Killers Return To Kodiak

Monday, February 20, 2006
KODIAK, ALASKA - The orca pod known as the “Kodiak killers” has been visiting the Kodiak harbor begining last week, as in previous years. The transient whales are searching for juicy Steller sea lion snacks.

“It’s the same pod that comes in all the time,” said Kate Wynne, marine mammal specialist for the University of Alaska Fairbanks marine advisory program.

The large bull whale people are used to seeing in the harbor now has a peculiar bent-over dorsal fin. The fin is made out of connective tissue, not bone.

“His dorsal fin is flopped over,” Wynne said. “That happened sometime between April and December. We don’t know why.”

No one tracks individual whales to observe exactly when that happens and the fin never comes back up, she said.

“I think this is only the second mammal-eating killer whale they’ve seen it happen to. It has happened to the fish-eaters and it was thought to be a stress-related thing,” Wynne said.

She has seen the fin become more curved in photos over the years, and last spring observed the curve become more exaggerated

The “Kodiak killers” have a new calf, born sometime last fall. The pod now consists of two 3-year-olds, the two mothers of those calves — one the matriarch and one her daughter — and a bull which is the matriarch’s son.

The new calf is the matriarch’s grandchild, Wynne said.

Wynne has made an effort to keep track of this pod and said some calves have died within a year of being identified.

“These 3-year-olds they have now are the longest-lived ones we’ve seen for a while. The fact that they had another calf this year is good news,” she said.

The usual time to see whales in the harbor is between now and April.

Source: The Kodiak Daily Mirror