Strawberry Isle Research Projects:
Transient Killer Whales

Overview:

The activities of SIRS began by Rod Palm on Jan. 1, '91 monitoring the movements of the transient Killer Whales who frequent the waters of Clayoquot Sound. The results of this research are forwarded to Graeme Ellis at the Nanaimo Biological Station who is the centre for recording the movements of all the Killer Whales of British Columbia and Alaska. Hydrophone recordings of the whale's vocalizations are forwarded to Dr. John Ford at the Vancouver Aquarium. Year end reports are forwarded to several agencies such as Parks Canada, the Clayoquot Biosphere Project, the Marine Mammal Research Group, the Sydney Museum and the Whale Museum in Puget Sound. Our Killer Whale work is done under a permit from the Federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

The research itself has been tailored to suit the needs of the above agencies. It is worth noting here that the resident Killer Whales who reside in the inside waters of Vancouver Island and Puget Sound are very

predictable and logistically easy to work with as apposed to the transients that we work with who are very unpredictable. As a result, our work with the transients is recognized as very valuable and deemed as possibly the most in depth look, done any where in the world, at theses animals.

It is also interesting that the range of these whales has been extended by the study when we photographed three animals who normally frequent the waters of California. Previous to this the proven range was Puget Sound to Alaska.

Methods:

Over the years we have developed a network of enthusiastic water people in all aspects of the marine environment in Clayoquot Sound. These include water taxis, tour boats, fish farms, airlines, tug boats, waterfront residents etc. When these people spot Killer Whales they note the number of animals and their direction of travel then relay the information to us. On receiving the call we grab our equipment (still cameras, video camera and hydro phone), jump in our 8-metre herring punt and run to the scene. On arriving with the whales we take photos of each animal's dorsal fin to prove who is all there. We record the time and location and behaviour of each surfacing of the whales as they travel and periodically lower the hydrophone to listen for vocalizations. Behaviours such as prey interaction are recorded on video for later analysis. We stay with the whales until they either leave the study area or we loose them. Back at Strawberry Isle the field notes are entered into a data base then printed out as a report for distribution as described in the introduction.

Our ideal crew for the work is a boat driver, a photo person and a video person with everyone sharing the duties of log keeping, hydro phone monitoring and boat chores. It is usually possible to get a short notice boat driver but the skeleton crew of two and the data processing is best done in-house by myself and a trained assistant.

This research evolved after several hobby years of taking Killer Whale photo ids for Dr. Mike Bigg of the Nanaimo Biological Station. It soon became apparent that a lot more whales were spending a lot more time and using a lot more of the locations in Clayoquot Sound than was previously suspected. Considering that very little was known about the day to day activities of 'transient' Killer Whales, we found ourselves in an ideal situation for monitoring their behaviour. We lived on an island, had a boat, camera and the passion. As time went by we laid out a specific study area, developed a detailed field form, several data bases, were given a hydro phone by Dr. John Ford, were supplied with film stock and processing by Graeme Ellis of the Nanaimo Biological Station. During this growth we have received a great deal of encouragement and advice from the top researchers in the field.