Or it could be the effects of some chemical or pharmaceutical
Rewriting the book on killer whales
canada goose uk outlet There are canada goose outlet shop mysterious and puzzling things happening in the Salish Sea. They may be new, but maybe they not. canada goose outlet online store review Maybe we to blame or, perhaps, what we are witnessing is Nature at its most complicated and brutal. canada goose uk outlet
Attention has focused on this because of the canada goose outlet niagara falls recent unusual behaviour of a female orca carrying along her dead calf for days. It has triggered an overwhelming global predisposition to anthropomorphize and call it grieving.
cheap canada goose uk The truth is that no one knows what that particular mother is feeling or why she is acting this way. No one knows whether what she is doing is unique or whether it that humans are only witnessing it for the first time even though the southern residents known as J pod have been studied for years as they range from California in the winter to the Salish Sea in the summer. cheap canada goose uk
buy canada goose jacket Another four year old canada goose outlet in uk female in the pod that numbers 75 (down from 98 in 1995) is emaciated, which has prompted some experts to suggest catching and releasing live Chinook their preferred prey into the pod path or even catching, canada goose outlet injecting with antibiotics and then dumping live, doctored salmon into harms way. buy canada goose jacket
canada goose clearance sale The story behind all of this is that J pod is declining at a time when the northern resident canada goose outlet ontario pod is thriving with canada goose outlet in usa 307 members, the population of transient killer whales is increasing, and J pod preferred prey Chinook salmon have returned to their highest levels in 20 years. canada goose clearance sale
Why? Nobody knows. In fact, what this canada goose outlet houston all points to is how little we know at all about whales, orcas, their food sources and the oceans and rivers that feed them.
think we know all about them (orcas), says Andrew canada goose outlet uk fake Trites, director of Marine Mammal Research Unit at UBC Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries. we learn more and more and we have to keep changing the book on killer whales. coast. But Trites says most canada goose jacket outlet uk new orcas are born before J pod arrives in the Salish Sea on its annual summer migration.
Canada Goose sale Another puzzle, says Trites, is why most of the recently born calves in J pod are male. It may be like in human families where some have only daughters, while others have only sons. Or it could be the effects of some chemical or pharmaceutical pollutants. Canada Goose sale
But if the waters are contaminated, why is the northern resident pod thriving? Why are there now more transient orcas in the area than ever before?
Canada Goose Outlet And when these others are doing so well, why are J pod orcas so thin? Canada Goose Outlet
Canada Goose Online It could be that J pod is losing out in the competition for salmon against commercial, First Nations and sports fishermen. Canada Goose Online
canada goose uk shop But Trites points to the institute own research and reporting by sports fishermen that Chinook stocks are more plentiful than they canada goose outlet winnipeg have been for two or three decades. canada goose uk shop
Despite that evidence, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans has cut the allowable limits, reducing sports fishing catches, for example, to one canada goose outlet mississauga Chinook a day.
canada goose clearance It has also designated forage canada goose parka outlet uk areas to exclude all Chinook fishing, although commercial crabbing and whale watching are continuing. canada goose clearance
uk canada goose Some blame other pinnipeds and suggest canada goose womens outlet a cull of seals and sea lions, but Trites points out that their numbers have been stable for the past 20 years. uk canada goose
Couple that with the increased availability of Chinook and it another unsolved puzzle.
Yet, even if Chinook stocks were low and heaven knows the cycles and habits of the five species of Pacific salmon are at least as mysterious as those of whales why hasn J pod simply diversified its diet to include herring (like orcas in Norway do) or other salmon species abundant in the Salish Sea?
canada goose uk black friday Speculation ranges from J pod being specialized hunters unable to capture other prey to the possibility that they are canada goose outlet black friday sale picky eaters like humans who would rather go hungry than eat tofu. canada goose uk black friday
As for chowing down on seals and sea lions like the canada goose outlet uk sale growing number of transient orcas, there at least appears canada goose uk to be a good reason for that. Over the millennia, Trites says the transients have adapted and through natural selection have developed stronger jaws to crush the bones.
Finally, if J pod isn thriving here, why doesn it expand its territory like others have? might be hell to pay with the other killer whales, says Trites.
Canada Goose Coats On Sale Do they fight amongst themselves? Do they kill each other? It another thing that Trites says isn known. All that researchers are sure of is that canada goose outlet woodbury these familial pods or tribes avoid one another, suggesting that their interactions in the past haven been pleasant. Canada Goose Coats On Sale
canada goose store Beyond all of these specifics, it fair to ask whether J pod problems aren local. Maybe the problems are further south in California where the once huge runs of salmon in the Sacramento River have canada goose outlet us been decimated by the dams that sluice off the water for agriculture. canada goose store
Canada Goose Jackets Then there are the bigger questions about the impacts of climate change, warming ocean waters and ever increasing human activity. Canada Goose Jackets
But there is something else that we need to consider. No matter how well intentioned we are, no matter what herculean efforts are made to save these few orcas, the bottom line is that these are http://www.canadagoosejacketoutlett.com wild mammals.