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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2019
Scientists ID another threat to orcas: pink salmon
Salmon return
every other year
By GENE JOHNSON
Associated Press
SEATTLE — Over the
years, scientists have iden-
tifi ed dams, pollution and
vessel noise as causes of
the troubling decline of the
Pacifi c Northwest’s resi-
dent killer whales. Now,
they may have found a new
and more surprising culprit:
pink salmon.
Four salmon research-
ers were perusing data on
the website of the Cen-
ter for Whale Research,
which studies the orcas,
several months ago when
they noticed a startling
trend: that for the past two
decades, signifi cantly more
of the whales have died in
even-numbered years than
in odd years.
In a newly published
paper, they speculate that
the pattern is related to
pink salmon, which return
to the Salish Sea between
Washington state and Can-
ada in enormous numbers
every other year — though
they’re not sure how. They
suspect that the huge runs
of pink salmon, which have
boomed under conserva-
tion efforts and changes in
ocean conditions in the past
two decades, might inter-
fere with the whales’ ability
to hunt their preferred prey,
Chinook salmon.
Given the dire plight
of the orcas, which offi -
cials say are on the brink of
extinction, the researchers
decided to publicize their
discovery without waiting
to investigate its causes.
“The main point was get-
ting out to the public word
about this biennial pattern
so people can start thinking
AP Photo/Elaine Thompson
Salmon researcher Greg Ruggerone, one of a group of scientists who noticed a startling trend about the deaths of endangered
southern resident orca whales, stands with a chart showing various salmon species in his offi ce in Seattle.
about this important, com-
pletely unexpected factor in
the decline of these whales,”
said one of the authors, Greg
Ruggerone. “It’s important
to better understand what’s
occurring here because that
could help facilitate recov-
ery actions.”
Ruggerone,
president
of Seattle-based Natu-
ral Resources Consultants
and former chairman of
the Columbia River Inde-
pendent Scientifi c Advi-
sory Board, and the other
authors — Alan Springer
of the University of Alaska
at Fairbanks, Leon Shaul of
the Alaska Department of
Fish and Game, and inde-
pendent researcher Gus van
Vliet of Auke Bay, Alaska
— have previously studied
how pink salmon compete
for prey with other species.
As news stories chron-
icled the struggles of the
orcas last year — one whale
carried her dead calf on
her head for 17 days in an
apparent effort to revive
it — the four biologists
looked at data on the Center
for Whale Research’s site.
Thanks to their previous
research, it took them only
a few minutes to recognize
a trend that had escaped the
attention of other scientists.
“We know that some are
good years for the whales
and some are bad years, but
we hadn’t put it together
that it was a biennial trend,”
said Ken Balcomb, the cen-
ter’s founding director, one
of the foremost experts on
the so-called southern resi-
dent killer whales.
Further analyzing the
data, the researchers found
that from 1998 to 2017, as
the population of whales
decreased from 92 to 76,
more than 3.5 times as many
Merkley wants FBI to investigate
Nielsen on family separation
By MEERAH POWELL
and JENN CHAVEZ
Oregon Public Broadcasting
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merk-
ley has asked FBI Director
Christopher Wray to investi-
gate Secretary of Homeland
Security Kirstjen Nielsen for
perjury after, Merkley said,
a formerly secret memo
revealed she lied to Congress
about the Trump administra-
tion’s knowledge of a family
separation policy.
Last June, Nielsen told
Congress there was not a
policy for family separa-
tion, but a memo released by
Merkley’s offi ce reveals that
was not true.
The December 2017
memo titled “Policy Options
to Respond to Border Surge
of Illegal Immigration,” was
sent to Merkley’s offi ce by
a whistleblower and specif-
ically states that the govern-
ment was “considering sepa-
rating family units.”
“Under oath, she con-
tended that there was no pol-
icy of the United States to
separate children from their
families — no family sepa-
ration policy,” Merkley told
Oregon Public Broadcast-
ing . “The document that we
released yesterday shows
very clearly that there was
and for a secretary to lie
before Congress, it’s import-
ant that Congress hold those
individuals accountable.”
newborn and older whales
died during even years —
61, versus 17 in odd years.
During that period, there
were 32 successful births
during odd years, but only
16 during even years.
That biennial pattern
did not exist during a prior
22-year period from 1976
to 1997, when the whale
population was recovering
from efforts to capture orcas
for aquarium display, the
researchers said.
But in 1998, salmon har-
vests were curtailed amid
efforts to boost runs deci-
mated by overfi shing, pol-
lution and habitat loss. A
strong change in ocean con-
ditions occurred around
the same time, benefi ting
pink salmon especially by
increasing the abundance of
zooplankton, which make
up much of the pink salm-
on’s diet.
The combined effect of
the ocean changes and fi sh-
ing restrictions has greatly
benefi ted the pinks, which
are by far most numerous
salmon species in the North
Pacifi c. When they return
to the Salish Sea, there are
about 50 for each of the big-
ger, fattier Chinook. Nearly
all pinks return to their natal
streams in odd years, com-
pleting their two-year life
cycle, unlike other salmon,
which stay in the ocean
longer.
Meanwhile,
Chinook
populations have continued
to struggle — the dearth of
Chinook is considered the
most severe threat to the
orcas — and many scien-
tists say they will continue
to do so unless four dams on
the Lower Snake River are
breached. The researchers
speculate that the blossom-
ing numbers of pinks in the
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Salish Sea during odd-num-
bered years have interfered
with the echolocation the
orcas use to hunt increas-
ingly sparse Chinook. The
orcas almost never eat pink
salmon.
Because the whales
are such large mammals,
the theory goes, the stress
caused by the pinks in odd
years would not affect their
mortality rates and repro-
ductive rates until the fol-
lowing year — and that’s
why more die in even years.
Another
possibility
is that presence of pinks
means less food for the Chi-
nook — and thus less food
for the orcas, Ruggerone
said.
The researchers also put
forth a contrary hypothesis:
that the presence of pinks
somehow enhances the
orcas’ hunting, improving
their survival in odd-num-
bered years — though they
say they have no reason to
believe that’s the case.
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