants are brought in the oceans essentially by the atmosphere, rivers and marin corents. Even tgou there is 1’370 milliards metre cube of ocean’s water, which permits it to diluate easily pollution, they is still a major problem. In fact when there is a big ecological catastrophe it can easily spread everywhere as marin corants and so water l’emporte. This affects a lot of marine species and marine plants as they live in water and are attacked by the pollutants agent. Pollution kills each day a lot of marine animals or living in the oceans and this is, for most of the factors, or fault. Each country pollutes oceans at different levels and by a certain way. Domestic pollution: Most of the earth’s population, more precisely 60%, lives at less than 60 km of the ocean and seas costs. This results to the reason why, the zone mostly touch by pollution, are the cost zones. In fact because of the presents of human activity as we explained before pollutes a lot and by different ways. In addition this population is in a constant growth which makes that we are having even more than before pollution near these sectors. One of the reasons of these results is the sewages.

---

New resent research has prove that the antartic’s orcas are the most polluted animals in the Antartic. The amount of chemical pollutant as BCP, the pesticides and the brominated retarders of flame in their graisse is huge. One of the most dangerous pollutants comes from fire retardants which is the deca-BDE. In addition in contrary to the BCP and the pesticides, it is not forbidden, so they are constantly . This pollutant can cause central nervous system disorders, behavioral and reproductive to animals. The daily life contaminates the marines faun. Pollutants are not directly brought by human to the animal but taken around the ocean by different marine and air currents. The amount of pollutants in the artic is huge. The reason for this amount it that the winters in the artic are long and dark and the low temperatures empeche the degradation of pollutant ones they have been fixed in the soil’s and water’s artic.

Ports, Harbours and Marinas

One of the biggest sources of pollution in our ocean is ports. These places are constantly rebuilding themselves and have to be constantly maintained. They receive million of boats, which fuels a lot and destroys the environment all around them. The port has to maintain and take care of some ships by repairing and repainting them. When these factors are not properly measured they can occur to a huge environment disaster. In consequence, these places products chemical storage, air emission, solid waste generation and disposals, that will pollute the marine environment around them.

In addition of ports marinas and harbors also reject a lot of contaminants in the ocean. They also pollute as ports but sometime in different ways. Marinas are little ports, they will so reject a smallest amount of pollutants. Harbors also pollute the ocean with some identical pollutants than ports and marinas. Marinas and harbors are smallest sources of pollutants than ports. They emit, in the marine environment, hydrocarbons, organic waste and persistent chemicals such as PCPs, TBT, and PAHs. 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.

Industries

The industry pollution exists since years. However since the industry revolution happened, around 1800s, there is a constant increase in production and at the same time of pollution. Most of the pollution made by industries comes from the use of some fuels like coal. However in our case we are more interest in the pollution that industries cause in the ocean. This happens because industries dump their wastes such as organic, nitrogenous products or phosphoric and toxic products in waterways. However choosing the type of industry, its type of treated water, its waste water management, the characteristic and quantity of the waste water cause by the industries changes. The dumping of the wastes in the waterways contaminates them and will than contaminate the water in which waterways flow. Which is even more dangerous is that some of these organic wastes are persistent and hardly degraded.
One of the other reasons of pollution in the ocean cause by industries is the mixing of their wastes with groundwater (potable water) and waterways. This happens when industries do not use enough efficient containment in which they 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 than the marine mammal life.
Industries make two kinds of wastes: liquid and solid. They take rid of liquid wastes by throwing it into wastewater systems. When they have solid waste they discharged it in landfills. Furthermore because liquid waste is discharged into wastewater system, the wastes of 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 bad substance. These ones will be carried into rivers and coastal water. They will not be degraded during the travel and will contaminate the ocean. These chemicals substance can also reach the ocean and pollutes it via pipeline discharged. They can also be discharged accidentally by a boat accident that was caring them and also by leaking underground storage tanks.
Searchers can find chemicals made by pollution and other pollutant product by the industries in ice cores. These ice cores are taken from Antarctica and the arctic, which show us how far pollutant can travel in the ocean and how high industry’s pollutants are in the ocean. Sewage comes mostly from commercial, domestic, and industrial sources. Sewage comes from different water that we use for our common days activity: bath water, toilet flushing, laundries, from kitchens, dishwashing in which there is detergents, greases solvent and finally organic waste. There is also sewage coming from animals, vegetable and from food preparation that are sometimes throw into an in-sink garbage.
Before being directly throw away sewage generally have to be treated. There are two methods for sewage discharged: first they can be put underground after treatment in septic tanks or, after being treated in a sewage treatment plant, to surface- water bodies (river, lakes, stream and coastal outlet). Nevertheless when septic tanks are malfunctioning or badly designed sewage will contaminates surface water, groundwater and also coastal waters. Furthermore even treated sewage contaminates the environment. When sewages are treated in sewage treatment plants there is a formation of a semisolid byproduct called biosolid. This disposal is commonly named sludge. During a certain time most of American’s coastal sewage treatment plant discharged the treated sewage into the ocean. However this contaminates most of the marine environment around the discharging and produces disease-causing microbes. The government had even to prohibit some beach in which the water was too much contaminated. In consequence America prohibited any sludge into the ocean. However a lot of countries do not prohibit it, which makes that the ocean is still polluted by sludge.
Nevertheless not all of the sewage are treated before being discharged. In addition the infrastructure and organization of the sewage are sometime quiet bad and leak. In addition there can have malfunctions or inundation cause by storm water which makes lots of problems. Explanation in pollution 1 in organic waste.
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 themselves sewage organization, have to throw the raw sewage, waste into surface water and coastal water.

Agricuture pollution

There is more than 340’000 composed synthesis that the agriculture domain use for their different activities. They so 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. However as you can read the wastes can leak also into groundwater and in conclusion contaminate also human health. waste: One of the waste in the agricultur domain is made by animals. These waste are not treated as there a made by animals and so reach waterbodies trough the surface layers or by crossing the land surface via runoff. Animal waste can also reach the ocean by leaking into rivers that reaches the ocean.

Domestic pollution

Because the purgation station are rare near costal zones, most of the sewage throw in the ocean are not clean.

Coastal Eutrophication: Plants, animals and human sewages have nutrients and organic materials which reach the ocean. These materials provoke in the water a biological, physical and chemical stimulation.When sewage not pure enter the water it oxydfies itself. This phenomena is call eutrophisation.This progression is commonly observed in bays, estuaries and marginal seas. The human activity accelerates this process, because of the inputs in the ocean of fertilizers, sludge, waste containing nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus. One of the observations of the eutrophication process is the increasing growth of alga and other plants created by the increase of nutrients. The accumulation of these plants and alga in a certain area will avoid the transmission of into the water. There is a possible decay of marine plant’s bacterial which can make the dissolve oxygen in the water decrease.
 Limitation of orcas area  Also: This is a dangerous process as some species can take the place of other, making this spicy disappear. The disappearance of this specie can provoke the disappearance of the specie that eats it and inconsequence makes it also disappear until the higher spicy of the chain food. In addition sometimes the alga that take place of the ancient ones can produce biotoxins (natural poison) that can be transported to the different levels of the chain food and potentially kill the highest spicy of the chain. We see the same observation we contamination of the nutriments of some spicy that accumulates until the highest spicy of the chain.

Most of the time sewage contains human dejection, which have some microbes. These pathogens will contaminate the ocean when the sewage leaks in it. We will explain in the chapter of ‘’effects’’ what happens then.
In addition human just throw in their sewage heavy metals, plastic, meds, acids, diluents, detergents and oil of emptying.These different elements will simply enter 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 costs is floating waste. It is more and more observe on beaches plastic or other kind of waste on the ground or floating in the water. A lot of animals die because of these waste. Scientists say that 80% of these wastes come from coastal areas. These objects reach the ocean by being directly thrown in it or by being push by the wind or rivers. The other 20% of these wastes arrive in the water by being thrown overboard of boats and even some time come even from air planes.
This kind of pollution is persistent for a certain period in the water and will so disappear after a certain period. 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 are thrown in the water for more than 30 years. In addition our sewage can sometimes carry some microbes known as pathogens and can cause disease.

Boats and traffic pollution

How ports, marinas and harbors pollute the ocean: Boat reparation and boat grids: One of the major source of pollution coming from these 3 places is the activity of boat reparation and when the boats needs a hull reparation, boat grids.

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

Fuel oil: In most harbor’s and marina’s water, there is a huge amount of fuel oils and lubricants. There is two kind of oil pollution: the acute, which is for example an oil spilling and the chronic one, which is little amounts of oil leaking. In these areas there is more likely chronic oil pollution, the oil accumulates itself in the water and slowly destroys the marine environment of the area. In these places there are a lot of small boats as we said before. They are not often new and so pollute much more than new boats. They reject fuel from their carburetors and lubricating oil as their old engines easier 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 big amount of fuel and lubricants in their areas, because boats start their cold engines in these places, which make that they will more likely prime or choke. Engines of boats also reject exhaust, more precisely call gasoline. In ports there is more pollution, because there is much more activities made on boats and big boats that need reparation or fueling. These activities contribute to chronic oiling in the environment. There is oil that leaks from the pipelines while the tanks are filled up or when they are emptied. Moreover some hulls where the pipelines enter are outside of the boats, the oil that leak from it, will so directly leak in the water. This structured is often seen on old boats, while in new boats the hull is on board of the boat. When I went on a whale watching boat I was able to observe the fueling of the boat. On this boat which is part of a new boat had his hull on board, as you can see on the photo. The oil even leaks when the tanker is broken or just because the tanker does not keep well the product. The oil can also leak in the ocean when the tank is washed. While fueling some of the fuel can leak in the ocean. In addition often little ports are not equipped for waste disposal or even oil wastes. They will so sometime illegally mix it with the ballast water (explain ballast water??) of ships, which treatment machine is not equipped to handle and clean. The waste unclean will so after all leak in the ocean and destroy it. Ballast water itself polluted the ocean, when not clean. This is because it can carry some pathogens that come from the ballast. 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 clean and then throw in the ocean or be throw in the water without be treated. Not only old boats pollute a lot. In fact in ports there are a lot of activities that reject oil in the water.

Traffic: In this case traffic causes pollution by throwing their sewage and wastes in the ocean. They are created by the routine operation of the crew on the boat. The 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. In addition of all these pollutants thrown in the water by boats engine or the crew on it, there is also the pollutant liberated by boat accident. More precisely oil spills. Each year more than one million of tones are release in the ocean. A big oil tanker can carry more than 40 million of liters of petroleum. In reason of his fragility he has to travel near costs and if he has to stop, he needs a stopping zone. In consequence if there is any problem on his path it becomes a massive problem. Oil spills occur when the boat enter in collision with something, explode, takes fire, groundings and hull failures.

Toxic waste: Heavy metals are one kind of toxic wastes. They are considered, in our case, as common transition metals such as lead, copper, and zinc. These metals pollutes and contaminants oceans. They come from industries that just throw them or let them to leak in the ocean. Even acid rains make the metal ions that are in the soil to leak into lakes and ocean. How does city garabage go into ocaean waters ? Garbage dumping are composed of human waste, water from bathing, ground up garbage and plastics. When there is a rainfall the sewage pipes ten (tende) to over-flow, which mixe them with the storm water drain. When sewage pipes are in the same space than storm water drains they commonly flow into lakes or rivers. The rivers will than flow into the ocean and will transmit into it the city garbage they contained.

Noise pollution

Noise: The boat traffic causes a lot of noise in the water and disturbs the cetacean. The engine while working creates a huge amount of noise that spreads than 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. In addition noise spreads very fast and far in the water. In conclusion a cetacean can easily hear a boat engine when it is at ………………………………?
Military experience also disturbs the cetacean. In fact they generally make bombs experience in the ocean, which creates a huge noise that can disturb cetacean the same way as they are disturb by boat’s engine. Further more of these experience militaries create noise with their submarine that make exactly the same kind of noise than boats.

Sonar: Boats while they are working use a lot of sonar machines, to know the depth of the water under them, to know if there is a further obstacle in front of them for example a boat or even, under water, a submarine. These sonar machines creates waves that will than disturb the cetacean that use the same kind one technique to find their food.
In the military case, submarines make a lot of waves also because of their sonar. It has the same influence than the boats sonar machine. However submarine always make disturbance with their sonar, while little boats do not have sonar machines. Moreover these experiences (which also take in account seismic surveys) create twice more dB than boats. In fact they emit 240 dB. Furthermore for a while military used low frequency active (LFA) to repair, from far away, silent submarines. These emissions create really low infrasound 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 I will explain later on in the chapter of ‘’effects’’.
We should not forget the disturbance on cetacean cause by oil and gas exploration. These exploration cause disturbance to the marine life, because they emit high-pressure sound waves in the ocean to a seabed. Than these ways jump back to the oil explorers machine at different speeds and intensity, which will let them make a conclusion, if in the area there is a presence of oil or not.

Air pollution

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

Human contamination

Aborigines are the human the most contaminated by pollution. This is because their nutrition is mainly base on whales and fish. These animals carry pollution in their bodies and transmit it to the higher specimen in the chain food, who is aborigines, in this case. This brings us to think about our case. The highest specimen in the chain food where orcas live is themselves. They have the same nutrition as aborigines. They, in conclusion, have to be as contaminated as aborigines.

Traffic

Boats: Marine pollution cause by boats comes from their engine while it turns. The engine rejects chemical exhaust in the water that will then poison the marine faun.

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)