Another troubling data point. Does this have some relationship to the collapse of the sardine fishery, documented last week?
A Vancouver Aquarium researcher is sounding the alarm over “puzzling” changes he’s observed in the killer whale pods that live off the southern British Columbia coast. Dr. Lance Barrett-Lennard says he fears changes in the ocean environment are prompting odd behaviour and an unusually high mortality rate. Barrett-Lennard says the southern resident orca pod, which is found in the Salish Sea between Vancouver Island and the B.C. mainland, has lost seven matriarchs over the past two years, and he’s noticed a lack of vocalizations from the normally chatty mammals. The Vancouver Aquarium’s cetacean research team says the whales were also seen the past two summers travelling in small groups, further offshore to find food – behaviour more typical in winter than summer. At the same time, the researcher says the number of normally transient killer whales has been increasing over the past 25 years.