By Grace Lawson
What’s black and white and wet all over?
This month’s installment of the Aquarium of the Pacific’s First Wednesdays lecture series focused on a community of Northeast Coast killer whales, including their evolution, social behaviors and current status as an endangered species.
Titled “The Intelligence and Health of the Endangered Southern Resident Killer Whales,” the lecture was given by guest speaker expert Deborah Giles, whose work focuses on the titular Southern killer whales.
Southern Resident killer whales are comprised of just 73 members, separated into three orca pods that reside in the North Pacific.
Identified and labeled as groups L, K and J, the pods can appear as far down as Monterey, CA.
Following the lecture, the First Wednesdays series opened up into an arts and crafts hour, where these two women colored in pictures of killer whales at tables set out for patrons. Photo credit: Grace Lawson
“I like to educate people about the plight of the whales in the hope that I will give them information to push them to learn more and get involved, so education in order to help,” Giles said.
Like a marine biologist Madonna, the renowned researcher goes by a singular name: Giles, an homage to her late father who never got to see her become a leading voice in her field.
Having spent the last twenty years of her life dedicated to killer whales, Giles is one of the very few expert scientists researching the Southern Residents.
She is also the science and research director for Wild Orca, a non-profit dedicated to killer whale research and translating dry academic language into an accessible format to educate the public and present the information to policymakers.
Killer whales, as Giles explained, are highly social animals whose habitats are being threatened by the presence of large cargo ships which can disrupt their echolocation process.
In addition, unsustainable overfishing practices have led to a steep decline in the big fish the orcas eat, specifically the Chinook salmon, lessening the available food supply that is critical for orca populations.
The lecture’s main topic also included substantial research collected through an unconventional method, namely, fact-finding through feces.
Collected samples of orca scat are analyzed and help determine their traits and conditions, like sex, reproductive status, stress hormone levels, nutritional status, toxicant levels and parasites.
Although the Southern Residents do not occupy the waters this far south, Giles emphasizes her point that all killer whales, no matter where they swim, are critical for the ocean ecosystems.
“I like the idea of being able to enable people in California to give talks like this, to let people know these are not just Washington’s whales, or not just Oregon’s whales or B.C. Canada’s whales, they’re California’s whales too,” Giles said.
As Giles explained the phenomenon of Orca intelligence to an audience, a picture of Eba the Whale Dog appeared on the projection screen.
Audience members came down from their seats to pet Eba the Whale Dog after the lecture concludes on Feb. 5. Photo credit: Grace Lawson
Eba is Giles’ real-life dog, who was also present at the talk, sleeping soundly at her feet despite frequent applause from the audience.
Giles explained how a dog’s natural abilities can be used to better source orca samples.
“We have our conservation research where we utilize the scent detection powers of Eba,” Giles said. “She allows us to non-invasively collect scat samples from killer whales and we don’t have to get anywhere near them.”
Eba is trained to stand at the helm of the boat as Giles observes the change of body language in the dog, which helps direct the scientist to orca scat samples that are then collected and used in research.
Through this method, Giles and other scientists are able to utilize the practice of dog scent recognition to learn from orca research samples without disrupting the populations being studied.
As her lecture concluded, she urged the community to stay educated on orcas and take political action, as well as supporting the efforts of non-profits like Wild Orca, that are dedicated to the conservation of the species.
“Hopefully, people will again fall in love with them and want to get involved,” Giles said.
The next First Wednesdays lecture series will be on March 5, and is titled “Exploring California Wildlife: From Gray Whales to Garibaldi.”
Tickets and more information can be found on the Aquarium of the Pacific’s website.
