Photo Credit: Jackie Hildering - ""I33 and I45 of the I31s"                                                    "Members of the A8s spyhop"

Although winter winds often impair whale sightings at this time of the year, we humans are still often able to know if there are killer whales in the area by listening for them underwater.

While the mammal-eating killer whales ("transients") are very quiet in order to suceed in hunting prey that can hear them, the fish -eating killer whales ("residents") are astoundingly vocal.  The residents can in fact afford to "live in a world of underwater sound" (a great Dr. John Ford quote) because fish generally have really poor hearing.

So, by listening underwater with hydrophones, Captain Jim heard that there were resident killer whales in the area early last week.  To the highly trained ear, it is even possible to know which family-group ("matriline") of resident killer whales is vocalizing since every matriline sounds different.

Dr. Paul Spong and Helena Symonds of the Orca Lab are the ones that always have their highly trained ears to the water in our area.  They have been able to conclude that the A5s and I31 matrilines have been around for at least a week.  You can listen along with them and read their updates at www.orca-live.net.