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Orca whales in Haro Straight

Technology Use in the Study of Orca Whales

Judith Conway

Off the Northwest coast of the United States, just south of Vancouver Island, Canada are the San Juan Islands. The waters surrounding these islands are home to three resident pods (J, K, and L) of Orca whales. Through the Earchwatch Institute I received a grant from the Klingenstein Fund to help the scientists at the Center for Whale Research who study and work to protect Orca whales. I participated on Team IV during the summer of 2002. It was a fantastic experience - studying these intelligent animals in their environment was fascinating. I took all the pictures on the sidebar of this page; they are a testament to the beauty and majesty of J, K, and L pods.

I teach students in grades eight through twelve -- my subject matter is the use of computers and technology. My students and I learn to use multimedia to express ideas. I have a Masters of Instruction in Educational Technology and I am currently working to complete an Ed.D. in Educational Technology, so I am particularly interested in the technology that is used to study Orca whales. The two major areas of focus here are the photo ID work for the yearly Orca survey and the sound recording of Orca calls and echolocation clicks.

Ken Balcomb the founder and director of the Center for Whale Research (Center) has studied Orca whales since 1976. Each year the Center produces a survey that contains a picture of the dorsal fin and right and left view of the saddle patch of each Orca whale sighted in the San Juan Islands area that season. To see a diagram of an Orca whale click here.

The saddle patch is a grayish area behind the dorsal fin of an Orca whale. Saddle patches are as unique as fingerprints, so they can be used to identify individuals. The dorsal fin is also an aid to identification even though it can change during an Orca's lifetime. Once an Orca's dorsal fin is damaged -- a nick for example, the scar never fills in. The same is true of a scratch on a saddle patch. So these marks once they occur will remain and can make the identification of individuals easier. To see an example of an ID photo click here.

The Photo ID process is systematical. A team of scientists/photographers/boat crew will go out in a boat to find Orca whales to photograph. That, of course, is the first problem -- how does one know where the Orcas are?

The waters around the San Juan Islands are a major path for Salmon on their way back to their birth rivers to spawn. Salmon is a favorite food of the resident J, K, and L pods. The Orcas are seen in the San Juan Island waters from May through October of each year as they follow the salmon. The salmon run from the Pacific Ocean toward particular rivers and their path is fairly predictable. As a result, the Orca presence in general locations is fairly predictable also. Click here for a graph of Orca sightings from the Whale Museum in Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. Orcacam also provides a journal of Orca sightings written by Tom McMillen, the captain of a whale watch boat from San Juan Island. Though the location of Orcas in general is fairly easy to predict, the specific location is not.

The location of the Center for Whale Research is ideal for sightings as it is on the western side of San Juan Island - an often traveled path for Orcas and salmon. While I was there early morning watch would start at 4:15 am, a volunteer would use the "Big Eyes" binoculars to watch for whales in Haro Straight. The first indication of whale presence is the sight of the blow when they exhale. There is a hydrophone in the water about a mile north of the Center that broadcasts over an fm frequency; the radio at the Center is tuned to receive it so if whales are vocalizing they can be heard coming from the north. A staff member would drive to the southwest side of the island, near Lime Kiln State Park to look for whales there. Friends on the island would give a call if they saw whales; whale watching boat captains would share information as well. By and large the network was very low tech, using physical sighting with binoculars and phones. Some whale watching companies would pay a small plane to radio-in sightings from the air. A man who lives on Vancouver Island (across Haro Straight from San Juan Island) has a magnificent view of the straight; he has made a business of using high powered binoculars to sight whales. He gives his customers a series of codes and when he sees whales (or other marine life) he sends the appropriate code over a beeper. The Center receives this service in exchange for sharing sightings when they can.

Once Orcas are sighted the crew goes into action. The main research vessel is High Spirits, a 37-foot trimaran, harbored a 5 minute drive from the Center. Gear and food are packed the night before. Gear includes a 35mm camera equipped with a 300 mm lens, a hydrophone (underwater microphone), and sometimes a video camera and an underwater video camera. For the photo ID work high speed black and white film is used in the 35 mm camera; the video cameras film in color.

Taking a good picture under any circumstances is difficult, but on a rocking boat taking a picture of an animal that surfaces wherever and whenever it pleases is especially challenging. I have many pictures of water where whales once were. Ideally, an ID picture should be taken with the Orca parallel to the vessel and at a distance of 100-200 feet. Sometimes the whales do wander closer to the boat, but whale watching guidelines state that boats should not approach closer than 100 feet.

I took the pictures on the sidebars of this page with a Kodak DX3600 digital camera. It is a 2.2 megapixel camera and has a 2x optical zoom and a 3X digital zoom. Some of the pictures were taken from the deck of the Center for Whale Research and some from the deck of the High Spirits or Orca, a 19-foot Boston Whaler. I had three 64mb Compact Flash memory cards; I could take lots of pictures at the highest resolution so that I could crop or resize them later and not lose quality.

Pictures cannot really convey the awe of seeing these marvelous and intelligent fellow mammals. One morning on the Orca, all 79 members of J, K, and L pods swam by us, some right under our boat, some almost close enough to touch. That day they were swimming against the tide and catching salmon. They were traveling very close together, some abreast - coming up to breathe at the same time, their blows hanging in the cool morning air. I find the sound of their blows very comforting on some level, perhaps because breathing is so elemental to our species as well.

While pictures are being taken a log of whale behaviors is being written along with time of day, tide, sea conditions, and number of boats in the area. Scientists wonder if the number of boats (sometimes numbering 50 or more) might influence whale behavior. At a minimum underwater sound pollution is a concern for creatures who rely on echolocation and vocalization to hunt. Behaviors might include breaching, tail lobbing, spy-hopping, logging, traveling and direction of travel. (For more detail about behaviors click here.) The logs are recorded with paper and pen. Later this information will be entered into an Access database. Entering this information is a rather time consuming task, as it is entered, usually by two people - one reading and one typing, and then checked by a third person.

Hand held computers might eliminate this time consuming and somewhat tedious task. Data entered on a hand held computer could interface with an Access data base. The data entry process would need to be facilitated with drop down menus and auto entry of some fields (i.e. date and time) to accommodate the speed with which the data needs to be recorded. The problems that I see relate to the brightness and size of the display and water tightness. The display needs to be powerful enough to be seen under very bright sunlight conditions and large enough to be easily read on a moving vessel under a variety of weather conditions. The fact that salt water and computers don't mix, of course, presents other accommodations that need to be made to the construction of the computer.

While whales are present a hydrophone might be dropped into the water so that vocalizations can be recorded. They will later be coded and entered into a database for further analysis.

Upon return to the Center the film negatives are processed. The whales in each frame are then identified by comparing the negative to the catalogue of the members of the J, K, and L pods. It takes some practice to do this. One first looks at what side of the whale was photographed. Next look at the size and shape of the dorsal fin; are there any nicks? Then focus on the saddle patch; is it closed (almost all gray) or open (some black in the middle); are there any fingers or bumps (white areas that stuck out)? Click here for a visual explanation. After identifying two or three rolls of film the task becomes easier. The ID photos are then printed from the best shots.

I didn't have any experience developing film. I found that I really enjoyed learning how to do this. There was something about working in the the darkroom producing pictures of beautiful whales that really appealed to me. Below are a few of the pictures that I developed (the photos were taken by Center staff). Try your hand at trying to identify who they are. Compare them to this years survey photos. (A new browser window will open so you can move between this window and the survey photos. Hint: 3 are in J pod; 1 in L pod)

Click here to see the ID of each whale.

According to Center staff," The catalogue is updated annually to reflect births, deaths, matrilineal genealogies, and changes in dorsal fins or saddle patches. The photographs are also used to assess signs of poor health like sunken blowhole areas." The full list of objectives can be accessed here.

Most people learn by both visual and auditory methods. The Photo ID survey is a way we can learn visually about Orca whales. Listening to whales is another way we can learn about them. Whales can see both above and under water. The air is often clear (except on those foggy days that the Pacific Northwest is famous for); water is rarely clear. It is not surprising then that Orca whales rely on sound to navigate through the water. Orcas use air passages below their blowhole and an oil filled area above their mouths to produce echolocating clicks. They focus the returning clicks to the middle ear to produce an acoustic image. To see a diagram click here. The hydrophone provides a way for scientists to listen in on the Orca perspective.

One way to record Orca vocalizations is to get in a boat, find some whales, drop a hydrophone over the side and begin recording. As with the photo ID survey, this is done best during the summer season and in good weather. An alternative is to set up a stationary hydrophone where whales are frequently seen and record all the time. Although this can be done 24/7 no matter what the weather, one could accumulate a lot of empty tape. The staff at the Center have reached a workable compromise. They tune their radio into the SeaSound hydrophone that is located about a mile north of the Center, when someone hears whale sounds they rush to the attached tape recorder and hit record. While not as scientific as one might wish, it is the practical approach. The date and time are recorded on the tape so that after the data is coded it can be correlated with the house log (when whales swim by the Center a log is kept of behaviors and whale IDs -- some staff members are very good at identifying particular whales with only a quick glance) and the log of beeper codes.

How does one code audio information? As our language is divided into words, scientists have divided and identified some repeated sounds that Orca whales make. Click here to see and listen to some different Orca sounds. One day will we understand what the Orcas are saying -- well, perhaps. Click here to see what some scientists are hoping to discover by collecting Orca vocalization data.

The problem with this hydrophone technology really is a location challenge. In the ocean it is difficult to get a hydrophone to stay where you put it. Hydrophone cords need to be protected from ocean currents, tides, winter storms, fishing lines, nets, and anchors. Concrete and protective piping can only do so much. While I was at the Center the staff was setting up a new hydrophone -- the old one having been ripped out by a storm. We dug a channel in the rocks to run the pipe that would protect the new cords and poured concrete to anchor the pipe. The first batch of concrete was washed out with the tide, so another batch was poured. Once the wires are run and the hydrophone set, one has to hope that a fishing boat won't decide to drop anchor on it and rip it up.

For hydrophone technology to be really useful one needs an array of hydrophones. With several hydrophones and a math background you can calculate just where a sound is coming from. This could result in knowing not just what sound was made but how many whales were 'speaking' and from what direction they came. Trying to get an array of hydrophones to stay put and to reliably function is the challenge.

The work is important. The photo ID survey and the study of Orca vocalizations are only two examples of the ways that scientists are learning more information about Orca whales. Advances in technology have provided people with the ability to gather more data and through computers to analyze data better. As the links on this page attest, the explosion of Internet use allows information to be available to a great number of people. The organizations that I have linked to here are a small sample of what is available to explore.

I am grateful to have been involved (even if only for a short time) in the work to study and protect the Orca whale in the Pacific Northwest.