Southern resident killer whales always look sharp in their smooth black-and-white body suits, but now they have a new accessory.
Dead salmon hats.
Researchers in Washington have noticed at least one orca balancing salmon on its head in Puget Sound this fall, taking the dead fish for a ride and possibly snacking on the salmon at its leisure.
Sporting salmon-corpse lids isn’t exactly new behaviour for the southern residents. The phenomenon was first noticed in 1987, when for that one year, a female from K-pod started wearing a salmon on her head.
Within a few weeks, the other endangered pods, J and L, decided to try the fish-hats on as well.
Last month, J27 Blackberry, a 32-year-old male, was photographed exhibiting the same behaviour at Point No Point, Washington, off Whidbey Island in Puget Sound.
Just why the orcas are doing it is a bit of a mystery.
“Honestly, we have no idea why this started again, why it happens or why it seems to be started again,” Dr. Deborah Giles, a Friday Harbour-based researcher who heads the science teams at the Wild ORCA, told the Times Colonist on Friday.
She said the fish-hat fad is likely linked to food availability in a certain place.
Giles said there have been healthy salmon runs in Admiralty Inlet in Puget Sound, where all three pods have been spending a lot of time recently feeding on fish. And that’s generally been the area where some orcas have been spotted wearing salmon.
Andrew Foote, an evolution ecologist at the University of Oslo in Norway, told New Scientist last week it’s possible that some of the original orcas who took part in the fish-hat fad are still around and remember it from before.
The Times Colonist reached out to marine-mammal scientists at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to see if the behaviour has been noticed in Canadian waters amid salmon runs on the Fraser River and other salmon spawning staging areas around Vancouver Island.
The DFO did not immediately return the query.
J-Pod was spotted in Active Pass this week.
New Scientist reported this week that large runs of chum salmon in South Puget Sound may be producing more food than the orcas can immediately eat, so they’re packing them on their heads.
Giles told New Scientist that mammal-eating orcas have been seen carrying pieces of food under their pectoral fins, tucked in next to their bodies. Because salmon are smaller, the southern residents, which are fish eaters, may be using their heads instead.
It isn’t clear how many other whales are exhibiting the behaviour, or if other pods are following suit, said Giles.
It may be that the photographed orca was just playing with the salmon.
Erin Gless of the Pacific Whale Watch Association, which represents about 30 whale-watching companies on both sides of the border, said there have been no reports of the behaviour from members because under agreements, whale watchers don’t view the southern residents.
“It has been making its way around social media,” said Gless. “I think it’s more of a fun distraction [type] of story as opposed to a pressing whale one.”
Giles agrees, saying the bigger issue is that endangered fish-eating orcas are facing dire threats in the Pacific Northwest with fish shortages, noise pollution from increasing shipping traffic that interferes with their ability to find food, and toxins and pollution in the water.
The J-, K- and L-pods are down to just 73 orcas, according to the latest census completed in July by the Center for Whale Research, based in Friday Harbor, Washington. Two adult males were lost and a male calf that was born and counted in the census period subsequently died.
A statement from the Center for Whale Research last month said research “clearly shows that survival rates are closely tied to Chinook salmon abundance,” adding recovery isn’t possible without an increase in that prey.
Giles noted the salmon-hat phenomenon may show some pods are getting enough to eat now, “but they’re not getting enough to eat the entire year — both in the United States and Canada — and that’s a real cause for concern.”
According to researchers, baleen whales such as grays and humpbacks often sport seaweed hats, something known as “kelping,” where they swim through seaweed, sometimes leaving it on their heads.
Starting in 2025, boaters in the U.S. will be required to stay at least 1,000 yards from southern resident killer whales in Washington state waters. A Senate bill expands the existing setback from 300 to 400 yards.
Canada’s regulations stipulate boaters must stay 400 metres from all killer whales in southern coastal waters from Ucluelet to Campbell River, and 200 metres in other areas.
dkloster@times colonist.com
