Orcasphere

Gregg Schorr for Brad, dive behavior Is dive depth related to prey preference? Do dive rates vary between pods, day/night, years? Is frequency of max dive depth constant over time? Prey field mapping in Sept, 2004 (after sockeye, during fall Chinook run): big targets are near middle of water column (>100m); prey assemblages different in [...]

Pete for Steve Rafferty, epidemiological and pathologic findings Only 10/81 confirmed SR deaths and 4/142 of NR were beach cast and available for post-mortem examination.  Infectious pneumonia is most common reported cause of mortality (60% of those necropsied).  We now have a standardized protocol for doing necropsies (available at http://seadocsociety.org)  Since 2002, Steve and Joe [...]

Sandra O’Neill, Contaminants in salmon We’ve heard that S and N residents are both eating mostly Chinook.  Why are the southern residents more contaminated than the northern residents? Contaminants in fish are determined by: where they live what they eat how long they are exposed how fat they are Chinook and Coho have elevated [PBDE] [...]

8:35 John Ford, resident KW foraging ecology What may have caused the simultaneous declines in the N and S residents during the late 1990s?  Nutritional stress? We compared expected and observed births and deaths, where expectations were based on period of unlimited growth (’73-’90).  There were two phases of increased mortality in adult/juvenile fe/males: late [...]