Status Updates From Spirits of the Coast: Orcas...

The way western society interacts with the world is often rooted in disconnection, in dissociation. We think we are architects of the order of the world, that our needs are the higher needs... If disconnection is the root cause of what has made our world, and the orcas’ world, so precarious—the antidote is connection. Building connection is building community.

The whales are telling us what is wrong with our current system, whether it is hunger, noise, disconnection, loss of biodiversity, industrial resource extraction, climate change, toxicity, even lonliness. The whales are also pointing us to an alternate worldview, one that has welcomed strangers to the land and recognizes the natural world as an essential element in every aspect of our lives–ultimately our survival.

Today, wherever there are fish farms, chinook have continued to decline, to the point where most populations are on the brink of extinction.

We have tried to protect parts of the earth by establishing parks to keep ourselves out, but today our survival hinges on learning how to live on this planet. We must use what we know to dovetail into the natural systems that power our world and learn to be good neighbours to the others we share this planet with.

Orcas are one of the only species besides humans where females experience menopause, a prolonged life beyond their reproductive years. The evolutionary theory known as the grandmother hypothesis posits that for humans—and a few marine mammals like orcas and belugas and narwhals—wisdom is more valuable than reproductive ability. Orcas are a matriarchal society, and the matriarchs are vital to their survival.

As apex predators, orcas accumulate industrial chemicals from the food chain throughout their lives. Lulu, who died in 2017 off Scotland, had contaminant levels 20 times higher than is considered safe or manageable. She died because of fishing gear, not industrial pollution, but she had never reproduced. One industry kept her from breeding. Another finished her off.

Reducing our impact on the ecosystem is much easier than sending a rocket to the moon, but if we fail and salmon stocks go extinct, and if climate change runs wild thanks to our inability to self regulate, we may ourselves join the growing list of extinct species in the fossil record.

For a hundred thousand years before the humans arrived, the killer whales and the salmon co-evolved, creating and encouraging a nutrient flow from sea to mountaintop that we have been too slow to appreciate. We now know that much of the nitrogen in the trees of the forest is of marine origin, brought by the salmon from the sea.

They [orcas] possess all the attributes of culture as we define it for humans: from generation to generation, they pass along behaviour patterns and communication modalities that are unique to each ecotype.

Ensuring the survival of these whales isn’t about managing the ocean, it’s about managing humans..they need us not just to empathize, but to listen & act. Science does offer hope, indicating that we can put these whales on a trajectory toward recovery. Given this truth, we would all do well to reflect on our own ability to take responsibility, as we also share a bond to this place, these salmon,& these killer whales.

In the days following 9/11, underwater noise was significantly reduced from the grounding of ship and air traffic. Results from four years of data showed the six-decibel reduction in background noise post-9/11 corresponded to a decrease in stress hormones within the whales, linking noise to chronic stress. Noise from vessels can also mask echolocation clicks killer whales use to detect and catch their prey.

The sharing of food reinforces the strong bonds that exist between family members, and feeding co-operation improves the chances of survival at an individual level...Killer whale scientists think sharing may also limit greed, aggression and competition among family members.
–Our human species would do well to learn from our animal relatives.

Researchers who viewed hundreds of hours of video footage found that in years when salmon abundance was low, the movements of whales were led by the post-reproductive females, for these were the whales with the greatest knowledge of where to look for salmon. The grandmothers are the repositories of ecological knowledge.

Orcas are at the apex of a complex food web, and so they acquire high doses of the toxic chemicals in the environment that accumulate in the bodies of their prey...Orcas are a critical part of the complex web that keeps ocean and coastal ecosystems functioning. We need them, and we must do more to ensure that they thrive and survive long into the future.