Event Title
Phocoenacide – The Killing of Harbor Porpoise (Phocoena phocena) by Fish Eating Southern Resident Killer Whales (Orcinus orca).
Presentation Abstract
Southern Resident fish-eating killer whales have been observed "mugging" and killing harbor porpoise without subsequent predation on the animal carcass. While occasional porpoise killings by L-pod and K-pod members had been documented by staff of the Center for Whale Research since regular monitoring started in 1976, prior to 2005, J-pod was never seen engaging in this “mugging” behavior. However, in 2005, multiple different members of J-pod were documented killing harbor porpoises on four separate occasions during the month of July. Since 2005, several different research groups have recorded additional mugging episodes by members of all three Southern Resident Killer Whale pods. Pooling long-term datasets from myriad research groups allows for robust analysis of this novel behavior with the aim of understanding why this behavior is occurring as well as possible implications for the local harbor porpoise population.
Session Title
General species and food webs
Conference Track
Species and Food Webs
Conference Name
Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference (2016 : Vancouver, B.C.)
Document Type
Event
Location
2016SSEC
Type of Presentation
Oral
Genre/Form
presentations (communicative events)
Contributing Repository
Digital content made available by University Archives, Heritage Resources, Western Libraries, Western Washington University.
Subjects – Topical (LCSH)
Dall porpoise--Predators of--Salish Sea (B.C. and Wash.); Killer whale--Behavior--Salish Sea (B.C. and Wash.)
Subjects – Names (LCNAF)
Whale Museum (Friday Harbor, Wash.)
Geographic Coverage
Salish Sea (B.C. and Wash.)
Rights
This resource is displayed for educational purposes only and may be subject to U.S. and international copyright laws. For more information about rights or obtaining copies of this resource, please contact University Archives, Heritage Resources, Western Libraries, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA 98225-9103, USA (360-650-7534; heritage.resources@wwu.edu) and refer to the collection name and identifier. Any materials cited must be attributed to the Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference Records, University Archives, Heritage Resources, Western Libraries, Western Washington University.
Type
Text
Language
English
Format
application/pdf
Phocoenacide – The Killing of Harbor Porpoise (Phocoena phocena) by Fish Eating Southern Resident Killer Whales (Orcinus orca).
2016SSEC
Southern Resident fish-eating killer whales have been observed "mugging" and killing harbor porpoise without subsequent predation on the animal carcass. While occasional porpoise killings by L-pod and K-pod members had been documented by staff of the Center for Whale Research since regular monitoring started in 1976, prior to 2005, J-pod was never seen engaging in this “mugging” behavior. However, in 2005, multiple different members of J-pod were documented killing harbor porpoises on four separate occasions during the month of July. Since 2005, several different research groups have recorded additional mugging episodes by members of all three Southern Resident Killer Whale pods. Pooling long-term datasets from myriad research groups allows for robust analysis of this novel behavior with the aim of understanding why this behavior is occurring as well as possible implications for the local harbor porpoise population.
Comments
This research is a collaborative project with researchers from the Center for Whale Research, The Whale Museum, The SeaDoc Society, Cascadia Research Collective, NOAA - Northwest Fisheries Science Center and Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans.