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Southern resident killers are a critical population of extinction protected by the Mammal Protection Act. Their current population is around 73 years. The animals are social and live in narrow family groups led by mothers and grandmothers.
The whales receive follow -up numbers by the Center for Whale Research and are closely observed by researchers, photographers and whale observers – especially when they are near the communities along Puget Sound, such as Seattle.
“I would risk saying that it is the most studied whale population on the planet, whatever the species, because it has lasted for 50 years,” said Giles.
How, then, did this astonishing behavior escaped the opinion of researchers for decades?
They did not have the right perspective.
“It is a really cryptic behavior. It occurs almost entirely underwater and it is a piece of Varech stuck between two animals which is only 2 feet long,” said Weiss.
More recently, researchers have started using drones to document whales from an aerial point of view. As drone technology has improved, the data they have collected too.
“Which really changed for us during the 2024 field season – we got a new drone,” said Weiss, noting that he was providing high resolution video.
He said the researchers first noticed a whale pushing the Varech against another whale in April, then observed whales rubbing for about 15 minutes.
Once the researchers have noticed the strange behavior, they started to see it more often.
“We started to see it a lot – to the point now where most of the time we pilot the drone, we see at least a pair of whales doing this,” said Weiss.
The researchers suspect that the behavior has taken place from the start.
“We have not had the right point of view. I think it’s something that has probably been going on in immemorial,” said Giles. “I think we have just scratched the surface of the understanding of these animals, partly because of technology.”
South residents have been under the spotlight for conservation efforts for decades. Whales are faced with a number of threats, including the decline in the quantity and quality of prey, toxic pollution and the disruption of the noise of vessels, according to the marine mammal commission. Some research suggests that residents of the South are on the way to extinction, if more aggressive measures are not taken.
Weiss said that new discoveries offer another reason why it is important to take care of the species.
“Discover something like that, late in the game for how long we studied them, said that there is much more to learn and that they must be there to learn these things,” he said. “It is not only a collection of 73 whales … It is a unique culture and also a society. These are whales with a set of traditions that go back to thousands of years. ”
