Did anyone see the news tonight? Apparently there has been a pod of orcas in hodd canal for the last 7 weeks eating seals. They estimated that the orcas have eaten about 8-9 hundred seals!! Now that is one way to thin the population. Now all we need to do is trian those orcas to eat the nets
Buck

Whoooooo Hooooooo......GR8 News! Missed the news article, but I sure hope it's true.....and about time!!

That's the best news i've heard all day. wish i would have seen that one.

A friend was in the South part of the Canal a week ago and the pod of Killers came right past their boat. He said they were on their way to the seal rookery (?) in the South end of Hood Canal.

Way cool. Can someone please tell them there are good pickins down here Tacoma way?

Yup, send them down Seattle Way!

I hope they just eat the bellies

About a year and a half ago a pod moved in to Neah Bay and made short work of the seals and sea lions there. I heard it didn't take very long.

Its great to hear that the whales are working on decreasing the over abundunce of seals and sea lions. But they also can do a job on the salmon in the area. Remember the pictures of "springer" chasing salmon off Vashon.

Good thought about the salmon, except right now there doesn't seem like a lot of fish in the South end of the canal. I think they will pull back out of there as soon as the seals are thinned out.

duraboat,

These types of killer whales(transients) do a lot less hunting of salmon then they do of sea mammals. They keep their "conversation" (you know, the clicking and sonar stuff) down to almost nothing so as they can sneak up on other sea mammmals without alarming them of their presence. Other sea going mammals can hear this stuff pretty good. It is because of this "silence" that makes them less effective in herding salmon for dinner. Other resident type orcas actually emit frequencies (conversation -remember they are very intelligent) on how best to organize and attack or chase the salmon as a "pack" -or pod. -They often work closely together and coordinate their efforts. Kinda like how the humback whales in Alaska feed on krill/plankton by working together surrounding the krill by air bubbles and tail thrashing and a bunch of them coming up through the center for a massive feast..... Springer was a "resident" whale or fish eater mostly.
Good Fishing, Darin

Go orcas, go orcas, go orcas!!!!

Isn't Mother Nature a beauty? <img border="0" alt="[eat]" title="" src="graemlins/eat.gif" />

I couldn't have explained better steelnerves, nice job.

"These types of killer whales(transcients)....."

I'm curious, do we (the Orca research people) think the transcients hunt mammals because they're predisposed to do so (incapable or less adept at the methods used to hunt salmon), or because they just LIKE to?

On the flip side, I know that the local Orca researchers are wishing strongly that the resident whales (salmon hunters, unfortunately) would develop a liking for sea lion meat. It would solve everyone's problems, at least for a while.

I don't know what we'd do with an overabundance of anadromous fish around here.

That report seems a little optimistic. They've been here for 6 weeks and 12-13 whales have eaten 8-900 seals? I'd like to believe that number,but I think it's a bit much.

I was an Orca in a former life. I always thought seals tasted like chicken.

Now I'm fat and resemble a whale. When I go on vacation and lay on the beach, some idiot from Peta always tries to pour water on me, and roll me back in to the ocean.

just droped in for the first time and all you have is good news I think i like this spot even if I am 300 mi from the hood ditch :

Skywalker,

Well my friend, these "gypsy" whales may have various reasons for hunting mammals vs fish -some logical other maybe.... They are quite competent in the brain department and sometimes make decisions on fun & ruthlessness but most often they hunt based on a probably a found niche over time. Kinda like how some farmers raise and slaughter cattle and others slaughter sheep for their wellbeing. Or maybe a better example would be grizzlies inland eat more berries, nuts, rodents and carrion and coastal griz or brown bears eat more salmon and some berries etc.! Somebody's got to keep those seals, sea lions, porpose etc. in check...Great white sharks are not found very often much north of our waters!
Good Fishing, Darin

Hawk, I,m laughing my ars off! That's some funny sheit!!!You should take that on the road!
Of course it could be the gin and tonic talking.

Hawk,

I like you quote. Good one.

Good Fishing, Darin

Thank god they outlawed whaling. I was tired of keeping one eye open to see if someone was going to stick me with a harpoon.

I have caught alot of fish over the years out of the hood canal tribs and would have to say that more have wounds from fighting the gauntlet of seals than do not.The fish eating mammals in the canal I believe is the biggest reason left that the fish do not come back to there former status.

An old-timer once told me that the seal pop. in the canal started growing after the hood canal bridge was built because the transient killer whales quit coming in and thinning them out.

Very interesting Cleo..... and funny once again Hawk!
Good Fishing, Darin

this is great news for the salmon in this area and here is link to the story that I just found.http://www.mcbi.org/News/Orca_balance.htma

this just goes to show that you dont need to waste your time ranting about shooting sea lions. god will do the trick. but we do have hands that can hold pens and type on keyboards for a reason. If everyone who posted a reply to this(myself included) wrote one letter to our fisheries officials stating that we will no longer allow any nets in our rivers no matter the color of skin of the netter. now that will make a difference

I wonder if Orcas think those guys stringing nets in the Rivers taste like chicken?

Hawk & Chappy,

I couldn't agree more! Seriously, some if not all the people on this long thread should take ten minutes out of their day today, tomarrow or by the end of the week and type/write a quick but thoughtful statement about netting etc.. I think your right Chappy, it would have some effect! Maybe we should take/make a poll here????
Good Fishing, Darin

We saw the whole pod again on Sunday in the Canal off of Potlatch boat ramp. We were about to check the crab pots when they came along. That is one big male Orca, as were sitting there watching, the pod went right under the boat At first we thought it was a shadow on the water until they came up about 40 feet away. Haven't seen a seal in the South End of the Canal for 2 weeks now. Guess the Orcas are really doing there part in Salmon recovery over there.

Report on NPR tonight said the pod ate half of the estimated 1500 seals in t Hood Canal

Here's a link to the PI. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/110025_whales25.shtml

We need them in Grays Harbor. They use to come in but not anymore. We have over 5,000 seals with no predators at all. Great whites used to come in too. That 18’ great white at the Pacific Science center was netted by G.H. Paper in the 70’s. I’m told the seals only eat the zipperlip fish going to the Skookumchuck.

Chappy, Steelnerves,
I hate to burst your bubble; the tribes are fishing because federal courts have determined that their right to fish is guaranteed by treaties signed with the US government in the 1800's. No amount of writing to the WDFW or to the state legislature will make one whit of difference. The tribes have, as a matter of fact, been appointed co-managers, along with the WDFW, of the resource. It is not a matter that comes under state jurisdiction, that battle was fought, and lost, many years ago. I never cease to be amazed that this subject comes up again and again, I would have thought that most steelhead and salmon fishermen would have educated themselves as to this state of affairs.

Now clearing them out that way I am all for

Yes! Another upshot to the decrease of seals will be lower fecal coliform counts that have kept some of the canal's best clam and oyster beds close for years. There were so many seals crapping all over the place that some great shellfish beds have been closed because they were unfit for human consumption. Maybe that will change now.

I hope so!

Preston...,

Thanks for the info....I sorta meant that as a joke...But, in time if enough concern is given to such issues new agreements can be made(through the Feds)...It still never hurts to voice your concern to the right people. It atleast acts a a future catalyst and choppin block.
I am fairly familiar with the ol' Fed-Indian agreements, particularly the one that set it all in stone some time ago....
Goo