10 Orcas Were Caught by Fishing Trawlers Last Week! A Marine Biologist REACTS

#orca #bycatch #kpassionate
Trawlers operating in Alaska caught a record number of orcas this year. Until now, it was pretty rare for an orca to be trapped in fishing gear. So what happened?

00:00 - Orca Bycatch
00:54 - 10 Orcas Were Caught by Fishing Trawlers
02:33 - Orcas Are Starving
03:03 - How Many Killer Whales Are Left?
03:46 - Different Kinds of Orca
04:49 - Orca Matrilines
06:24 - Orcas and Norway's Fishermen
06:59 - Seafood Watch
07:28 - KPassionate

Resources
Monterey Bay Seafood Watch
→ https://www.seafoodwatch.org/
NOAA Alaska Fisheries Science Center Contact Info
→ https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/contact/alaska-fisheries-science-center

The incidents occurred in the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands region of western Alaska. The killer whales in this region fall under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, which requires vessel owners or operators to report all interactions with these animals. The MMPA also requires trawl vessels to carry two federally contracted observers who collect information about bycatch. According to their observations, 10 whales were caught in fishing gear so far this year. And only one was released alive. That's a dramatic spike, up from five orcas who were caught in the same region between 2016 and 2020.

A researcher with the non-profit North Gulf Oceanic Society spent a week on a trawler in May with a hydrophone, recording killer whales that were making clicking sounds associated with foraging as the net was being towed. This indicates that the whales were either pursuing fish in front of the net or, worse, following those fish into the net.

Cites Sources
[1] https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/wildlife/2023/09/23/10-killer-whales-caught-this-year-by-trawl-vessels-off-alaska-according-to-a-federal-fishery-agency/
[2] https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/science/2021/11/20/killer-conversations-uaf-grad-student-keeps-track-of-orca-whale-communications-with-underwater-microphones/
[3] https://www.instagram.com/p/CxyJaRsRdc-/?hl=en
[4] https://www.livescience.com/animals/orcas/opportunistic-orcas-have-developed-a-new-feeding-behavior-that-appears-to-be-killing-them
[5] https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/killer-whale#:~:text=It%20is%20estimated%20that%20there,and%20some%20have%20become%20endangered
[6] https://academic.oup.com/jhered/article/104/6/737/796937?login=false
[7] https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/mms.12985

So, is there anything we can do about this? And the answer is yes. There is a lot that we can do. Starting with changing the way we manage killer whale populations. The NOAA really needs to treat each killer whale population as an individual stock. Something it already does for the southern resident killer whales and the AT1 Biggs. From there we can strengthen our regulations. Because this behavior of preying in front of commercial fishing nets isn’t unique to the Alaskan orcas. From 2011 to 2020, Norwegian fishing vessels caught over 100 killer whales in their nets. Almost all of these orcas were released alive and mortality from that Norwegian fishery is extremely low. That’s because Norway implemented laws that prioritize the lives of whales, even if it means opening fishing nets and releasing the fish.

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Additional Imagery
NOAA Fisheries
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vsFFCvcD-0&t=1s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K16lZU0agbg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-U6ywFMKh2c
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/6svR-ZdjlRk
Fair Projects / orcaresearchtrust.org
https://www.tiktok.com/@aprilboyes/video/7239127812932717851
Gorodenkoff - stock.adobe.com
Manuel Mata - stock.adobe.com
wildestanimal - stock.adobe.com
BlackBoxGuild - soundstripe.com
Right Cameraman - stock.adobe.com
timelabpro - stock.adobe.com
markoconnell - soundstripe.com
blackboxguild - stock.adobe.com
Chad Stembridge - stock.adobe.com
icsnaps - soundstripe.com
stepporido - stock.adobe.com