Prince William Sound AT1 Orca Population "Doomed" - Never Recovered From Exxon Valdex Spill

[hatrack]

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One of the most striking surprises to emerge from the annual Alaska Forum on the Environment was the tale of the so-called "AT1" population of killer whales. Twenty years ago, the population numbered 22 whales. Today, only seven remain. "These are the unexpected things. In killer whales, not recovering for this long length of time is something that we certainly didn't foresee or predict," said Jeep Rice, senior scientist with the National Marine Fisheries Service's Auke Bay Laboratory in Juneau, Alaska.

Even before the spill, the AT1 whales were in deep trouble. They eat harbor seals, which had been in decline for decades by the time of the oil disaster. The whales were also assailed by pollutants and pesticides that might have arrived in Alaska on weather systems from Southeast Asia and might hamper reproduction - toxins were found in the whales' blubber, Matkin said.

Then the tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground on Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, and the estimated 11 million gallons it spilled killed thousands of birds and other wildlife. The whales were known to be in the area. A Los Angeles Times photo shows four AT1 whales swimming near the leaking tanker. Over the next year, more than a third of the whales died, and the population continued to fall.

The group is more than a pod. It's the remains of a larger genetic population bound by family ties and social bonds, with its own distinct "language" of calls, said Eva Saulitis, a marine biologist who works with Matkin at the nonprofit North Gulf Oceanic Society. The depleted population won't mate with other groups, Saulitis said. The remaining whales may be too closely related to have calves, and the two remaining females are getting to old to reproduce. She estimates this group of whales will be extinct within 25 years. Their distinct dialect of calls, such as the long, loud blast a lone male sounds when he's separated from the group, will die with them.

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http://www.sanluisobispo.com/528/story/619406.html

[DS1]

1. Jeep Rice? A Palin cousin?

[Blaze Diem]

2. INVITRO !!!!

Works for mammals...
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I'm kind of serious actually..Geez does the human being and the cockroach have to be the last dying breed on this planet?
Can and WHEN will there be a global moratorium preventing this destruction?
Alaska makes me think of Palin and oil co.'s and then I get really pissed at stories like this.

Thanks for this post.

[Blaze Diem]

3. K & R for the Whales.

*

[Bonobo]

4. Wow. And it wasn't even the Japanese who did it!!!

[Barrett808]

5. No, they're just applying pressure to already stressed populations

No worries, the oceans are doomed, anyway. Why not let the whalers speed up the process a bit?

[gulfcoastliberal]

6. Now I Know just how close to the edge: Save the Whales! was a great campaign

But now I realize just how much really was at stake.