Kat Gale’s Reviews > Spirits of the Coast: Orcas in science, art and history > Status Update
Kat Gale
is on page 47 of 216
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.
— Dec 17, 2025 08:05AM
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Kat’s Previous Updates
Kat Gale
is on page 177 of 216
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.
— Dec 23, 2025 12:16PM
Kat Gale
is on page 170 of 216
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.
— Dec 23, 2025 08:43AM
Kat Gale
is on page 169 of 216
Today, wherever there are fish farms, chinook have continued to decline, to the point where most populations are on the brink of extinction.
— Dec 23, 2025 05:27AM
Kat Gale
is on page 162 of 216
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.
— Dec 21, 2025 09:27AM
Kat Gale
is on page 151 of 216
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.
— Dec 21, 2025 08:12AM
Kat Gale
is on page 132 of 216
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.
— Dec 20, 2025 09:22AM
Kat Gale
is on page 88 of 216
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.
— Dec 19, 2025 03:12AM
Kat Gale
is on page 87 of 216
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.
— Dec 18, 2025 06:06AM
Kat Gale
is on page 84 of 216
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.
— Dec 17, 2025 02:01PM
Kat Gale
is on page 42 of 216
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.
— Dec 16, 2025 06:58PM
