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Nimkish — Seventy Eight
#indigo #killer #lulu #orca #resident #southern #whale #l100 #l120 #l53
Published: 2014-10-24 07:40:13 +0000 UTC; Views: 4129; Favourites: 124; Downloads: 22
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The Southern Resident orca population is down to just 78 members after losing 3 precious lives this year. Had these animals been in captivity, maybe you would have heard of them, or seen something about their death because there would have been numerous tributes and outrage about it on DA and other social media sites because not one of these animals lived to their life expectancy (20-30 years for males, and 40-50 years for females)But, not a peep for these guys. They are forgotten. So I had to paint something for them, because no one else has.
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This painting represents L100 (Indigo), a 13 year old male, L53 (Lulu), a 37 year old female, and L120, who was the first calf born into the population since August 2012 but unfortunately only lived 7 weeks. 50% of wild orca calves don't make it past their first birthday.
Lulu never contributed a single viable calf in her 37 years alive and her mother, L-7 died in 2010.
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These animals are suffering from starvation, pollution and Vessel noise.
The severe and persistent lack of available prey, salmon (Chinook in particular) is the main issue facing these animals, and they are starving because of it. They are also constantly harassed by boats trying to watch them, which reduces their ability to hunt their already depleted food source, as well as forcing them to expend more energy attempting to evade the following boats, meaning they must eat more food to compensate the additional energy, so their food issue is only intensified.
The only non-invasive way to watch these animals without contributing to their suffering, is to watch them from the shoreline.
On the upside, it looks like J-32, Rhapsody, is pregnant and will have a baby very soon. Lets all hope it survives.
I couldn't find good references for these guys, so they may not actually look like themselves. But they are representations of them.
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Comments: 61
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I'm not even sure what to say about this. I started with 'this is so incredibly sad', and in a way it is, but on the other hand here you are with this brilliant painting raising awareness for the Southern Residents, which is a very beautiful thing. But you are right, it can be infuriating to see how focussed some people are on liberating the captive whales, and in their blind devotion overlook the whales who could actually use their help: the Russian orcas, the Southern Residents... It seems to me their devotion has long passed actual animal well-being and has turned into trying to get their way whatever the cost. And sadly, with a whole group of Blackfish-following people who refuse to read up any more on either side of the argument, measures are actually coming through. While at the same time the wild whales are still struggling. And beautiful Rhapsody who did not only lose her own life, but also that of her calf.
So that's the sad end of it. But then I also think of all the new babies we got to welcome into the resident community over the past few months
Also, I just wanted to add that your painting is gorgeous - because hey, this is a comment on a piece of art after all. I really like the colours you've chosen for the water. That dark, bluish green somehow fits very well with the mood. Great work
PS: Back up to eighty-one :> Still not a lot, but better than it was. Let's hope this trend continues.
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I agree!
And yes, the baby boom is awesome! Very happy for the population, particularly after such a horrible last few years.
It looks like some more might be pregnant, rumors are J22, J28, L54 and L72. I am loving the new information we can gain by NOAA's drone studies.
No one mentions though that one of the new mothers (J41) gave birth that was younger than Kalia (which caused a huge uproar with the activists), J-50 and J-52 of the new babies are both covered in rake marks( dolphinproject.net/wp-content/… instagram.com/p/8D8kyaFlNB/ ), or that there was recently a confirmed miscarriage/stillborn with I4 confirmed pregnant last year which resulted in no calf this year.
I look towards the science side of it rather then the emotional side and see all of this as completely normal and natural. But the activists (which are sometimes scientists...) push the idea that none of this happens in the wild while attacking captivity for the same things. It makes me sad and frustrated because I really want a better understanding of 'real' killer whale society and behavior, and it is very hard with all the misinformation out there.
Thank you for the wonderful comment <3
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Yeah, it is definitely tough to still see the forest through the trees, as we say in Dutch. So in a way it's also almost not surprising that so many people are so horridly misinformed - on the other hand, they would do well to check what they read and are told every now and then instead of just taking everything blindly. Just yesterday I read this article from The Dodo (ugh..) on dolphin captivity and honestly there's so many weird, doubtful or outright wrong claims made without real backup, and presented as clear facts.
Agh, we can only hope that with time, tiiimmmeee, people grow some more brain cells and intelligence, and start up an actually productive conversation concerning cetacean captivity.
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I'm confused. Isn't the commercial fishing industry the ones that are considered 'non-sustainable'?
On the other hand, if you are referring to the wild capture and pen feeding of salmon as 'farming', then yes, I absolutely agree. That is not farming. Those fish are just being rounded up and fattened like feed lot cattle.
In my estimation fish farming means having a isolated captive group that can be bred ad infinitum without impacting the wild population......like the talapia farms in the desert.
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It has been proven that salmon farms reduce wild salmon stocks up to 50% in the area, for various reasons including pollution, pesticides, diseases and parasites, lack of oxygen in the water among other things. The wild stocks are what we are 'supposed' to be protecting by implementing these farms, but it is having a very negative effect on their populations.
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/…
In an article on bluefin tuna farming published in the San Francisco Chronicle, a seafood wholesaler estimated that it takes 26 pounds of feed to produce 1 pound of bluefin tuna; the feed consists of squid, blue mackerel, and sand eel, so it's just over fishing and harming other species wild populations to breed a different species in a farm.
www.sfgate.com/green/article/T…
Anyway, I never mentioned in this deviation anything about Salmon Farms
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I know.......I was just commenting on one of the statements made by another poster. I totally agree with you about the whale watching boats getting too close though. They should take a lesson from wildlife biologists.....keep your distance and observe without interfering.
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Oh, hehe. I was a little confused where the comment came from!
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The description just broke my heart...
"On the upside, it looks like J-32, Rhapsody, is preggnant and will have a baby very soon. Let's all hope it survives."
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Yes I know 
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Yeah...Rhapsody's death was, to say the least, not good. And it was made worse by someone stealing some of her teeth. But now. there are two new calves! We can only hope they make it.
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Thank you so much for speaking out for the Southern Residents!!!
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These animals lived in the same pod but weren't a direct family. These 3 animals passed away this year from the hazards they face in the wild, like starvation and pollution.
Thank you for the comment
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You're welcoooome. Sad story, though...
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Yeah I couldn't believe it either that the L pod took a hit this huge this year. And although Plumper and Pointer were from the Northern pod I hope all five of the darlings rest in peace.
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Watching Plumper in his last days was absolutely awful. He was so sick. But he was 37 years old and Pointer 44. Both very old ages, so,while it's still sad they passed (particularly in the way Plumper did) I don't find their deaths as heartbreaking as these 3, who could have all contributed so much.
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Yes so true. Besides restricting how close a whale watching cruise boat gets to the orcas I think we need to figure out really what is going with their food source I'm afraid. Maybe if we could figure out how to even reduce the pollutants in the water I'm sure the calves would have an even better chance of surviving
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I think they need to better regulate whale watching vessels. When we finally found whales the 3rd time I went out, I think I saw more boats than whales. Everywhere I looked, boats, boats, and more boats. A friend of mine, who studied environmental sciences but went a different career direction, thinks they need to reduce the number of operators and restrict how many can go out. Makes sense. I know seeing them in the wild is a great way to gain appreciation, and I am NOT a Petaphile who thinks nobody should have access to animals (I'm pro-cap), but seeing all those boats just felt wrong. I am sure it disturbs the animals when THAT MANY congregate and encircle a pod, as used to seeing them though they may be. Am I making sense?
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Yeah!
I've heard there was a maximum count of 145 vessels surrounding the whales one time when some scientists were conducting research for vessel impact. It is wrong.
I'm not against whale watching in general. I know they negatively effect the animals but for the most part I think it's worth it to get the chance to see the animals. But for this particular (small!) population, being constantly surrounded by boats in unprecedented numbers and for most of their lives... Particularly when these animals are already starving and not reproducing... It just isn't good. Whales like humpbacks usually just 'pass through' so unlikely one individual would be encountered for more then a couple of days. Not so with the Southern Residents though.
I wish the Southern Residents could just get a 'break' for a couple of years to try and recover. But that wont happen, they are worth too much money to the Whale Watching industry. I think I would personally be more comfortable seeing the Northern Residents as their population has steadily increased. Or the Alaskan population.
Thanks for the comment
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Makes the whole "Don't see them at SeaWorld! Just pay for a whale watching trip!" kind of counter-productive in a way.
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This is a beautiful tribute to these individuals. They will be sorely missed. The main problem for them is the lack of their preferred prey, Chinook Salmon which makes up about 80% of their diet. Save wild salmon, save wild orcas. The overfishing of this magnificent species of fish is still a problem to this day, and don't get me started on the dangers of fish hatcheries and salmon farms (and yet both the BC and US governments seem not to care despite the overwhelming evidence that they are AWFUL for the environment and wild fish)!
As someone who works on a whale watching vessel in the Salish Sea I can say, for my company at least, that we do our best to respect the wildlife, ESPECIALLY the SRKWs by staying further back than 200 yards and shutting down our engines in the vicinity of orcas especially when they are displaying foraging behavior. I won't argue that viewing them from shore is by far the least invasive way to view them and that the boat traffic should be more strictly regulated, as I've seen numerous cases of blatant harassment go unpunished. I would argue that not all us whale watchers are bad. The captains on my vessel even stayed away from L120 entirely this season not because we didn't know where he/she was (there were tons of boats looking for the baby and we all stay in contact with each other) but because we wanted not to add to the noise.
In short, we understand that what we do has impact on these animals and do everything in our power to reduce that impact. I can't speak for all whale watching companies, but I know mine takes the safety and protection of these animals very seriously. If we were to be banned from watching these animals from vessels, so be it, but for now we are doing our best to reduce our impact and at the same time educating the people riding our vessels about these creatures and what they can do to help (yes, we even tell them where and how to view them from shore). I would like to see more focus on the salmon issue than than anything else. If we have healthy salmon returns every year and the population is still in decline, then I will quit my job and stop contributing. But until then, I will continue to attempt to reach out the the people who ride our boat and hope that my message hits home and they'll join the cause. Long live the Southern Residents.
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YAYAYAYAYAAYAYAY SOMEONE ELSE WHO UNDERSTANDS HOW TERRIBLE SALMON FARMS ARE!!!
And we can't forget that it's not just the orcas who need the salmon. That entire freaking ecosystem needs/benefits from salmon! The sea predators, the eagles, the bears, the scavengers...even the plant life, and thus the herbivores, benefit from the nutrients that salmon carcasses give them! And yet BC is still trying to plop MORE farms into their waters, salmon is continuously being overfished...not to mention being pumped with PCBs as the ocean becomes more and more polluted. 
Hopefully, iconic animals like orcas, eagles, bears, etc. help people learn more about the plight of salmon. Eat sustainable seafood, people! Everyone can help.
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Exactly! Have you read Alexandra Morton's "Listening to Whales; What the Orcas Have Taught Us"? It's a wonderful autobiographical account of her experience studying the Northern Residents and the last few chapters do a really good job of explaining the dangers of Salmon Farming and exactly how it's negatively effecting to ecosystem. I also hear the documentary "Salmon Confidential" is good but I haven't seen it yet. Anyway...
FRIENDS DON'T LET FRIENDS EAT FARMED SALMON!
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Yeah, that's actually how I learned about how bad they are! Then, I looked more into it online...and it was like "dang, she's not the only one to say that!"
AGREED. Unsustainable seafood is banned from my household, lol!
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Thank you!
I'm not against whale watching. I've been on a cruise before and I loved it! Though they were humpbacks and I find that situation different. The humpbacks and other whales are just passing through, so it's unlikely you'll encounter the same whale days in a row. It's different for the Southern Residents who live in the area for most of the year and are encountered every day.
I would personally love to see these animals in the wild, but I'm not sure I could bring myself to go on a boat to see the Southern Residents in the state they are in right now, knowing what I know about the effects of boat traffic.
I know the whale watching industry, for some of them at least, they do their best to minimize their impact and install engines with less noise and are careful about their approach, but at the end of the day, that's just minimizing the effects. Not eliminating them. Do they really need to be there at all? They are a chronic disturbance.
The fact we know boats are impacting negatively on the animals, and the more boats, the worse the impact is... Why are we still continuing? The only real answer is profit, at the end of the day.
I do agree the salmon is the most important and notable factor in their decline and this needs to be addressed. But boat traffic and noise is also a well documented contributing factor, and the effects of these can only be intensified while the animals are starving. While I know some boats obviously need to be in the area for other reasons, whale watching boats are there specifically to encounter the animals and don't actually need to be there at all.
These whales have been exploited for a long time. First they were blown up by the Air Force for target practice, then shot and killed by fishermen, then captured and killed for marine parks, now harassed every day with boats around them from 9am - 9pm. Unfortunately these animals will be exploited until they go extinct, and I feel this population will be functionally extinct in my lifetime
Again, don't get me wrong. I'm not against whale watching as a whole. If the population was on the rise, the animals had enough food and were reproducing as they should, I would feel more comfortable with the boats being there. I just personally think it would be in the animals best interest for whale watching companies to give the animals a 'break' until they can recover. But again, that wont happen because of money.
If I ever got the chance in the future to go whale watching (for orcas), I would probably be more comfortable seeing the Northern Residents as they seem to be doing better, with the population having a steady increase of about 3% per year, or go to Alaska.
Anyway. I'm rambling. I don't mean to offend you at all I've always appreciated the education and conservation message of whale watching operators, it's just my personal opinion that maybe it's not best for this population, at this time.
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Fair enough, I understand. I think reducing the boat traffic or limiting the number of boats around the whales is a good idea but it will never be gone entirely. In addition, the boat traffic isn't the main threat, in fact I feel it is the least troubling. The continual lack of salmon is far more alarming to me. Should we also ban all salmon fishing in the area? Of course, no one will stop fishing for salmon, it's ingrained in our culture here. So who does everyone place the blame on then? The whale watchers. Even if you're a good company, with good practices, going out on just one 3 hour whale watch (spending only 30-50 minutes of it with whales, the rest traveling and viewing other wildlife) a day for just 5 months of the year, you're still horrible and only doing it for the profit. It's all about the money, of course, not about how passionate you are about your home waters and the animals that live here... and we certainly aren't contributing to whale research at all with our sighting reports and photos (not to mention donations to the research programs and museums). No, we're just here for money.
However, I won't deny that profit is a driving factor as to why we continue. It cost money to maintain boats and pay the staff, of course. In today's society, money is a necessary evil. As for myself, I have very few marketable skills as I've spent my entire life studying to become a marine naturalist. If the whale watching industry in this area were to disappear, I'd have no way to support myself and my husband. I'd have no problem working at a state park or museum and share my knowledge there, and believe me I've tried, but I don't get paid for it. If I didn't need the money, I would happily be doing this for free at a park, on shore, not disturbing the whales at all. I can't just relocate, either. I barely make enough money to keep my head above water as it is. If the whale watching industry in this area were to disappear, what do you propose I (and others in a similar situation) do? I want the best for the whales, I really do, but how do I just stop working when this job is what I've put my entire life toward? Years of study, school, and travel have brought me here. I'd have no where to go but into debt.
Anyway, as I said before, this is a beautiful piece and I understand where you're coming from. I too, am outraged by the lack of action being taken and the lack of attention this dying population is receiving. Where's the protest for little Echo and her family? Where's the petitions to sign to make sure Mega gets enough to eat? Tillikum at least gets enough fish to fill his belly everyday, but can the same be said for Granny? It's all so frustrating.
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I could speak to you for a long time about the issue
At the end of the day, I agree it is an outrage that people are more concerned about the animals at SeaWorld over their wild couterparts. I feel this is largely to do with the uneducated masses following the Anti-Captivity/Blackfish movement. If all you got was your information from those sources, of course you would believe these animals all live to be 80-100 and have magical lives frolicing in the sea without a trouble in the world.
This attitude needs to stop so the animals can actually get the help they need.
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Exactly. You've highlighted all the problems I have with Blackfish and the movement it's started. There needs to be another (better) documentary highlighting the plight of wild orcas, especially endangered populations like the Southern Residents.
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Although I am anti-captivity, I'm also anti-harassment-of-wild-populations too. I subscribe to the notion that most wild animals would actually do better if we just left them the hell alone. Protect their habitats, prevent hunting/harassment/pollution/etc, and make sure everyone just gives them their space and allows them to live their lives in as natural a way as possible.
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I'm not against whale watching as a whole. I feel like the negative side effects of them are, for the most part, worth it? However when it comes to watching a particular (small) population all day, every day, for the majority of the year, and that population is starving and declining... I just don't think it's a good idea to continue?
I hope the population starts to flourish, but I fear the Southern Residents will be functionally extinct in my lifetime. Ignoring the vessel issue, the animals just aren't, or can't, reproduce very well. (due to lack of food? Or toxins and inbreeding?) Lulu was 37 years old and not a single calf? She wasn't the only reproductive-aged female who hasn't contributed their 'fair share' of calves into the population. There are some serious issues here
Thanks for the comment
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Oh, I'm not against whale watching as a whole, or indeed any other kind of wildlife watching... When it's done properly, it doesn't interfere with the animals' natural behaviour. But when it's clear that a particular population is struggling, in part due to being OVER-watched, I just think it's time to back off and leave them alone, and they'd probably start to do better (the best example of this would be the Southern Right Whales - their population recovered very quickly from whaling, probably in part because they're in an isolated part of the world, so were essentially just left alone. The Northern Right Whale populations aren't doing nearly so well.) Watching the Southern Residents from the shore doesn't interfere with their natural lives, after all, but clearly there needs to be more regulation in the number of boats watching them.
I tend to agree that the Southern Resident population just isn't very viable, as well, which is very sad. There are so few of them (and they probably weren't especially numerous even before so many were killed and captured for the captivity industry), and being unable or unwilling to interbreed with other orca populations means inbreeding is inevitable. It's difficult to prove, but I would imagine that inbreeding amongst them has been going on for a while now, even before human interference started. Plus in a way they're very over-specialised to live within that one particular niche, with a culture that pushes them away from interbreeding with other orcas. Do they even breed with the Northern Residents at all?
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As far as we know they don't breed with the Northerns. Not yet at least. I've heard lately the Southerns are splintering from their pods, to the point you couldn't even recognize them as J, K and L anymore. Maybe they will start venturing out with the Northerns? I hope so, for their sake. They REALLY need to start adapting.
There is some documentation from a while back (when the population was doing better) proving they were already inbreeding from DNA samples. It's only going to be worse now as there is already not enough genetic diversity. It's impossible for them to not inbreed now.
And don't forget that before they were taken for marineparks, they were shot at and killed by fishermen, and the Airforce would drop bombs on them as target practice...
All in all they haven't had a good last 100 years...
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Yeah, with the way their social system seems to work, breeding between different matrilines would still essentially be breeding cousins to cousins... which while not as bad as brother-to-sister or parent-to-child inbreeding, over a long enough period of time is still problematic. It could well explain why they have trouble reproducing, and why so many babies die young - there's so many health problems that might not be evident on the surface, but would still cause a high infant mortality. Short of interbreeding with the Northern Residents (who may have some genetic issues of their own), they probably don't stand much chance. They're certainly VERY different from the transients (mitochondrial genome of orca ecotypes ) and are actually more closely related to Atlantic and Antarctic orcas than they are to the transients they live right next to, so they might not even be genetically compatible with the transients.
They really haven't had a good last 100 years.
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Poor, poor, things... I think resident orcas are my favorite type of orca... only 78 of the southern residents left, that's disturbing... it's understandable to me why people get upset about cetaceans in captivity (though mainly just SeaWorld orcas it seems, which does annoy me a little, since there seems to be worse marine parks which people hardly seem to take note of, as well as bottlenose dolphins and sea lions used in seemingly suspicious ways in militaries which rarely seems to be noted by DA people either), but there are a lot of other problems cetaceans face which people hardly seem aware of or don't really care about or something. It's nice they want cetaceans to be free, but they need a safe place in the ocean to be free, and there are fishing nets drowning tons of marine life, and toxic pollution, and noise pollution, and people depleting marine wildlife's prey and then trying to blame the wildlife so they can kill them, as if people weren't already doing too much to kill off all these creatures... and even people who love cetaceans sometimes make life harder for wild ones in various ways, without realizing it...
Um... hope I didn't get too off topic or get facts mixed up or something, but beautiful drawing, anyway...
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All good! I appreciated your comment and agree
I'm not against captivity, and I find people who are, for the most part, to be annoying with their ranting. But at the end of the day, the ranting is doing some good for the animals by keeping it in the public eye so places like SW may have to think harder about making stupid decisions that are bad for the animals. So, at least that is kind of good.
But what bothers me most, is these same people harp on about what a good life the wild animals have and I feel that is a total injustice to those animals. They do not have the epic awesome life people are saying they do. The Southern Residents are starving, suffering and dying young. It needs to be made more public.
Blackfish 2.0, focusing solely on the plight of these wild animals, anyone??
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I absolutely love this. I think I may feature this in a journal if that's okay with you..?
And I am frankly outraged at how much all ANYONE cares about seems to be captivity. Quite a few anti-caps would rather hush awful deaths like this up, because it shows that the happy-rainbow-fairy-farts wild whales aren't doing too well. I know not all of them are like that, but a good few. And I've seen a lot less "Save the Southern Residents" or "RIP -insert some tragically dead SR here-" art than I have "FWEEEE TIWIMUK!!!!!!11" art. Which kinda ticks me off.
And I'm also annoyed how glorified all whale-watching has become since it's oh SO much better than teh awful ceptivitee when it hurts these animals so much.
I think it's time for everyone who loves these animals to bury the hatchet because WE ALL LOVE THEM, and we all want to help them. Bickering about captivity isn't helping anyone. It's wasting time. Naomi Rose saying that she would never accept money from SeaWorld isn't helping.
We need to use all of our resources. We need to take SeaWorld's money, and THEY need to also help by using their whales to educate people on what's happening to whales out in the ocean. Let's just band together and focus on the big picture.
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