Whale watchers appreciate orcas in wild, not aquariums

Whale watchers appreciate orcas in wild, not aquariums

JOHN DODGE

The Olympian Online

19th January 2003

This winter has been a bonanza for Puget Sound and Hood Canal residents who thrill at the sight of orcas, including one who was captured in Budd Inlet 27 years ago and eventually set free.
Scenes of black dorsal fins slicing through the water and sleek, black-and-white torpedo-shaped heads poking out of the water to exhale a noisy burst of air are catching the attention of dozens of local onlookers.

Many of the South Sound sightings were right around Christmas. Since then, continuing through this week, there has been a steady stream of reports from Hood Canal.

The flurry of South Sound orca activity pales in comparison to what happened in March 1976 when Sea World Inc. contractors used planes and small explosives to herd six orcas into nets they strung in lower Budd Inlet. More on that later.

Whale researchers have identified the Hood Canal visitors as transient orcas, an extended family of roughly 190 individuals who travel in small groups, foraging along the Pacific Coast from Alaska to Mexico.

The South Sound Christmastime sightings were probably of transients as well, according to the Center for Whale Research based in the San Juan Islands. So were the whales that were nabbed in Budd Inlet 27 years ago.

In fact, one of the large males cruising Hood Canal was captured as a juvenile all those years ago in Olympia's watery back yard. He's known as T-14.

His tell-tale identifying marks are the scars on his dorsal fin where a radio transmitter installed was ripped out -- with the help of a family member -- shortly after he and his mother were released in the San Juan Islands so many years ago.

If that isn't enough scientific, full-circle discovery to capture your fancy, there are the numerous sightings of southern resident orcas -- the Puget Sound J, K and L pods -- up and down central Puget Sound this winter.

The transients and southern residents speak different languages and even eat different food -- harbor seals and sea lions for the transients and fish for the southern residents.

Follow the sightings

If you're not one of the lucky ones catching a firsthand glimpse of these largest members of the dolphin family, you can follow the activity on Orca Network's whale sighting Web site at www. orcanetwork.org.

The brainchild of Susan Berta and Howard Garrett, Whidbey Island residents and whale lovers, the network encourages folks to quickly phone or e-mail in their sightings, which are posted as soon as possible on the Web site. The network has grown like wildfire in the past year.

By contrast, the reporting hot line that was started in 1976 at the Whale Museum in Friday Harbor waits 24 hours to post new sightings.

Why the difference?

The Whale Museum delays its postings to keep people from rushing out in boats to intentionally or inadvertently harass the whales, said Rich Osborne, science curator at the museum and a 1976 graduate of The Evergreen State College.

Orca Network posts immediately to help scientists and researchers keep track of the whales' whereabouts, and to encourage shore-based viewing by the public, Berta said.

There's nothing to suggest so far that the flurry of e-mail reports has triggered harassment of whales by boaters, Osborne said.

While wary of increased encounters between boats and marine mammals, Olympia marine mammal scientist John Calambokidis -- another TESC grad -- said the e-mail network has helped researchers keep tabs on the southern residents -- and transient killer whales -- during the winter.

Historically, little is known about the location of the K and L pods from October through June. But the sighting network is showing, at least this winter, that all three pods are hanging around Puget Sound.

The sighting network has also increased public interest in the plight of the southern residents, whose numbers have declined from 98 in the late 1990s to 82 today.

"The Orca Network -- they're doing a great job," said Ralph Munro, the former Secretary of State, Mud Bay resident and whale enthusiast. "They're finding hundreds of people to be whale watchers, which is especially valuable to scientists in the winter months."

While orca sightings in South Sound normally number a handful or less each year, they can be spectacular.

In January 2001, 70 or more members of the J, K and L pods were spotted together between Anderson and Ketron islands in an arousing display of breaching, tail-slapping and diving.

They may have been chasing Nisqually River chum salmon on the way to the river spawning grounds.

The Budd Inlet Six

But that event two years ago is overshadowed by what happened March 7, 1976, near Athens Beach in Budd Inlet.

On that fateful Sunday, a trawler, high speed boats and a seaplane commanded by whale-capture expert Don Goldsberry of Sea World Inc. herded six whales into lower Budd Inlet and trapped them.

Armed with a federal permit to take four orcas in Puget Sound -- and sell them to aquariums -- Goldsberry looked like he had his bounty. But it wasn't to be.

Munro saw the whole capture unfold from his sailboat in Budd Inlet. He didn't mince his words that night in an interview with The Olympian.

"It was the most disgusting, rotten thing I have seen," said Munro, an aide at the time to Gov. Dan Evans. "I don't think people should be catching those whales and putting them in aquariums."

The timing of the capture was incredible.

That same week, TESC was hosting an International Orca Symposium, which brought together killer whale researchers, students and conservationists to talk about the plight of orca whales, share research data and map out research projects to learn more about them. The conference had been in the works for months, long before the capture of the "Budd Inlet Six."

Osborne was one of the symposium organizers.

"I went out in Budd Inlet in a rowboat and recorded the whales as they were being trapped," he recalled.

A student at TESC and reporter for the Cooper Point Journal, I went down to the beach as well and listened to the family of whales calling out to each other, both those inside the net and those freely swimming outside. It was a haunting, mournful sound I will never forget.

Greeners formed their own makeshift armada to protest the orcas' capture. They shouted at Goldsberry and his crew: "Remember what happened to Captain Ahab!"

A few emboldened protesters slipped out to the net pens by boat in the dark of night. Their plans to slit the nets and free the whales were turned back by a rifle-toting member of the Goldsberry crew.

The capture also triggered legal and political fallout. The state Senate, which was in session, passed a resolution calling for a moratorium on orca captures in Puget Sound. U.S. Sen. Warren Magnuson, as powerful a senator as this state has ever had, introduced legislation in Congress to bring an end to whale captures in U.S. waters.

By week's end, four of the whales had escaped or been released. And Gov. Evans launched a lawsuit in federal court to block the taking of the Budd Inlet whales.

After initial court skirmishes, Sea World decided not to fight to keep the remaining two in captivity. The two, including T-14, were transferred north to Seattle, equipped with radio transmitters and released in the San Juan Islands.

It was the last orca capture to occur in state waters.

Today, the whale captures of the 1960s and 1970s are blamed -- along with toxic chemicals, habitat loss and dwindling salmon populations, for the decline in the Puget Sound orca population.

The pods' demographics were skewed by the loss of some 30 Puget Sound orcas to the likes of Sea World.

Several conservation groups and individuals, including Munro, filed a lawsuit just last month calling on the National Marine Fisheries Service to grant the Puget Sound orcas protection under the federal Endangered Species Act.

Clearly, the desire to protect, understand -- and see -- orcas in their natural setting has grown steadily since those tumultuous days in Budd Inlet 27 years ago.

John Dodge is a senior reporter and Sunday columnist for The Olympian.
He can be reached at 360-754-5444 or jdodge@olympia.gannett.com.

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