Latest news with #orcas
Yahoo
2 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Fishermen spot pod of killer whales off Cape Breton
Lobster fishermen in northern Cape Breton got an up-close glimpse of a pod of killer whales this week, a sighting that a marine biologist says is on the rise. Bernie Lamey was hauling lobster traps on Monday not far off Cape Smokey, a famous Cabot Trail landmark, when a couple of orcas started circling the boat. Within 10 minutes, the fishermen had spotted about a dozen. The orcas seemed to be in a playful mood. "They came around our boat, bumped into the boat, rolled around, showed their bellies, [came] up and had a little look at us," he told CBC's Information Morning Cape Breton. "They almost looked like they were more interested in us than we were of them. It was pretty spectacular." Lamey said he knew right away they were killer whales by their distinctive black-and-white colouring. "That's a pretty hard whale to miss," he said. "We get to see all kinds of marine life out there.... Looking down in the water and seeing something that's only three feet away from you that's the size of your boat is pretty impressive." At least one whale stayed several hundred metres away, but Lamey said he knew it was an orca, too, because its dorsal fin was nearly two metres tall. "The fact that they were killer whales and the fact that there was 10 or 12 of them there at one time and they decided to stay and play for a few minutes was just an experience that I'll never forget." Elizabeth Zwamborn, a marine biologist and a professor at Trinity Western University in B.C., runs an annual survey of pilot whales off northern Cape Breton. They're black like orcas, but don't have white patches on their cheeks and have smaller dorsal fins. It's possible to mistake juvenile white-beaked dolphins as juvenile orcas because they're both black and white, but Zwamborn said the videos and photos she's seen this week off Cape Breton are definitely killer whales. Zwamborn said only one orca has been seen inshore in the 27 years the study has been running. They're more commonly spotted farther out in the North Atlantic off Newfoundland and Labrador or in the Arctic. Climate change is affecting the ocean's temperature, bringing North Atlantic right whales into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Belugas have also left the Gulf and headed to Cape Breton, but it's not clear why they wandered so far from home. This year, orcas have been seen off Cape Breton near Money Point, Cape Smokey and Flint Island, Zwamborn said. It could be the same pod, or it could be more than one. "It seems like this is a time, maybe, that things are shifting a little bit," she said. MORE TOP STORIES
CBC
3 days ago
- General
- CBC
Fishermen spot pod of killer whales off Cape Breton
Lobster fishermen in northern Cape Breton got an up-close glimpse of a pod of killer whales this week, a sighting that a marine biologist says is on the rise. Bernie Lamey was hauling lobster traps on Monday not far off Cape Smokey, a famous Cabot Trail landmark, when a couple of orcas started circling the boat. Within 10 minutes, the fishermen had spotted about a dozen. The orcas seemed to be in a playful mood. "They came around our boat, bumped into the boat, rolled around, showed their bellies, [came] up and had a little look at us," he told CBC's Information Morning Cape Breton. "They almost looked like they were more interested in us than we were of them. It was pretty spectacular." Lamey said he knew right away they were killer whales by their distinctive black-and-white colouring. "That's a pretty hard whale to miss," he said. "We get to see all kinds of marine life out there.... Looking down in the water and seeing something that's only three feet away from you that's the size of your boat is pretty impressive." At least one whale stayed several hundred metres away, but Lamey said he knew it was an orca, too, because its dorsal fin was nearly two metres tall. "The fact that they were killer whales and the fact that there was 10 or 12 of them there at one time and they decided to stay and play for a few minutes was just an experience that I'll never forget." Elizabeth Zwamborn, a marine biologist and a professor at Trinity Western University in B.C., runs an annual survey of pilot whales off northern Cape Breton. They're black like orcas, but don't have white patches on their cheeks and have smaller dorsal fins. It's possible to mistake juvenile white-beaked dolphins as juvenile orcas because they're both black and white, but Zwamborn said the videos and photos she's seen this week off Cape Breton are definitely killer whales. Zwamborn said only one orca has been seen inshore in the 27 years the study has been running. They're more commonly spotted farther out in the North Atlantic off Newfoundland and Labrador or in the Arctic. Climate change is affecting the ocean's temperature, bringing North Atlantic right whales into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Belugas have also left the Gulf and headed to Cape Breton, but it's not clear why they wandered so far from home. This year, orcas have been seen off Cape Breton near Money Point, Cape Smokey and Flint Island, Zwamborn said. It could be the same pod, or it could be more than one.
CTV News
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- CTV News
Manitoba Museum exhibit offers augmented reality experience with orcas
An audience takes part in 'Critical Distance' at the Manitoba Museum on June 3, 2025. (Ken Gabel/CTV News) The Manitoba Museum is launching a new exhibit that will provide visitors with an immersive experience into the world of orcas. On Tuesday, the museum opened 'Critical Distance'—an augmented reality (AR) experience that will teach Manitobans about a group of endangered orcas, known as the Southern Resident Killer Whales. During this exhibit, visitors are transported to the Salish Sea through AR technology. Audiences follow Kiki, a nine-year-old orca, and her family as they face the challenges of noise pollution and declining salmon stock. 'What this experience does is allow audiences to experience echolocation, which is how the orcas hunt and feed,' said Adam May, one of the creators of the exhibit. 'Through a mixed reality experience, they see the orcas as they see each other, so through sound waves effectively. As the experience progresses, you see how human impact is affecting them and how they can lose each other in an ocean full of sound.' The goal of the exhibit is to make a compelling case for ocean conservation, as there are only 73 Southern Resident Killer Whales left in the Salish Sea. May explained the experience is a combination of the real world and animation. 'That's a really unique thing that mixed reality can do; it can take us into worlds that we couldn't otherwise get to as a human,' he said. 'And we can get closer to these species and understand why they're so important for us to save.' 'Critical Distance' is on at the Manitoba Museum through the month of June from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekends. Those aged 10 and over are welcome.
The Guardian
27-05-2025
- The Guardian
‘Swimming with orcas is out of control': can new rules keep tourists and Mexico's whales safe?
Just after sunrise in the small village of La Ventana in Baja California Sur, the beach is bustling with wetsuit-clad tourists. They climb into Mexican fishing boats and race out into the windy blue bay, cameras at the ready. The fishers turned tour guides follow a couple of ocean safari yachts, which follow directions from pilots sent up in spotter planes. The goal of this 40-boat cavalcade? To enable swimming with orcas in the wild. Swimming with orcas in Mexico falls into a legal grey area as it exploits loopholes in two Mexican laws that protect endangered marine wildlife. This has become particularly problematic in the past five years since selfies with the whales on social media have led to an increase in the number of people wanting to try the activity. 'We thought it was a great thing at the beginning but it has become kind of a nightmare,' says Evans Baudin, the owner of Cabo Shark Experience who estimates he has taken 1,500 people to swim with orcas over the past nine years. 'It's completely out of control. Since there are no authorities or rules, anyone can do whatever they want.' Local fishing boats, some without insurance or the proper licences, are competing with the bigger foreign-owned companies based in the nearby cities of Cabo San Lucas or La Paz. Some of these companies are guaranteeing tourists the chance to swim with orcas and are pulling out all the stops to keep that promise. Whoever tourists book with, the result is the same: increasing numbers of people are swimming or freediving with the whales, meaning dozens of boats are zooming around the animals. This is especially problematic in May and June, the busiest months for orca swimming trips. Georgina Saad, a marine biologist with the Autonomous University of Baja California Sur, is worried about where all this may lead. Although no wild orca has ever killed or attacked a human, she says: 'They are wild animals. If we don't give them distance and space, they may, like any animal, defend themselves.' The constant influx of boats and swimmers may also affect the orcas' wellbeing. The pods in Baja are usually females with babies and are often feeding on mobula rays, sharks, dolphins, turtles or whales while people are in the water with them. They hunt using sonar to find their prey, and the noise from the motors can disrupt the whales' ability to capture food. 'Eventually, these animals may not want to come back,' says Juan Vasquez, owner of a La Paz-based sailing tour company and a captain for more than 20 years. 'They have good memories and they will remember being harassed.' Erick Higuera, a marine biologist and documentary film-maker based in La Paz, says that no one is regulating the sudden increase in swimming with orcas, which took off in 2019 after a few Instagram posts went viral. 'It brings in a lot of money for communities and no one wants to stop.' Now, however, a proposed plan aims to change all that. A group of experts, including Saad, Higuera and Baudin, have put forward recommendations for a species management plan for orcas in La Ventana Bay, where most of the swimming happens. To do that, they incorporated information from 44 people interviewed locally. Saad expects the plan to be approved by the Mexican government this summer. The proposed plan for orcas would be the first species management plan in Mexico based partly on the animals' behaviour – if they exhibit distress they must be left alone – not just a quota on the number of people or boats in an area. Tourists have flocked to Baja for decades to swim with whale sharks and to watch grey and humpback whales. The difference is that these activities are strictly regulated with government-issued permits and firm guidelines – but the activity of swimming with orcas has slipped through the regulatory net. This is partly because existing laws do not specifically ban swimming with toothed whales and partly because they rely on having species management plans. Sign up to Global Dispatch Get a different world view with a roundup of the best news, features and pictures, curated by our global development team after newsletter promotion The scientists' proposed plan for orcas would also require permits for any tourism boats interacting with the animals, and would limit the number of boats that can surround an individual or family to no more than three at a time, with a cap of nine boats on any given day. Since each orca has a unique dorsal fin, captains or guides should be able to keep track of their interactions. Revenue from the permit fees would go towards training people from La Ventana and funding patrol boats to enforce the plan, Saad says. 'The goal is to teach captains and guides how to read the whales' behaviour so they know when to interact with the animals, how to do so safely, and when to give the orcas space.' Not everyone is confident that this orca management plan will succeed and some feel as if they were left out of the planning process. 'Arbitrary, one-sided decisions could affect the future of so many families,' says Cristóbal Pérez, the owner of a tour company based in La Paz. 'The community needs a voice.' Jorge Armando Lucero González, a tour boat captain who lives in nearby Agua Amarga, says that no one asked his opinion about the plan, nor any of his cousins or brothers who hope to continue to earn a living from wildlife tourism. Many local captains are worried that permits for swimming with orcas will mainly go to established tour companies in Cabo San Lucas and La Paz. They also believe it is unfair that the proposed plan only targets La Ventana when orcas – and the tourists who want to see them – roam throughout the Baja peninsula. Saad believes that ensuring tourists are allowed to swim with orcas only in La Ventana is the most important part of the management plan. 'We can send the message that this is the only place to do it, and this is how it is going to be done, and the rest is illegal.' Regardless of when and how the management plan unfolds, most captains say they will keep taking tourists on trips to swim with orcas, and do their best to keep the people and animals safe. 'I love these animals more than anything. I want to be able to protect them, and I still want to be able to offer people who are respectful the opportunity to see them,' Baudin says. 'Doing it the right way is the most important thing.'
Gizmodo
20-05-2025
- General
- Gizmodo
Video Shows Orcas Left Behind in Algae-Filled Tanks Months After French Park Shut Down
In November 2021, the French government passed legislation banning the performance of cetaceans, including whales and dolphins. In anticipation of the law coming into effect late next year, the French Riviera's Marineland closed its doors in January. Four months later, two orcas are still captive in the abandoned marine zoo's algae-infested tanks. Earlier this month, the animal welfare organization TideBreakers published drone footage of Marineland in Antibes, France, revealing two captive orcas in greenish tanks. The fate of Wikie and Keijo, a mother and her calf, has been up in the air since the marine zoo closed down earlier this year. TideBreakers is urgently calling for global attention, warning that 'it's been reported euthanasia is a consideration,' according to its video statement. 'Leaving them in a shut-down facility, confined to a crumbling, decrepit tank, is simply not an option,' the organization said in its statement. TideBreakers pointed to a recent tragedy involving the mother and calf's former tankmate, who died after swallowing a piece of metal. 'Time is running out!' it added in its YouTube video caption. Marineland's management, animal welfare organizations, and the French government have been unable to reach an agreement on where the animals should go. Since Wikie and Keijo have spent their entire lives in captivity, releasing them into the wild is not an option. They have learned to depend on humans and would not have the skills to survive, marine biologist and killer whale expert Hanne Strager told the BBC. Last year, the French government blocked a deal to send the orcas to a marine zoo in Japan, claiming that the journey would be too stressful for the animals and that Japanese animal welfare laws aren't stringent enough. More recently, the Spanish government rejected a plan to transfer them to the marine zoo Loro Parque in the Canary Islands. The Whale Sanctuary Project, an animal welfare organization aiming to build a coastal orca sanctuary in Canada, argues that its planned seaside enclosure—essentially a bay closed off with nets—is the only viable solution for Wikie and Keijo. 'The Whale Sanctuary Project is making it clear again to all parties that we are ready to work with the French government, with Marineland Antibes, and with any and all other organizations to bring Wikie and Keijo to the sanctuary we are preparing in Nova Scotia,' the Whale Sanctuary Project wrote in a statement after the Spanish government's decision. 'Last September, in its formal recommendations to the French government, the General Inspectorate of the Ministry of Ecology called the Whale Sanctuary Project the best sanctuary solution for Wikie and Keijo.' Currently, however, there are no operational orca sanctuaries anywhere in the world, according to TideBreakers. While the organization claims that 'the best interim solution would be to build a temporary holding tank for Wikie and Keijo until a sanctuary becomes available,' it emphasizes that there is still 'no sanctuary in Nova Scotia, Canada. Since 2016, the Whale Sanctuary Project has been collecting donations for its non-existent sanctuary, yet its proposed site is polluted and completely unsuitable for orcas. They still don't have permits, and construction hasn't even begun.' Marineland, in addition to the two orcas, also hosts 12 dolphins. It remains to be seen what decision the French government will make about the 14 cetaceans' fate. In the meantime, TideBreakers' stance is clear: 'After years of entertaining the public, they deserve a clean and safe environment where they can live out their remaining years with dignity.'
