Tuesday 27 November 2012

Encountering Orca: The elusive Type Ds

by Jamie Watts (guest blogger)

02 November 2012 - On the way back from South Georgia towards the Beagle Channel, just coming onto the shelf near Isla de las Estados, a very nice surprise. Delphine announces 'orcas' before breakfast. Up onto the bridge, and there they were - a little way off, a group of three, then further ahead and further over another small group. All heading northwest, all travelling, but in no particular hurry. 

Straight away they looked different. Very pointed, slightly swept back dorsal fins, lots of black, moderately sized for orcas. Then the flash of white above the eye – tiny. I doubt myself at first but after a couple more breaths from the other orcas it’s very clear. Type Ds.  Jet black backs, gorgeously pointed and swept fins, the rounded, pilot whale-like snout and tiny eyepatch – doesn’t look like any other orca.
  
Photo © Andrew Bishop

We always knew there was only one species of orca, found worldwide. Even after a couple of decades of intensive study particularly of the Vancouver Island and Alaska orcas, the huge differences between populations were just thought to be clan variations. In the meantime, soviet researchers in the Antarctic – where the majority of the world’s orcas are found – described two grey-backed forms as new species. It was the cold war, Russian research was either ignored or unknown in the west, and the type specimens of the new species were lost in a museum flood.

But in the last few years, the rather different Antarctic types have become rather well-known.  Most are smaller than the ‘regular’ orcas, and grey and cream rather than black and white, with large or slanted eye-patches. Their coloration and their proportions are rather different.

Photo © Andrew Bishop

Then we started getting genetic work done on orca populations - and there are rather large differences between populations. Even the Vancouver Island orcas are probably two entirely different species. Turns out we have in the Antarctic at least four different forms: Type 'A' big 'normal' orcas (which may further prove to be several groups), type 'B' - grey and cream with huge eye patches (there are probably two very different sub-types here, one large and one small), type 'C' - small, grey and cream, and with a slanted eye patch. And then there is the enigmatic type 'D'. 

Photo © Andrew Bishop

The Ds were only described in 2010. We have no genetic material, almost nothing on their behaviour. Researchers looking through photographic records found pictures of some very odd-looking orcas. Seven records, all around the edges of the Antarctic. Unlike every other orca, their snout is rounded like a pseudorca or a pilot whale. The fins are gorgeously sleek, sharply pointed and swept-back. And the eyepatch – tiny, a fraction of the size seen in other orcas.  They are almost intermediate between orcas and their closest relatives. They’ve been photographed seven times. Until this morning.

After breakfast, twenty miles away, a larger male and a couple more – again type D. I’d love to stop and somehow try and get some sloughed skin – something.  But we’re running tight on time. Ushuaia beckons.

You can see more of Jamie's work at www.jamiewatts.co.uk

Photo © Andrew Bishop

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  4. What! SeaWorld won’t breed Orca whales. But will continue to torture them. To me that’s irrational.

    SeaWorld needs to release its prisoner Orca whales, just as we seek to release prisoners who are found to be not guilty. The orca whale is not guilty. The Orcas need to be set free.
    I’m outraged by the collusion of Mr. SeaWorld CEO Joel Manby and Humane Society CEO Wayne Pacelli.
    They appeared on PBS on 3/17/16 side by side to indicate their agreeability. Have I got this right? These two intelligent, wealth, superior human beings act as if they had done something great. They did nothing; what they agreed to was nothing. However they are both pleased as punch that SeaWorld will no longer breed Orcas in captivity.
    That’s just, golly, gee; swell for the two of them. All that favorable press you know. Stop breeding is easy. No conception, no baby whales, no future baby prisoners to hold. Seems easy; don’t do anything.
    Set the Orcas free! Now that would be worthwhile. Set them free; release them in some bay where they have 10,000 acres instead of 5,000 gallons to swim in. What I saw in San Diego was 3 little ponds containing 11 Orcas. Two were pens and the other a larger entertainment pond for public viewing. I believe that’s 5,000 gallons for 11 Orcas. That’s not big enough for one Orca let alone 11.
    Mr. Humane Society Wayne Purcell says Orcas are intelligent, complex and sociable, they travel in pods. I would add from watching TV that they are family oriented, have friends and relatives they deal with. Take excellent care of their young, they play together, they hunt together, they plan and coordinate efforts among themselves. They hunt with intelligence and efficiency. Sounds like human behavior, does is it not?Set them free!
    SeaWorld has for nearly 50 years or thereabouts, been torturing these sea creatures. Has held some captive for over 30 years by Mr. Manby own admission on PBS News hour.
    Merriman/Webster defines torture as;
    • : the act of causing severe physical pain as a form of punishment or as a way to forcesomeone to do or say something:
    • something that causes mental or physical suffering : a very painful or unpleasant experience

    Can a 30 foot, 10,000 pound whale be tortured by holding it captive in crowded conditions inside a goldfish bowl, a miniature cell, for 30 years? All the while having it perform unnatural acts for the pleasures of humans?
    By a SeaWorld estimate an Orca in the wild swims 100 miles a day or more than 35,000 miles a year. SeaWorld provides the Orcas a miniature prison for a maximum size whale. The Orca Is a prisoner out of its natural environment, restricted and unable to act normal as it would in the open sea. It’s no wonder why, once in a while, an Orca shows aggression toward those who are its captors. Possibly they are fighting back; possibly they know they can’t be punished any further. What would we be capable of toward our captors if given the chance to escape or to get even.

    If we took a man, any man, a big man, a basketball player and put him in a small box for 30 years. Push him out for display, forced him to lick his hands and feet for an audience of Orcas. Kind of unnatural behavior for a human being: agreed? Would that be ok? Would that be torture? Yeah; oh yeah.

    I say SeaWorld should lead as a worldwide example and set them free! No need to find them innocent, they did nothing. At least send them to a community residence, a halfway house. A halfway house that looks like a bay, block it off, move all of them in. Support them; begin looking for an even better solution.

    Free the Orca; take a break from doing nothing, do the decent thing. Allow SeaWorld be a rescue business as it wants. That’s a good thing. Get out of the confine and torture business. Leave that to the CIA.
    Free the Orca.

    Nelson Paul Bouchard

    San Diego Ca.



    ReplyDelete
  5. What! SeaWorld won’t breed Orca whales. But will continue to torture them. To me that’s irrational.

    SeaWorld needs to release its prisoner Orca whales, just as we seek to release prisoners who are found to be not guilty. The orca whale is not guilty. The Orcas need to be set free.
    I’m outraged by the collusion of Mr. SeaWorld CEO Joel Manby and Humane Society CEO Wayne Pacelli.
    They appeared on PBS on 3/17/16 side by side to indicate their agreeability. Have I got this right? These two intelligent, wealth, superior human beings act as if they had done something great. They did nothing; what they agreed to was nothing. However they are both pleased as punch that SeaWorld will no longer breed Orcas in captivity.
    That’s just, golly, gee; swell for the two of them. All that favorable press you know. Stop breeding is easy. No conception, no baby whales, no future baby prisoners to hold. Seems easy; don’t do anything.
    Set the Orcas free! Now that would be worthwhile. Set them free; release them in some bay where they have 10,000 acres instead of 5,000 gallons to swim in. What I saw in San Diego was 3 little ponds containing 11 Orcas. Two were pens and the other a larger entertainment pond for public viewing. I believe that’s 5,000 gallons for 11 Orcas. That’s not big enough for one Orca let alone 11.
    Mr. Humane Society Wayne Purcell says Orcas are intelligent, complex and sociable, they travel in pods. I would add from watching TV that they are family oriented, have friends and relatives they deal with. Take excellent care of their young, they play together, they hunt together, they plan and coordinate efforts among themselves. They hunt with intelligence and efficiency. Sounds like human behavior, does is it not?Set them free!
    SeaWorld has for nearly 50 years or thereabouts, been torturing these sea creatures. Has held some captive for over 30 years by Mr. Manby own admission on PBS News hour.
    Merriman/Webster defines torture as;
    • : the act of causing severe physical pain as a form of punishment or as a way to forcesomeone to do or say something:
    • something that causes mental or physical suffering : a very painful or unpleasant experience

    Can a 30 foot, 10,000 pound whale be tortured by holding it captive in crowded conditions inside a goldfish bowl, a miniature cell, for 30 years? All the while having it perform unnatural acts for the pleasures of humans?
    By a SeaWorld estimate an Orca in the wild swims 100 miles a day or more than 35,000 miles a year. SeaWorld provides the Orcas a miniature prison for a maximum size whale. The Orca Is a prisoner out of its natural environment, restricted and unable to act normal as it would in the open sea. It’s no wonder why, once in a while, an Orca shows aggression toward those who are its captors. Possibly they are fighting back; possibly they know they can’t be punished any further. What would we be capable of toward our captors if given the chance to escape or to get even.

    If we took a man, any man, a big man, a basketball player and put him in a small box for 30 years. Push him out for display, forced him to lick his hands and feet for an audience of Orcas. Kind of unnatural behavior for a human being: agreed? Would that be ok? Would that be torture? Yeah; oh yeah.

    I say SeaWorld should lead as a worldwide example and set them free! No need to find them innocent, they did nothing. At least send them to a community residence, a halfway house. A halfway house that looks like a bay, block it off, move all of them in. Support them; begin looking for an even better solution.

    Free the Orca; take a break from doing nothing, do the decent thing. Allow SeaWorld be a rescue business as it wants. That’s a good thing. Get out of the confine and torture business. Leave that to the CIA.
    Free the Orca.

    Nelson Paul Bouchard

    San Diego Ca.



    ReplyDelete