IN THE WILD
Killer whales found feasting on sharks off B.C. coast
KEVEN DREWS
VANCOUVER— The Canadian Press
Published
Last updated
It was the kind of feeding frenzy John Ford had never seen before.
Mr. Ford, a research scientist with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, was aboard a boat north of Haida Gwaii but just south of Alaska, studying the feeding habits of a little-known group of offshore killer whales.
The mammals were hyperventilating, arching their backs and diving deep.
On the hydrophone, Mr. Ford could hear their excited songs.
Minutes passed and then a chunk of tissue – about 250 grams in size and later proven to be part of a liver – floated to the surface, coming to rest in a slick of oil.
More and more tissue and oil soon appeared, covering an area of ocean in a sheen hundreds of metres in size and flattening the water’s ripples.
Mr. Ford and a colleague collected samples, which were later analyzed at DFO’s Pacific Biological Station in Nanaimo, British Columbia.
The tests confirmed Mr. Ford’s long-held hypothesis: the offshore orcas weren’t eating salmon or sea lions. They were chowing down on sharks, specifically sleeper sharks.
No comments:
Post a Comment