Come See an Orca Skeleton Being Assembled in Port Townsend!
Don’t miss this rare chance to watch a major skeleton articulation in progress. Come learn all about the process of preparing and assembling our orca skeleton for display. Master articulator, Lee Post (aka “the Boneman”), PTMSC staff and volunteer docents will be on hand to share this unique project and answer all your questions. Download Open [...]
Keto and Tilikum Express the Stress of Orca Captivity
Tillikum floats alone in his tank at Sea World, Orlando Photo courtesy of The Orca Project In a new study, nearly a year in the making, former SeaWorld trainers Jeffrey Ventre, MD and John Jett, Ph.D, take us deep behind the scenes of Marine parks and their ability to provide environments adequate for keeping killer whales alive in [...]
Orca group wearing down their teeth on abrasive shark diet
BY LARRY PYNN, POSTMEDIA NEWS Marine scientists have discovered a mysterious population of killer whales off the B.C. coast that specialize in killing sharks — to the detriment of their teeth. Scientists have long known that resident killer whales — which stick to specific hunting ranges — depend on a diet of fish, especially salmon, [...]
Satellite tagging of orcas proposed
By CHRISTOPHER DUNAGAN THE KITSAP SUN BREMERTON, Wash. — Federal biologists are proposing to track Puget Sound’s endangered orcas by using tiny satellite transmitters, attached to the whales’ dorsal fins with a dart fired from an airgun. The new study is considered important because the transmitters may stay on for up to three months and [...]
Comments: Evolving rules in San Juans may change how visitors go whale watching
By Cassandra Brooks Seattle Times staff reporter First, the orcas may be the most intelligent animals on the planet after us. The pods here have remained in family groups for who knows how long–hundreds of years? Very possibly their family lineages go back thousands of years. Some of these whales being chased daily are 80 [...]
4 Southern Residents missing and presumed dead
(L5 in front, L74 foreground, L73 in background. Picture taken from shore in August 2009) The Center for Whale Research has shared the results of their 2010 summer Orca Survey, with the sad news that we have lost 3 adult orcas and one calf this year. Missing and presumed dead are: L114, new calf born [...]
Remembering Lolita- Whidbey Examiner
By Sue Ellen White Examiner Staff Writer “You could hear the whales squealing when they pulled them out,” Stone said. “It drove my cat crazy.” Working a summer job at the Captain Whidbey Inn, Stone became an intimate witness to an infamous event: the 1970 capture of orca whales in Penn Cove by entrepreneurs engaged [...]
Stormwater runoff pollution and how to reduce it- WA Department of Ecology
Stormwater runoff is rain that falls on streets, parking areas, sports fields, gravel lots, rooftops or other developed land and flows directly into nearby lakes, rivers and Puget Sound. The drizzling or pounding rain picks up and mixes with what’s on the ground: Oil, grease, metals and coolants from vehicles; Fertilizers, pesticides and other chemicals [...]
Wildlife officials remind recreational boaters to give orca whales plenty of room – Bellingham Herald
by Kie Relyea Give orca whales plenty of space this summer. That’s the reminder Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife officials are giving to recreational boaters – at a time when more boaters head out amid southern resident whales, which are in area waters, mainly in northern Puget Sound, from spring into fall. Wildlife officials [...]
The grandmother factor: Why do only humans and whales live long past menopause?- Scientific American
By Katherine Harmon Most mammals don’t live long past their reproductive years, failing to serve much evolutionary purpose after they can stop passing on their genes to offspring. Only three long-lived social mammalian species are known break that mold.Killer whales (Orcinus orca), pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus) and humans (as well as possibly some other great [...]
