Orcasphere

This is an hour-long conversation about southern resident killer whales involving Dave Dix, Brad Hanson, and Robin Baird on KUOW’s weekday with Steve Sher.  With luck there will be similar conversations about the state of Puget Sound as we all digest the Puget Sound Partnship’s Draft Action Agenda – 06Nov2008. clipped from www.kuow.org Orcas Dying [...]

The funds from the Pacific Salmon Commission could be a great catalyst of research about the behavior and ecology of the Chinook and chum salmon that southern residents appear to prefer. This decrease in endowment coupled with the recent news of losses in the SRKW population — possibly related to starvation — add up to [...]

Theses and grey literature related to southern residents can be hard to find and share.  The Orcasphere library eases your pain by providing such documents in PDF format.  Recent additions are the theses of Sara Heimlich-Boran and  Monika Wieland.  Other hard-to-obtain theses that have been archived are those by: Fred Felleman, Rich Osborne, Andy Foote, [...]

1986: Feeding ecology of the killer whale (4.4Mb) “Feeding ecology of the killer whale (Orcinus orca)” by Fred Felleman. A Masters thesis (177 pages) from the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, University of Washington. 1988: Association patterns and social dynamics in greater Puget Sound (3.4Mb) “Association patterns and social dynamics of killer whales (Orcinus [...]

Theses Masters and PhD theses related to orcas and their ecosystem(s). 2002: Do orcas use symbols? (208K) An online treatise by Howard Garrett positing that the theory of symbolic interactionism may help account for the divergent and complex cultural traditions found in sympatric orca populations. (October, 2002; 15 page PDF.) 2005: Proposed conservation plan for [...]

Notes on “Ecosystem Based Management – It’s now up to us” at the NOAA/NWFSC Monster Jam seminar.  Bill introduced the talk by discussing how 97% of Puget Sound residents feel obligated to pass on a clean marine environment to their children, but very few think there are any substantial problems with Puget Sound. 11:15 Puget [...]

Here’s my first attempt at live-blogging… 8:40-9:20 a.m. from the University of Washington’s Water Seminar. 8:40 Key findings of his and Lisa Stiffler’s investigation of the Duwamish estuary: Pollution is historic an ongoing; diversity is down; everyone is contributing to the problem (e.g. run-off) Some chemicals lethal; some not (Cu not good for young salmon; [...]

It’s said that the Elwha River once sustained impressive runs of Spring Chinook salmon: “Elwha chinook are one of the Puget Sound chinook stocks listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act and are also legendary in that they typically reached over 100 pounds at maturity…. Prior to the dams, the Elwha River was [...]

You can collaborate within the Orcasphere in the following ways: Read, contribute to, and comment on the Orcasphere blog Join an email list related to killer whales: subscribe to OrcaEd — A list for educators who teach about orcas (educational resources, events, etc.) subscribe to OrcaSci — A list for scientists who study orcas (research [...]

Humans value interacting with killer whales. There are many ways to observe them, learn and wonder about them, and ultimately help protect them: observe them from land by traversing The Whale Trail; watch them on webcams at the Center for Whale Research or Race Rocks; listen to them with live hydrophones in their summer home [...]