Transient and Southern Resident Killer Whales in the Salish Sea

Over the past decade there has been a shift in the Salish Sea, sightings of Transient killer whales (mammal eaters) are at an all time high while sightings of the endangered Southern Resident killer whales is on the decline. Orca Conservancy board member Tamara Kelley explains why this might be happening.

[@nightowlmystic9387]

For those wondering, transient and resident orcas prefer not breed with each other. Last time it happened was 10,000 years ago.

[@MermaidMusings7]

Even longer than that. Scientists believe they diverged over 700,000 years ago.

[@aash4688]

​@@MermaidMusings7you are Really a Mermaid

[@user-rn6hr1qw3l]

Maybe you should awarded a federal grant also , so you could substantiate your claims , let's say 50 million 😂😂

[@jimcaneda3660]

I was reading an article about dolphins hanging around the southern residents as that maybe would offer some protection against the transients. It would be amazing to see more studies about their behavior.

[@OrcaConservancyOfficial]

Oh yes, this is especially common around Northern Vancouver Island. I have seen Pacific White Sided Dolphins with a pod of Norhtern Residents. Pretty cool! And amazing that they know how to dinstinguish the different ecotypes. If I were a dolphin, I would personally feel much safer from Transients if I were traveling with a pod of Residents.

[@CoreyMillionaire2029]

​@@OrcaConservancyOfficialDifferent dolphins seem to see their largest relatives as protection from others.

[@michelejankelow617]

Amazing diverse Orcas! We absolutely need to respect and understand, protect and make positive initiatives to help the Southern Resident Orca population. This is vital. They cannot survive nor reproduce successfully without food!

[@OrcaConservancyOfficial]

We couldn't agree more!

[@admiralbeez8143]

Sounds like the Resident Orcas are going extinct through lack of adaptability of diet. Pandas that only eat bamboo, or Koalas that only eat eucalyptus, or Orcas that only eat salmon… this is a path to extinction. The transient Orcas seem to eat pretty much anything they can catch, now that’s adaptability. I wonder if the resident orcas ever see a seal and wonder, what’s that taste like?

[@OrcaConservancyOfficial]

It's much more complicated than a preference of food. Transeints and Residents have been genitacally distinct for thoudsands of years, and as a result they have evolved to have physical and cultural differences. The most notable is the body size, jaw size, teeth shape, and jaw structure. Transients are larger than their Resident cousins, they have a larger jaw, and different shaped teeth more adept for the prety they hunt. Orcas are also cultural animals, which means they are taught by their family, Resients have spent the last thousands of years knowing where and how to hunt salmon. They also travel with their entire family which would make hunting and sharing marine mammals quite difficult. Some people also theorize that Residents may not have the neccisary enzymes to digest marine mammals, but this has not been proven scientifically. It would be more realistic to expect the Residents to start sampling other types of fish, which they do, however the Chinook salmon offers the highest fat and nutrient contents for them.

[@CoreyMillionaire2029]

The last captive Southern Resident orca dolphin Tokitae died a few months ago JUST as she was being prepped for release.

[@CoreyMillionaire2029]

​@@OrcaConservancyOfficialDon't residents hunt sharks sometimes, especially the apley named salmon shark? They would be a competitor for food after all.

[@sabinesteffen5247]

Sehr interessanter Beitrag. Wie schön, das sich Menschen so für die ORKAS einsetzten. Meine absoluten Lieblingstiere. Wundervolle Wesen auf unsere Erde. Weiter so, mein vollen Respekt❤ Wir müssen es noch schaffen, das die Menschen keine Tickets für die Orka Shows kaufen. Das wäre Phantastisch. Sie gehören in Freiheit und nichts anderes. ❤❤❤❤

[@aengor]

I wonder how resident and transient killer whales interact when they coincide at the same place, if they interact at all. Do transients can see residents as potential prey, given the fact they also hunt dolphins and other cetaceans?

[@immealldayeveryday9425]

I they don’t see one another as prey, orcas are also not whales but the bigges of the dolphin family, their name killer whales comes from the fact that they love to feed on whales, but yea they also to eat dolphins

[@buzzlightyearandco]

They usually avoid each other, the few times where encounters have been recorded, residents will chase the transients off (they usually travel in bigger pods)

[@rachel8904]

@@buzzlightyearandco Correct. In fact all ecotypes ignore each other. When Residents & Transients meet, they don't. They either avoid or ignore each other. Absolutely no contact. It's peaceful but not friendly. In captivity, any fights that break out are between different ecotypes. Residents seem to be more standoffish than the Transients. Residents are huge (fish diet) and Transients are pretty big too. As long as Residents only eat a specific salmon...they re doomed.

[@Themapleleaforever]

More the same way as a English speaker person would encounter someone who only speaks French, can’t understand each other, look a little different and have their own cultures

[@CoreyMillionaire2029]

​@@rachel8904Captivity kills, simple as that. Only real difference between an orca tank and a human prison cell is one is underwater.

[@mattbaeppler2698]

Well explained and great video footage.

[@OrcaConservancyOfficial]

Thank you!

[@axlrozes1777]

why don't the residents just start eating seals? i'm sure they are capable

[@OrcaConservancyOfficial]

This is a question we get a lot. These ecotypes have adapted over thousands of years to specialize in their prey. Transient/Bigg's killer whales are slightly larger than their resident cousins and have a larger jaw and different shaped teeth. The other factor is that killer whales have culture, which means that their behaviors are taught to them by their parents and grandparents. Residents have spent thousands of years teaching and learning how to specialize in salmon as where the Transients have been taught to specialize in marine mammals. Another difference in their culture is that oftentimes Residents travel with their entire families, mom, grandma, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. They are also very vocal. This is not conducive to hunting a marine mammal, and it would also be quite difficult to share a single seal with that many family members. Transients travel in much smaller groups and they tend to be much quieter which allows them to sneak up on their prey. Some people would go as far as to argue that the two are entirely different species. Pretty fascinating.

[@SageRosemaryTime]

Fantastic job on educating us. concise and full of information . Thanks to Orca Conservancy .

[@Robin-vi8sk]

Bless this woman she's so right

[@aash4688]

Protect Resident orcas , please

[@juliew1426]

Does that mean that they should stop fishing trout in that area? I don't think that will go over well with the trout industry. They care more about their economy than the plight of the S Resident Orca.

[@jules2630]

In washington state we have 15 dams on this river that salmon have used for thousands of years. We want to get rid of the lower 4, (the dams tear up the fish only about 1-2% of the population makes it back and forth to breed) and the Gov't keeps saying "no but maybe in 10 years" Theyve spent a lot of money on salmon ladders and salmon cannons but it's not working. If you see this please sign a petition or call Wa governor we dont want our southern resident orcas OR our wild salmon go extinct!

[@juliew1426]

@@jules2630 That's so sad! I had no idea. Where is the petition to sign? I'm not a Wa resident, but I will sign it. Why are the dams so important to the Gov't? They must be making someone somewhere a lot of money. Their salmon industry is huge, and having the Orca there should be valuable to them, too, since people come there just to see them. I wonder what's going on with them not wanting to get rid of a few dams.

[@OrcaConservancyOfficial]

Their main food source is salmon, specifcally Chinook salmon. Recreational fishing isn't the issue. In fact, recreational fishing and orca conservation share the same goal, and that is to have ample fish in the future. The biggest issue is pollution, habitat degredation, water temperature rising, and the dams.

[@CoreyMillionaire2029]

​@@OrcaConservancyOfficialWouldn't blowing up the dams destroy the Salmon's breeding rivers because of the power of those released waves?

[@Elesahlele]

Ooh I just wanna see residents and transients encounter each other but they cannot by social interactions

[@Themapleleaforever]

I kinda wanna watch them meet the other

[@OrcaConservancyOfficial]

There have been documented reports of them in the same area. Typically they tend to avoid one another. Last year, a pod of Trasients was sighted near the Residents, and the Transients ended up leaving the area. The theory is, Transients prefer quiet waters in order to ambush their prey. The residents tend to be very vocal and loud, since they hunt fish they don't need to be quiet. So the theory is that the Transients left because the residents were being too loud.

[@Themapleleaforever]

@@OrcaConservancyOfficialyes very true. I know this stuff and appreciate you do too. That theory is probably true since a seal isint going to know the difference between the types lol. They probably can’t understand each other either

[@alexandrianicolemoses7869]

BEAUTIFUL

[@OrcaConservancyOfficial]

Thank you so much!

[@davidboydarnott417]

Well it's just like the Grey and Red Squirrel, the more aggressive Transient will eventually take over the Residents Territories. So help save the Residents food source. If you need people to do anything, you better come straight out and ask them.👊✌️

[@sorry11303]

OMG I want to go see some 😭 And not at SeaWorld college students who told them to do that that's all I want to know 😡🤔 SMDH 💰😒👹

[@OrcaConservancyOfficial]

The Pacific Northwest is an excellent place to see orcas! We have had orcas in the Salish Sea for several consecutive weeks now!

[@sorry11303]

@@OrcaConservancyOfficial that is so awesome I don't know when but I'll be there ✔️

[@CunningStuntsGoFast]

but wait , so 500 years ago when man was not hunting seamamals , there would have been the same situation , wich is more seals and such so less fish so trancient hunting ground , no ?

[@fivestar888]

No, there was an abundance of Pinnipeds and fish. Only when humans came along did we start seeing Salmon diminish due to several reasons. Pinnipeds actually eat more Salmon predators than actual Salmon.

[@OrcaConservancyOfficial]

The reason the salmon population is so low is due to human impact of pollution and diminishing habitat. We don't have scientific records as far back as 500 years, but given what we know about the decline of the salmon population and that humans are directly related we can infer that both Souther Resident and Transient killer whales had healthy populations and were both present in this area. It's a common misconception that seals are to blame for the decline of the salmon population, when actually seals do eat salmon but they also eat a variety of other things including invasive species and fish that also prey upon salmon. Then with the Transients who prey upon the seals this helps keep a natural balanced ecosystem. We hope this answers your question!

[@fivestar888]

@@OrcaConservancyOfficial At a recent UBC Marine Mammal Symposium one speaker actually provided proof that the majority of Salmon predation by Seals happened near the mouth of estuaries where there were log booms. If you removed the log booms the Seals would move on and the predation would be reduced. The same speaker also provided evidence that more Salmon smolts were consumed by Great Blue Herons than Seals but this only happened by Herons nesting pretty close to the rivers. So Seals get a bad rap but are in fact crucial to the eco-system. Jared Towers also has evidence that the rise in Seal numbers has plateaued in the Strait of Georgia thanks to the increased numbers/occurrence of Transient Orcas. As you said, Mother Nature is the natural balance, it is humans that upset that balance!

[@OrcaConservancyOfficial]

@@fivestar888 very interesting notes about the correlation of log booms with seals. Thanks for sharing that information! I always find it troubling that there are many species that prey upon salmon including birds (like the herons you mentioned) as well as other fish. But sadly it's the pinnipeds that get the blame. #BiggsAreTheBalance

[@fivestar888]

@@OrcaConservancyOfficial We agree 100%!

[@MarieChang392]

I feel outrage for those orcas at sea world forced to breed with different species with different dialects😢

[@flippingnina]

magnificent!

[@MDK3192]

Transient & SR's were there b4 the USA... they're coming back...

[@user-iy5wd7ud5f]

Thts Cool 🧟‍♂️🧟‍♂️🧟‍♂️🧟‍♂️🧟‍♂️🧟‍♂️

[@kermit_is_real_try_me7346]

😍 beautiful #killerwhales

[@OrcaConservancyOfficial]

Thank you so much!

[@robi987]

Lovely

[@OrcaConservancyOfficial]

Thank you!!!

[@RhondaHill-kc2pi]

happy

[@5ayes12]

Fussy eaters will eventually either die or adapt --irrespective of the tone of this video I'm putting my money on adapt--sea wolves an obvious example

[@user-rn6hr1qw3l]

This is the first sales pitch 😂 next its to uncle sam for federal dollars and create a mini industry for this species of scientists 😂😂😂😂😂