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Wildlife
Reports
Orcas of the
Northwest Atlantic
by Dave Snow
The orcas in the western Atlantic
have received little study. We know they were common enough to serve
as a prominent subject for the art and rituals of the people who
lived in Newfoundland and Labrador 3,000 years ago. The most famous
artifacts taken from Port aux Choix National Historic Site on the
west coast of the island of Newfoundland are orca effigies carved in
bone. These people lived off the whales, seals, salmon, and cod of
the rich north Atlantic as did the orcas they undoubtedly shared the
coastline with. Today orcas are considered to be a rare sight in the
west Atlantic from Nova Scotia south.
There are no known studies of
northwest Atlantic orcas until after World War II. Early European
art works tell us they were observed in the 1500s when the first
whalers came to Newfoundland and Labrador, but since orcas were too
fast, too small, and maybe too smart to catch, they were probably
ignored.
With the more modern whaling
practices in the 19th century, orcas became the hunting partners of
human whalers. They sometimes waited outside North American ports
such as Gloucester, Provincetown and Bedford joining whaling boats
as they left port on their hunts. Once at sea, the orcas chased
larger whales towards the waiting harpoons of the whalers and
attacked the panicked whales from below while the harpoons rained
down from above. After World War I, the iron boats of the whalers
turned their harpoons on the orcas, now viewed as competitors, and
soon the orcas learned to avoid humans.
The orcas continued to be ignored —
or just occasionally hunted — until after World War II when
commercial fishermen and whalers began to consider them a competitor
for the ever dwindling number of large whales. In Iceland, the
government encouraged the American Navy to use orcas as living
targets for anti-submarine warfare exercises. In April 1954, Time
magazine reported, "… killer whales… savage sea cannibals with teeth
like bayonets… one was caught with 14 seals and 13 porpoises in its
belly… have destroyed thousands of dollars worth of fishing tackle…
Icelandic Government appealed to the U.S., which has thousands of
men stationed at a lonely NATO airbase. The bored G.I.s responded
with enthusiasm… one posse of Americans… in one morning wiped out a
pack of 100 killers… ".
The whalers of Newfoundland also
contributed to what must have been a major decline in northwest
Atlantic orca numbers. Captain Henry Mahle of Dildo, Conception Bay
was the province's last whaling captain and reports occasionally
shooting orcas off Newfoundland waters until 1972, when Canada
banned commercial whaling. And during the 1940s and 1950s Norwegian
whalers took small numbers of orcas all around the Newfoundland and
Labrador coast. The largest group, consisting of six orcas, was
killed about 90 kilometres due east of Battle Harbour, Labrador.
In 1979 Memorial University 's
Whale Research Group under the leadership of Dr. Jon Lien began to
systematically catalogue the whales around Newfoundland. About the
same time, other academic organizations along the Atlantic coast
began looking at the various types of whales and the size of their
various populations. Orcas were occasionally seen around
Newfoundland and Labrador by lighthouse keepers, Wildland Tours
holiday groups, and other interested observers, but they never
stayed in a given area for more than a day or two.
For example, our own anecdotal
records and more detailed trip lists show orcas made brief
appearances around the Newfoundland coast throughout the summers of
1994 to 2007. Every summer observers would report orcas from places
such as the Bay of Islands, Twillingate, Bay Bulls, Ferryland and
Quidi Vidi. The sighting would typically last anywhere from a few
minutes to a few hours, but the next day the whales would be gone.
A St. John's harbour tour boat
reported one of the best 1997 sightings — a pod of six adults with a
very small calf. One of the whales had a seal in its mouth for
several hours. The orcas appeared on August 1 off Cape Spear and
appear to have frightened off the area's humpbacks and minkes. No
other whales were seen on that day; however, high numbers of both
humpback and minke were consistently seen — every trip, seven days a
week — for several weeks before and after the orca sighting. It
seems that orcas do not always frighten away other whales; our
holiday groups have observed orcas near humpbacks, minkes, and/or
white beaked dolphins on at least a dozen occasions.
The year 2002 provided some of our
company's most dramatic orca watching adventures. On July 19, Mary
Hughes of Connecticut watched a group of orcas from the Labrador
ferry as she participated in our
Viking Trail
Experience tour. On July 25 she was in St. John's participating
in our Whale
Study Week program when the thirty humpbacks in the area all
started making loud flippering, lobtailing and breaching displays.
The horizon filled with humpbacks doing acrobatics. Minutes later
Mary's group spotted six orcas. The photographic target switched
from individual humpback tails and markings to individual orca
dorsal fins and Mary's group was able to get useful identification
shots of all six animals, including one large male. We now refer to
this group as A-pod.
Mary and the rest of our party
spent over two hours with this group of six, and added some
wonderful new images to our small but growing provincial orca
catalogue. This catalogue is the first attempt at systematically
studying this region's orcas. This particular group was photographed
several times off our portion of eastern Newfoundland between June
to October 2002. After 25-plus years of field work and regular,
intense summer-time whale observation efforts in this region, 2002
marked the first time a pod of orcas appeared to stay near shore in
the Avalon (southern Newfoundland ) area for longer than a few days.
As our knowledge of local orca
behaviour and distribution grows we have been able to identify
several family groups which have been seen in Newfoundland and
Labrador waters — some over a number of years. These families are
recognized by the dorsal fin photos of the males plus some of the
females. Individual markings are also allowing us to identify
individual orcas.
On July 19, 2002 we received
reports of orca pods from Twillingate, St. Anthony, St. John's, and
between St. Barbe and Blanc Sablon. The distances between these
places confirms there is a minimum of four groups that sometimes
occupy Newfoundland and Labrador coastal waters.
From our years of observation, it
seems apparent that orcas around the Atlantic followed the
"transient" lifestyle reported from British Columbia and Alaska.
Researchers such as British Columbia 's John Ford found that some
orcas, referred to as "resident", remained in an area feeding off
salmon and other marine resources. These whales tend to be quite
vocal and predictable in their movements within a home range. Other
orcas, termed "transients", follow a nomadic lifestyle, quietly
swimming hundreds or thousands of miles in pursuit of fish, seals,
small whales and larger whales. The BC and Alaska residents are the
world's most studied and best known wild whales. The transients
appear to feed exclusively on marine mammals (seals and whales)
while the residents appear to be exclusively fish eaters. Fish in
the salmon family are especially prominent in the diet of resident
Pacific orcas. In the Atlantic, salmon are most abundant off
Greenland and Newfoundland/Labrador. Participants in past Wildland
Tours expeditions have seen orcas spend time engaged in what appears
to be fishing activity near well known commercial salmon fishing
locations; and a link between orca distribution and salmon
distribution does seem reasonable for Atlantic waters.
The orcas of Norway (eastern North
Atlantic) also follow a transient life history as they move from the
fjords of Norway to the coast of Iceland. Despite having a
“transient” life history there are times — such as when the fjords
are filled with herring or salmon — when transients can be reliably
sighted. No "resident" whales have ever been reported from the
Atlantic. Before our own orca research work started, the coast off
northern Newfoundland and Labrador had never been scientifically
surveyed for orcas. This report tells the on-going story of our
research expeditions.
Throughout the 1990s the holiday
leaders of Wildland Tours received occasional reports from
government officials and travelers about orca sightings off southern
Labrador. Passengers on the Labrador coastal supply boats seemed
particularly likely to give anecdotal reports of orcas along the
southern Labrador coast. A check with Memorial University
researchers revealed that a dead orca had been found in the Battle
Harbour area around 1995. Reports of orcas from other southern
Labrador coastal communities were also relatively frequent. And
despite low numbers of knowledgeable whale watchers visiting the
more remote portions of southern Labrador, many travelers reported
seeing orcas. Over the years orca reports have been far more common
off southern Labrador, which receives very few visitors, than off
St. John 's or Bay Bulls, where there are numerous, daily whale
watching trips.
With this in mind, in September of
1997, Wildland Tours accepted an invitation to explore the
restoration of Battle Harbour on the Labrador coast. Battle Harbour,
which has been a fishing port since 1759, is one of Labrador 's
oldest European settlements. It was the major centre for generations
of Newfoundland fishing families until the 1960s, when it was
abandoned. Many of Labrador's coastal (European-settled) communities
have been abandoned, but the amazing architecture and awesome beauty
of the area have inspired Labrador enthusiasts to restore many of
the town's larger buildings. Our general manager was exploring the
site to assess its suitability for future holidays and especially to
look for orcas when she spotted a male and female orca accompanied
by a calf. The whales passed close to the local ferry that was
returning her to the airstrip. Other than this ferry trip the
site-inspection didn't allow for any time on the water looking for
whales. Nevertheless, she did find three orcas!
There is no mistaking an orca
sighting. The males have the largest dorsal fins in the ocean — as
tall as six feet — while the females have the world's second largest
dorsal fins — typically a meter or three feet high. Two days prior
to our manager's arrival in Battle Harbour a cruise ship reported
sighting a large pod of orcas. And during her visit the local hosts
stated that "this variety of whale is here all the time".
We also conducted interviews with
people from southern Labrador. Many of the people in the area are of
aboriginal ancestry and have a long tradition of closely watching
the ocean. Some people reported that the whales with the large
dorsal fins were seen daily — from late June to late September. We
heard amusing stories of children in row boats attempting to cross a
narrow strait between two islands but being forced back to shore by
the apparently playful rushes of the orcas. We also heard how the
orcas can be seen every day from some of the hills near the
community and how some have occasionally put on breaching displays
for the community's citizens.
We speculated that we had found the
western Atlantic's best area for reliably encountering orcas; and
during 1998 we offered a special trip to southern Labrador for the
historical sights and especially to begin a preliminary attempt to
document orca numbers and distribution in the area. If there were
orcas frequenting the area then detailed observations would provide
useful scientific insights together with one of eastern North
America 's premier whale watching experiences. (Newfoundland
currently boasts the world's largest gathering of humpback whales.
If Labrador can be proven to host a reliably sighted pod of orcas,
then it would be scientifically important and could form the basis
for an incredibly exciting holiday!) The orcas cannot physically
maintain a year-round residency off southern Labrador since the pack
ice moves along the Labrador coast every springtime and forms a
solid mass hundreds of square miles in size. During the rest of the
year our surveying of travelers and fishing industry professionals
suggested that there do seem to be reliably sighted orcas in the
southern Labrador area. They might not be “resident" however even
British Columbia 's "resident" whales move offshore in the winter so
the term resident does not necessarily mean "year-round".
Our 1998 expedition found two
separate family groups (one group of four orcas and one of five
orcas) south of Battle Harbour. Poor weather or poor viewing
locations prevented our attempts at scientifically useful
photography. Our 1998 expedition leader, Dr. Sean Todd (now senior
researcher with Allied Whale at College of the Atlantic in Bar
Harbour, Maine), observed that the orcas appeared to be feeding on
capelin — a small 6-inch fish that is very abundant along the coast.
The orcas were in the company of at least 4 other species of whale
(humpback, fin, sei and white-beaked dolphins). Eating capelin
represents a unique feeding behaviour for orcas, although it is not
surprising given the ecology of the region. In 1999 we started a
formal registry of provincial orca sightings so we could more
systematically study the animals, and we sent a group of adventurous
Canadian businessmen to southern Labrador by helicopter. Three orcas
were seen off the Gray Islands of northern Newfoundland and a small
group (at least three) was seen just south of Battle Harbour.
The year 2000 brought more orca
sightings around Newfoundland and Labrador than ever before. In
addition to occasional sightings around the province's coast, we
continued to receive regular reports of sightings from southern
Labrador and also from a portion of northern Newfoundland in an area
almost within view of the Labrador coast. A local biologist (Paul
Alcock of Northland Discovery Boat Tours in St. Anthony) reported
120 orca sightings over the summer. By July 2001, Wildland Tours
groups were again viewing orcas off the Labrador coast, including
one large male that pursued a minke whale around Red Bay harbour for
over an hour. During that same year Dr. Jon Lien reported a minke
and orca cooperatively feeding on herring off the community of Nain,
Labrador.
Given the strong anecdotal evidence
for reliable orca viewing and the success of our past three in-house
orca expeditions, we offered eastern North America 's first
commercial orca watching holiday in mid-August 2002. That expedition
searched the coastline off Labrador and northern Newfoundland
encountering six species of whale together with caribou, moose,
several seal species, and a black bear. Orcas were reported in the
region, but we never found them. Later that year a group of 30 orcas
were reported off Battle Harbour. The staff at this site had
reported sighting large groups of orcas during the early fall for
many years so we adjusted our timing for our next orca-oriented
expedition.
Our strategy of formally
documenting sightings from around the province also began to lend
insights as we concluded that the Grand Banks (offshore
Newfoundland) and the northern Newfoundland/southern Labrador area
are the western Atlantic ’s prime places for orca sightings. Late
August and early September appeared to be ideal times for near shore
orca encounters off the southern Labrador coast.
In 2004 we continued working with
southern Labrador residents, including the Battle Harbour Historic
Trust (the people who turned the area's restored buildings into
basic accommodations), as part of our ongoing research into
Newfoundland and Labrador 's whale biology and distribution. Our
September 2004
Southern Labrador Adventure expedition went to Battle Harbour and
featured two families of orcas plus over 10,000 white-sided and
white-beaked dolphins. We were able to catalogue some orca dorsal
fins photographically. Our September 2005 expedition followed the
same itinerary and featured a group of seven orcas — all females and
juveniles. We watched them closely circle and agitate a group of
three humpbacks that grouped closely together to defend themselves.
We were fortunate enough to record the underwater squeals of these
orcas and the humpback trumpets — which were also very audible above
the surface. (This can be heard at
Atlantic Whales). Our September 2006 expedition featured another
dramatic encounter with a family of orcas and our photographic
census research allowed us to establish that we were observing the
same extended family of orcas. Our 2007 expedition featured orcas
preying on white beaked dolphins. Other orca observers photographed
predation events on a white sided dolphin and a small minke whale.
We collected two dolphin dorsal fins (apparently orcas don’t find
them particularly appetizing) and passed them along to the
Department of Fisheries and Oceans for research purposes.
For September 2008 we will once
again be travelling in the Battle Harbour and Northern Newfoundland
regions in order to continue our humpback census work and also to
collect more orca photographs. This year we hope to once again use
our hydrophone to capture more underwater vocalizations to see how
they compare with the orcas of Iceland, western Canada and Norway.
Results from B.C. show that orcas following a resident lifestyle are
far more vocal than the silent-hunting transient lifestyle orcas.
Our Newfoundland and Labrador orcas could certainly not be
considered silent but other than our 2005 recording, there is no
data on their underwater communications. Thus the vocalizations of
the study region orcas should provide interesting and important
scientific insights.
There are no guarantees of orca
sightings since, other than our expeditions, we still have no
systematic, scientific data about whale residency. There is,
however, strong aboriginal knowledge suggesting a high probability
of orca sightings; and all but one of our preliminary surveys and
previous expeditions have proven to be successful with respect to
finding orcas. The worst-case scenario is that Southern Labrador
Adventure
participants will have a wonderful whale-filled holiday without
orcas, but all the evidence suggests we will find orcas over the
course of the expedition. The area is typically rich with humpbacks,
and we will be working to photograph as many humpback tail flukes as
possible. According to the researchers working with Dr. Sean Todd at
Allied Whale in Maine, these humpbacks are the least known feeding
population in the world; and scientists continue to be especially
interested in our tail photographs from this area.
The southern Labrador area boasts
other whales, icebergs, great walking, beautiful scenery, subarctic
wildflowers, abundant black bears, eider duck colonies, varied
seabirds, and a rich, historic atmosphere. This is where Peary used
the eastern arctic’s most northerly wireless set to tell the world
about his 1909 journey to the Pole ("the Pole is ours"). And this is
where beautifully restored fishing homes and merchant warehouses at
Battle Harbour offer a glimpse back into 19th century commercial
life. At Battle Harbour we provide basic accommodations in restored
and refurbished historical buildings together with great food. The
second half of our expedition focuses on the coast of northern
Newfoundland where we venture out into the areas that have provided
dozens of orca sightings a year since 2000. Here we have more modern
local accommodations and food in place — so we can enjoy wild,
whale-filled days and comfortable nights.
We believe this trip is one of the
greatest adventures available on Earth. The western and northern
Newfoundland travel routes include two UNESCO world heritage sites,
the northern edge of the Appalachian Mountains, and the New World 's
only Viking site. Our southern Labrador route features the 1550
world whaling capital at Red Bay and the New World 's oldest burial
mound. The dramatic coastal settings and the wildlife populations
hold the promise of transforming our itinerary into the learning and
research vacation of a lifetime. If you are interested in exploring
these little-known parts of the world as part of our quest to
document the whales along the east coast of North America, we invite
you to review the itinerary and join the expedition.
Dave Snow has written numerous
articles and special publications on seabirds, whales, and marine
ecology. Wildland Tours promotes and coordinates the Newfoundland
and Labrador portion of the world-wide humpback whale census. This
population has been found to be the planet's largest feeding
gathering of humpbacks. The study of whale numbers provides
important insights into oceanic health. In 2007, Dave co-authored
the first draft of the Canadian government’s pending status report
document on the orcas of Atlantic Canada for the Committee on the
Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC). |
