Tag Archives: Marine Mammal Research Unit

Rivers & Oceans

West Coast engineers aim to clear up acoustic smog impacting endangered killer whales

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Editor’s note: In addition to being marine tourist destinations close to a principal British Columbian shipping lane, Cortes, Quadra and Read Islands are visited by both the northern and southern pods of Killer Whales

University of British Columbia engineers are working to help clear up the acoustic smog that hinders endangered orcas’ ability to gather information vital to their survival. 

Chronic underwater noise from shipping can drown out sounds marine mammals — such as the southern resident killer whales — use and rely on to communicate with each other, navigate, avoid danger or locate their prey. 

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Rivers & Oceans

A type of Orca: the big game hunter of the sea

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

There’s a type of killer whale that prowls deeper waters and specializes in hunting big game, research by a B.C. scientist suggests.

West Coast residents are familiar with the well-known and iconic chinook salmon-eating endangered southern resident killer whales in the Salish Sea, and the more numerous Bigg’s killer whales, or transient orcas, that ply the shallower waters of B.C.’s coast and inlets in search of seals and other sea mammals.

But evidence indicates there’s a newly identified type of orca — outer coast killer whales — that are a distinct subgroup of transient whales, and which frequent the ocean depths along the continental shelf off the coast of central California and Oregon, said lead author Josh McInnes, a scientist with the Marine Mammal Research Unit at the University of British Columbia.

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