"Old Tom is the most famous of the Eden killer whales". The story of a pod of
killer whales who enlisted the help of fishermen in NSW, Australia to hunt
baleen whales. The pod would corral the whales, while Old Tom would tow the fishing boats out to sea by pulling the anchor ropes in his teeth. The reward? The fishermen left the whale overnight and the orcas got to eat the tongue. Alas, it seems Old Tom may have met his end when the
covenant was broken and a fisherman named Logan tried to take the whale to shore before the feast. Tom tried to hold the boat back with the rope, but it broke a tooth which infected and led to his death. Tom's skeleton is now on display at the
Eden Killer Whale Museum. His story inspired a young girl to become a biologist and
investigate the story for herself.
posted by qwip
on Nov 16, 2005 -
8 comments
Orca Live: The idea of Nature Network is to relay live imagery and sound from cameras set up in Nature throughout the world.
"My hope is to bring people closer to Nature without disrupting her" that hope is the hope of Dr. Spong. At this very moment, all over the
world, a variety of organisms are beaming with life. Wouldn't it be wonderful if there were media by which people could get a sense of this?
If a window could be opened up that would trigger city dwellers' memories of the rhythms of Nature, the way we sense the world and our way of being are bound to change somewhat. That hope, too, lies within.
via
posted by hortense
on Aug 31, 2005 -
2 comments
OrcaLive is a
series of webcams and underwater microphones placed off of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. They are part of
OrcaLab started by Dr. Spong in 1970 to study wild orca. It appears the cameras are manned and observations of behavior and movement are made
here in the left-hand column. Combined, it makes for some good viewing--today alone I saw and heard different pods greeting each other, saw
spyhops, stomach rubbing along the shore, and tailslaps. Ken Balcomb at the
Center for Whale Research has been studying the orca around the San Juan Islands, Washington since 1976. They also have a
webcam and
still shots. You may remember the
story of Springer being reunited with her pod. (
discussed here) There is also a young male named
Luna L98 who has been separated from his pod for two years.
His situation has reached a crisis while Canadian officials have taken a wait-and-see approach. In the last few days,
Luna was wounded by a boat propeller and has a 6-8inch long 1.5inch deep gash above one eye. Maybe Canada will act now. With only 79 individuals in the Southern Resident population, down from 92 in 1991, every individual is important.
posted by lobakgo
on Aug 28, 2003 -
9 comments
Very high level of PCBs in whale raises alarms. "The orca found dead on the Olympic Peninsula earlier this year carried a level of contaminants that was among the highest -- if not the highest -- ever measured in killer whales, laboratory tests show".
If that is the case with free ranging whales then I shudder to think what similar measurements on city dwelling humans will reveal. Does anyone know of similar contaminant research on humans? (via
Baloney.com)
posted by talos
on May 13, 2002 -
10 comments
