Spatial confirmation of vocal communication between a killer whale calf and its natal family

Val Veirs – Colorado College

Scott Veirs – Beam Reach

Jason Wood – Beam Reach

Session 3aABb3 Wed July 2, 2008 Acoustics ‘08 Paris, France

Resident Killer Whale Family Structure

• Site fidelity year to year
• Specialize on foraging for fish
• Progeny never leave their mother
• Residents are inter-related matriarchal families
• Vocalizations are complex and frequent
• Vocalizations form a vocal ‘clan’ unique to geographic region

Beam Reach Researchers 9/1/2007

San Juan Island, Washington

10 nm

Three Members of J-Pod

J-38

Cookie

J-34

Doublestuf

J-22

Oreo

Gato Verde Research Vessel

Gato Verde is a 42’ Fontaine-Pajot catamaran powered by electric motors, batteries and a biodiesel electric generator – www.gatoverde.com

Scott and student, Tim Hunt, are deploying our 30m 4 element hydrophone array.

Localizing Orca Calls

• Calls were recorded at 50 kHz sample rate
• Calls were localized using Ishmael and using software written by Val

Field Observations – 17:30 on 9/1/07

• We have been following J-pod for several hours
• About 17:00 (9/1/07) the spread out pod appeared to reverse direction and start heading SE
• Some whales are several hundred meters off our beam and were photographed at 17:29
• At nearly 17:30 we heard louder and louder calls from the hydrophones and noticed an individual orca swimming toward our port stern.
• A photo of this whale was taken at 17:31.
• Just before it seemed the whale would contact us, it turned, dove, and then surfaced ahead of us on our port quarter
• Over the next minutes, it swam back in the direction of the more distant orcas.

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Photo Identification

• Based on our photos, we identify three orcas: the mother J-22 and her two youngsters J-34 and J-38
• These IDs were confirmed by staff at the Center for Whale Research on San Juan Island

J-22 (Oreo) and

J-34 (Doublestuf)

Localized Calls – 6 minutes @17:30

• 54 calls were localized using our 4-element towed hydrophone array

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• The array has a length of 40m and is towed off the port stern of the Gato Verde

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• The locations of calls are colored based on their time in seconds after 17:25

Kinematically Reasonable Whale Paths

In order to separate these localized calls into those of J-34, the calf that approached us, and its mother (J-22) and/or brother (J-24), we constructed velocity profiles that minimized changes in velocity and limited velocity to slow travel speeds as this is what we observed during this encounter.

J-38 –”Cookie’s” Path

Distance derived from Calf’s “X” velocity model

Distance derived from Calf’s “Y” velocity model

Calf’s velocity vector relative to the Gato Verde vs. Time

Path of J-22 (“Oreo”) and J-32 (“DoubleStuf”)�Two whales traveling together

Mother and brother’s velocity vector relative to the Gato Verde vs. Time

Distance derived from “X” velocity model

Distance derived from “Y” velocity model

Interpreted orca paths

Mother and brother

Calf

Color coded to denote time

Here calf was vocalizing while mother and brother were silent.

1.5 Minutes of Call and Response

Play movie

Calf Calls

Mother/Brother Calls

Orca Communication

Calf’s Calls Near the Array

Call and Response

[Calf Mother/Brother]: S2ii [S2ii S6] S6 S2ii x5 [S2ii S6] S6 S6 [S2ii ??] S2i

(Pause) [S2ii S6] [?? S6 ?? S6 ??] [S12 S2ii S2ii x3 S2ii S2iix3] [S2ii S2ii]

Acknowledgements

We sincerely thank:

• Student researchers of the fall 2007 class, Beam Reach Marine Science and Sustainability School (including Kenna Lehmann!)
• Captains Todd Shuster and Mike Kramer
• Dr. Shannon Fowler

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More information and research results at:

• beamreach.orgbeamreach.org and beamreach.org/071

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Localization – Crosspower spectra and Hyperbolic intersections

Southern Resident Orcas

• Winter Range – Monterey Bay to Queen Charlotte Islands
• Summer Range – Inland waters of Puget Sound and southern Georgia Strait – the Salish Sea

Salish Sea Sightings

Map derived from NOAA Recovery Plan Jan. 2008

Graph from the Whale Museum Sightings Database