Belugas and Orcas: Exploring the Human Connection

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March 2009

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FUTURE OCEANS

Belugas And Orcas Exploring The Human Connection

BY JEAN-MICHEL COUSTEAU

The OFS team spent time filming in Johnstone Strait, British Columbia, the home of Kelsey, aka A24, matriarch of the A-4 orca pod. PBS television audiences will learn more about the human connection to killer whales in Call of the Killer Whale, premiering April 22.

Our most recent expeditions to extreme locations around the world, to reveal mysteries of the ocean and its connection to our human world, have concluded with two very special documentary films for broadcast on television and on the World Wide Web. Combining science and discovery with expert storytelling and astonishing High Definition footage, the new specials premiere nationally on the PBS signature environmental series Jean-Michel Cousteau: Ocean Adventures. First up is Sea Ghosts, a one-hour program on beluga whales narrated by Anne Heche, airing April 8 at 8 p.m. It’s followed by Call of the Killer Whale, a two-hour program on orcas narrated by Chris Noth, airing on Earth Day, April 22 at 8 p.m. Check local listings.

Our travels took us to the farthest reaches of the globe to learn the latest discoveries about two of the most appealing marine mammals on earth, the beluga and the orca. Our team included my son, Fabien, and daughter, Celine, as well as collaborator Holly Lohuis. Together with our OFS colleagues, we explored a panoply of natural beauty, learned about efforts to protect these whales from human threat and 10

climate change, and came face to face with the friendly and ferocious inhabitants of the deep.

OFS and I are no strangers to killer whales. Our work to re-introduce into the wild the killer whale Keiko, of Free Willy fame, is documented in Call of the Killer Whale, as well as the evolution of our thinking on how best to protect orcas. We also visit frigid Arctic waters to view first-hand how beluga whales—whose Cook Inlet population was added to the list of endangered species in October 2008—are now being protected in some places by the indigenous tribes who once hunted them to near extinction.

In each program, we explore the connection between the world under the sea and the inter-dependency of its species with humans.

Our films demonstrate how human behavior on land has brought about change in the ability of both beluga and orca populations to survive. But these great sea creatures have much to teach humans as well, and the OFS team point to several hopeful signs in the movement to protect these species.

DIVER Magazine

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FUTURE OCEANS

About Sea Ghosts There are places on this planet where it’s a marvel that anything survives. But in the cold Arctic waters of the far north, the sea is alive with sound. The canaries of the sea are singing. They’re beluga whales, named from the Russian word for “white ones.” They’re an evolutionary surprise—a warm-blooded mammal in a numbingly cold sea. Resembling curious ghosts, these intelligent mammals employ one of the most complex sonar systems of any animal.

Belugas inhabiting Cook Inlet, close to Anchorage, were added to the list of endangered species in October 2008. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) stated that a decade-long recovery program had failed to ensure the whales’ survival. The relationship between people and belugas is ancient. For more than 4,000 years, hunters of the north have depended on these whales for their own survival in a land with little to offer. These traditional cultures have now partnered with scientists and modern technology to protect the beluga that, in turn, ensures their own future. Yet these efforts are only a small part of the story. New discoveries have raised troubling questions about the health of belugas and their long-term survival.

Their world is now ground zero for climate change, and what threatens them is not confined to the Arctic, it’s global. What lies ahead for the beluga could become prophesy for many species everywhere, including our own.

I’ve always said that if you protect the ocean you protect yourself and it’s never been more true, especially when you think about belugas and contaminants and the implications for human health. But maybe it is worth protecting the beluga just for its own sake, for the beauty of its songs, and for the warmth of its social groups, and for their lifelong bonds to each other in the cold Arctic Ocean. Maybe protecting the beluga for its own sake improves us and helps us to define who we are. Protecting the beauty and wonder of these creatures and the natural world may be as essential to our spirit as food is to our bodies. I believe it’s important, after all, that the sea continues to be filled with these songs.

A curious beluga whale “spyhops” to gain a better view of the film team in Canada’s Cunningham Inlet. Pods congregate here to socialize, mate and rub their bodies on the cobblestones found in these shallow waters. Rubbing sloughs off dead skin, reavealing the gleaming white color of these Arctic whales.

OFS cameraman Matt Ferraro snorkels within a few feet of two curious juvenile orcas in the waters off New Zealand. Shortly after this image was taken, a sub-adult male swam directly over to him and made physical contact, gently brushing up against him.

Sometimes the best place to be for filming whales is on land. Matt Ferraro and sound engineer Mike Braniger film a male orca, known as A72, hunting for fish in a shallow kelp bed located in British Columbia’s Johnstone Strait.

About Call of the Killer Whale The most complex marine species on the planet, our counterpart and ruler of the sea, is the orca. They are the most widely distributed marine mammal in the world. Their realm extends from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Orcas, also called killer whales, number fewer than 100,000 worldwide, and learning more about them is an important pursuit of the OFS team of explorers, who have travelled to both the northern and southern hemispheres to seek out killer whales in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

The team has discovered that people and orcas share surprising similarities, and even have similar needs. We have related these findings to the captivity and release of Keiko, of Free Willy fame, who captured the world’s imagination and whose survival depended on pioneering efforts to successfully re-introduce him to the wild. We explain how time was spent un-training the trainers who, in turn, untrained Keiko for a life outside of captivity. It’s easy to capture a wild creature and put it in jail. It’s nearly impossible to return it to the wild.

During our film shoot we also learned how some of the threats to killer whales now intersect with human lives. Intriguing detours in the expedition arose, leading to critical examinations of our environment, of the food on our dinner tables, even of our own health.

What we’re trying to do is to make the connection between humans and nature, comparing humans and orcas. They are the dominant species in the ocean. We are the dominant species on land and we all depend on the same thing. divermag.com

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