A Killer Sighting

Tuesday, February 15, 2005
NEWPORT BEACH, CALIFORNIA – He's been chasing killer whales so long, always just missing them, that it became a running joke among his students.

But at long last, Orange Coast College marine science professor Dennis Kelly got close enough to touch them Monday - though he didn't.

An estimated 40 to 45 orcas, and possibly as many as 50, cavorted off the Newport coast to the delight of whale- watching tour groups and scientists alike. The killer whales approached and circled the boats.

"I was right in among them," Kelly said. "I was in heaven. I've been waiting for this for 31 years."

The appearance of the whales, however, could amount to much more than curiosity.

Photos taken of the visit could help scientists piece together discoveries about the whales' behavior and even intimate details of individual whales' lives.

They might belong to a little-understood and genetically distinct type of killer whale called "offshore" orcas. To experts, their habits and even their appearance are different from other kinds of killer whales.

Marine biologist Alisa Schulman-Janiger keeps a catalog of more than 200 pictures of orcas seen off California and Mexico. She knows these and other orcas so well, she can tell them apart simply by looking at the markings and scratches on fins or backs.

"Checking through all the pictures, we can put together family relationships, long- term associations," said Schulman-Janiger, who wants anyone who took photos of the killer whales to e-mail copies to her so she can match them with the whales she knows.

Researchers have identified three types of orcas in the Northern Pacific, each with its own genetic identity:

The offshore groups, which likely number in the hundreds and feed on fish and squid.

The marauding "transients," the only ones known to attack and kill other large sea mammals, such as California gray whales, and which cruise the coast in tightknit groups of perhaps four or five.

The "residents," which feed on fish and stick close to their home waters off the Washington, British Columbian and Alaskan coasts.

Schulman-Janiger believes the whales seen Monday off Newport belong to the offshore set, the group that scientists know the least about.

Large groups of killer whales are seen off the Orange County coast every few years, whale watchers say, although Schulman-Janiger said the big groups might cruise Southern California once a year.

While the transient orcas are generally silent, both the offshore and the resident varieties are extremely vocal, she said.

"There are different vocalizations they make than other groups," she said.

She and a Northern California counterpart, Nancy Black, keep close track of all killer-whale sightings, continually adding to their catalog.

The three kinds of whales do not appear to mingle or swap members, Schulman- Janiger said, and might prove to be an example of evolution in action.

"There doesn't seem to be any mixing," she said. "They may be in the process of separating out into different subspecies, or possibly even species."

The group included calves, observers said - one with a tinge of orange onits skin, indicating that it is only months old. She hopes to keep close watch on it over the years.

"We could find out how long killer whales live - no one knows," she said.

Like many who saw the orcas, Kelly, who observed the calf and reported it to Schulman-Janiger, said he felt as if he'd been given a present.

"My wife was saying this morning, 'I don't know what I'm going to get you for Valentine's Day,' " he said. "I said, 'It's taken care of.' "

Source: The Orange County Register