http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/141208_whales25.html

Interesting article.

All based on assumptions. The biggest one being that all the orca ate nothing but whales. Like they said "It sounds good"

That's a good article, much more detail than I had heard on the local news. (duh)

Fortunatly, our local salmon-eating orca population seem to be on the rebound. Hope these new-borns make it!

I have noticed that the local pod seems to stay in the greater puget sound area longer than they use to. Or maybe I just pay more attention.

There are very few predators that feed only with their mouths (no claws) that target prey larger than themselves. I have to wonder if the Orcas really attacked full grown healthy humpbacks? The babys are not calved in the Alaskan waters. I suppose that they could have subsisted entirely on old and dying whales or some of the smaller species like beluga, etc. The whole theory is speculative since I would bet the researchers have absolutely no data to show that whales were a primary food source. Look at an Orca mouth and imagine it trying to kill a whale 3 or 10 times its size. How would it get a bite onto anything other than a fluke or tail area. The whole thing seems like a really big stretch to support the anti-whaling sentiment (I don't like whaling either).

Just my ill informed opinion.

-David

I've seen films of orcas tag teaming grey whales and killing them.

I saw that same footage. It seems that the "transient" pods feed exclusively on marine mammals. The footage I saw showed a pack of Orca's herding a Grey whale calf away from it's mother, then they drowned it by forcing it under the water with their bodies. The only thing that they ate was part of the lower jaw and the tongue.

Orca's are often referred to as the "Wolves of the sea."

ive also seen footage of orcas killing a baby humpback or grey whales, but they can only do so, if they can drown it, and usually they arent succesful at all, cuz the mom and baby whale start spinning against each other and will crush a orca if caught between, it doesnt happen often tho..

I did a search.....alot more stuff out there:

http://whale.wheelock.edu/archives/info98/0183.html


http://www.cnn.com/EARTH/9804/30/orca.whale.attack/

http://www.yptenc.org.uk/docs/factsheets/animal_facts/killer_whale.html

http://www.pelagic.org/news/05_23_97_pr.html

http://www.learner.org/jnorth/tm/gwhale/EnemyOrca.html

http://www.geocities.com/xtremekillerwhales/ArticlesOct16A.html

This one is pretty interesting:

http://www.tribuneindia.com/1999/99mar28/sunday/nature.htm

Thanks for the research stlhead. I have alwasy heard that orca's attack whales, much like a pack of wolves attack much larger prey.

Of much interest to me was the one link about Monterey Bay, and the orcas that hang out there for the grey whale migration. I used to live and fish there.

It sounds like they are opportunistic predators, eat a lot of smaller prey, but catch the whales when they can like during migration. Much like the alaskan wolves wait for the caribou migration each year.
-rbf