July 14, 2025 • 14 mins
Orca Allokelping is the newly documented behavior where southern resident killer whales use bull kelp as a tool to rub against each other—possibly to remove dead skin and soothe irritation. Captured via drone, this social spa-like behavior, known as allokelping, reveals a rare example of cooperative tool use in the wild. Scientists believe it serves both physical and social functions, strengthening bonds within pods and supporting skin health.
Kelp grooming is more than just orca hygiene. It highlights the intelligence and cultural complexity of these endangered whales. The discovery comes with a reminder: kelp forests and Chinook salmon are essential for these behaviors to continue. As habitat and food sources decline, so too may the traditions that define this population. This episode breaks down the science behind the behavior and why it matters for conservation.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(01:00:00):
Now you might have been to the spa and
gotten, you know, facial and you've used
all these different types of plant
material to make your face look good,
make your body feel good.
But how do animals react to itchy skin or
sensitive skin in the ocean?
I mean, the saltwater can
be kind of harsh on our skin.
Is it harsh on like
marine mammals like orcas?
(01:00:21):
Maybe so. And they
have a remedy for that.
It's called allo-kelp.
It's the first documented use of a tool
other than for hunting where an animal
like the orca gets off a piece of kelp
and rubs it in between two orcas to take
care of any itchy skin or sensitive skin.
It's pretty cool.
And we're going to talk about it on
today's episode of the How
to Protect the Ocean podcast.
(01:00:42):
Let's start the show.
Hey, everybody. Welcome back to another
exciting episode of the How
to Protect the Ocean podcast.
I'm your host, Andrew Lewin.
And this is the podcast where you find
out what's happening with the ocean, how
you can speak up for the ocean and what
you can do to live for a
better ocean by taking action.
Now, look, I know that a lot of the times
(01:01:02):
when we talk about the ocean and how to
protect it, we have to talk about some of
the stuff that's not so fun to talk
about, you know, climate change,
overfishing, water quality issues,
plastic pollution and so forth.
But today we're going to do
something a little different.
We're going to talk about some really
cool things that orcas do.
And they do a lot of cool things.
But we found another cool thing to do.
And that's using a
tool to help their skin.
(01:01:24):
It's a really fun thing to do.
And, you know, this is what we do on the
How to Protect the Ocean podcast.
We kind of teach you about the ocean,
some of the cool things that animals do
and how to protect a little bit more.
But we go a little bit deeper now when I
decided to join a group of cofounders
that we're putting
together an undertow community.
It's called the undertow.
It's a community where you can join.
It's going to be a digital app.
(01:01:44):
You can join as a community.
We want 10 million connections, 10
million of you to take five million
dollars worth of action by 2030.
It's an ambitious goal,
but we want you to get there.
We want to help guide you to doing the
right thing and protecting
the ocean and how to do that.
Get over all the greenwashing or blue
washing or however you want to call it.
Really get down to the nitty gritty and
(01:02:05):
be able to say, hey, this
is how you protect the ocean.
So go to speak up for blue dot com at
forward slash join the undertow.
Join the undertow and get better and
guided experience or guided ways and
methodologies of protecting the ocean and
being involved in a community where
you're not worried about algorithms on
social media and be able to kind of join
(01:02:28):
a community that's
there to protect the ocean.
No algorithm all ocean all the time.
It's a lot of fun. All right.
Let's get back into the episode.
Orca's orca's are cool.
We love orca's and they
did something really cool.
We're going to go over to the orca's not
the orca's by the Strait of Gibraltar who
are taking down boats and who are
(01:02:48):
continuing to harass boats.
That's kind of a cool thing in its own
right, but a little scary.
We're going to go to the critically
endangered southern resident orca
population just off the coast of BC and
the sailor sea and as well as off the
northwest coast of
Washington or the United States.
And we're going to look at how these
orca's who are very well monitored and
(01:03:09):
very well studied how they are
interacting and how they are kind of just
living right how they are enjoying life
and being able to live and survive.
There's only 73 of them left. There used
to be over 150 160 and they went through
some pretty critical impediments in their
population in the 1970s. A lot of that
population was grabbed up caught and
(01:03:30):
shipped off to a number
of marine theme parks.
So what we know now is like marine land
in Canada and the sea world parks as well
as many of them in Russia, China and
Europe probably South America as well.
And we know that's documented as
captivity is not good at all for marine
mammals and it affects their psyche. It
affects their emotions. It affects their
(01:03:51):
physicality, their physical presence.
They are stuck in small, you know, tubs
and that's not good. Right. We know
that's not good. So a lot of them were
captured after that and the population
went down quite a bit.
I think 60 of them were caught. And then
we have the lack of salmon that's coming
back. We have dams that were put up in
critical rivers where salmon were
frequenting for hydropower.
(01:04:13):
And we saw a lot more predation by sea
lions as they started to increase. And
with that effect, that cumulative effect
of climate change and so forth, we are
seeing a lot less of the coho salmon,
which is their favorite food.
The southern resident oracle population
favorite food. And so we kept seeing a
continued decline in their population. So
(01:04:34):
now there are 73 of them. We've seen a
couple of calves be born over a couple of
times. But then we've also seen some that
have died at a very, very young age,
which is heartbreaking.
We know the behaviors of the ability of
these orcas to mourn their lost calves.
And it's been heart wrenching to watch,
but also very interesting to see how they
have this culture about them. We know
that each pod, even within the southern
(01:04:56):
oracle resident population have their own
language and have their own dialect.
And the transient orcas also have a
dialect, which eat marine mammals and
sharks and large animals. And then you
have the northern resident population,
which also each pod has their own
dialect. And some of them can understand
each other. Some of them
can't. It really depends.
But that's something that becomes more
and more interesting as we look at this.
(01:05:18):
And so the culture of these animals is
something that's very, very interesting
to scientists, very
interesting to ocean conservationists.
And just I would imagine anybody who's
not in the field just because it's so
cool to see. And it helps us understand
their behavior and helps understand what
is critical to their survival.
This behavior that we saw through drone
(01:05:38):
footage, so drone monitoring, where you
have these drones that have like highly
defined cameras on them, and they're
flown with permits and they have to
follow certain rules and the drone
operators have to be licensed by like if
you're in Canada has to be like the
National Federation of
Flights of flying or flying.
Or whatever you call it the equivalent of
the FAA. And then the FAA in the US has
(01:05:59):
specific guidelines and tests to be able
to operate a drone. And especially if
you're around a marine mammal, they used
to never allow it around a marine mammal
because the Marine Malle Protection Act
in the US didn't allow
anybody to harass these animals.
And there's such a noise that comes off
of some of them that it can be considered
harassment. But the things that progress
since the beginning of drones and drone
(01:06:20):
operations and using drone operations to
monitor marine mammals.
And there have been some more research on
it. It shows like they're in specific
situations with the proper permitting and
the proper drone operators. You've been
able to use drone as a monitoring tool to
monitor these behaviors.
And it's really difficult to go up on a
boat 200 400 meters away, depending on
what the permits are for and be able to
(01:06:42):
monitor things because you're present,
you're there. And so the animals are
probably going to behave
differently when you're there.
They might be curious and come over and
see you or they might have tried to avoid
you, but you're not seeing their natural
behavior because there's somebody
present, right? There's a boat present
that's causing noise that can affect
their communications and so forth.
Having a drone go above them in certain
(01:07:05):
height and everything and following those
permits, you're able to see things that
they don't display when you're present.
And this is one of
those things I imagine.
And it's basically defined as allo
kelping, which is like trimming the kelp
types of part of the kelps, the kelp
plants, and then wedging the kelp types
between their bodies.
So taking two orcas and wedging it
(01:07:25):
between their bodies and then S shaped
rubbing each other. So they're rubbing it
down. And what they notice is that like
it happened between all sexes.
It happened between all ages, akin among
peers, among family members, among peers.
A lot of times the peers were about the
same size. Some were like really close
relatives and some may have been mates in
the past, but all of them were doing it.
(01:07:46):
And this was something that's part of
their general upkeep and maintenance, it
seems. One of the tools used is the first
known mutual grooming tool
among wild marine mammals.
Isn't that fascinating to be able to
capture that using technology from far
away, using high resolution cameras,
following permits and following the
rules. It's amazing what you can do when
(01:08:07):
you do things ethically
and what you can discover.
It's amazing. It's absolutely amazing. So
why do they do this? Well, it's a
physical kind of remedy and social
strengthening for bonds. But
essentially, it's skincare.
We as humans, you know, a lot of us go to
the spa. I've been to a couple of times.
You get massage, you get treatment, you
get like your face down, like a facial,
(01:08:27):
you'll get your nails trim like a
manicure and a pedicure.
You'll put like kelp products, you'll put
seaweed, you'll put cucumbers, whatever
it is. I haven't been to many. You
probably noticed that by then. But you
use all of the properties of these
seaweed or kelp or sea grasses that are
used for antibacterial treatments or, you
(01:08:49):
know, facial treatments and like
exfoliating and all that kind of stuff.
Well, that's what marine mammals have
been doing for a long time. We just
didn't know about it. I don't know how
long they've been doing this, but they're
definitely been doing it for a while
because they do it. It's very much
compared to like primates
on land who groom each other.
There are other animals that use the
tool, but to think that comparing, you
know, primates to marine mammals, like
(01:09:11):
primates have the hand coordination. They
have that very, very close, really
related to humans. And they have a lot of
the same kind of movements and the same
kind of abilities to grab things with
their hands to be able to grip things to
be able to use tools and fine tune tools.
You look at an orca, they're a 60 to 65
(01:09:31):
foot animal. They have fins. They don't
have fingers. They can't grip things
unless it's with their mouths. So they
have to be very intricate in placing this
kelp type and be able to put it between
their bodies and rub it back and forth so
that they actually feel the effect of it.
And they're usually like the
antibacterial properties of the kelp to
(01:09:52):
be able to do it. And then look, look,
they are in habitats where there is kelp,
there's bull kelp. That's the type of
kelp that they use. They could use other
type of kelp, but that's what they were
seen using. So we're going
to assume that it's them.
Now here is the important part with
conservation. You have a population that
is critically endangered. They are having
trouble finding salmon. They are having
(01:10:13):
trouble with climate change. They are
having trouble just
being able to reproduce.
And their physiology is facing some dire
straits when it comes to chemicals in the
water or from plastics and it gets into
their tissue and it degrades their
system. It degrades their health. And so
they are facing a lot of problems.
(01:10:33):
Now we've discovered that they've been
using this bull kelp to help with their
skin care. Right? That could be something
that's critical to them. We don't know
how often they do it. We don't know if
this is a necessity or if this is just
for fun. We don't have a clue.
And so when you have bull kelp, which is
reducing in its number and its spatial
coverage, and you have a critically
(01:10:53):
endangered species that is using that
bull kelp for potential skin care. Now
you're looking at the conservation
connections here. Right? You're looking
at critically endangered population and
you're having a kelp that used to be very
abundant along the
coast of BC and Washington.
And now it's reducing because of
pollution, climate change and so forth.
We have no idea how important the skin
(01:11:15):
care routine is for the orcas. It could
be vitally important. It could help them
get rid of parasites. It could help them
get rid of any kind of cuts or flush
wounds or anything like that.
That could be important in terms of their
overall care, their outer care, right? To
protect their skin. And we don't know how
often they do it, but we're going to
(01:11:35):
start to figure that out as we can
observe where we're not directly
interfering with their regular patterns.
And we can observe using drones. So
hopefully we see more of this. We see how
they use it, but it's definitely
something to emphasize that not only is
this good for conservation, but it's also
good to understand their culture.
To emphasize that cultural loss, like
loss risk if populations decline further.
So that we lose that culture of those
(01:11:57):
species and how they interact and how
they strengthen bonds with each other by
rubbing close to each other, how they
take care of each other, how it's like
all sexes, all ages, and they
partner up in different ways.
This is all part of their culture and the
more we lose from these animals, the more
culture we lose in these animals. We are
not seeing the replacement of young as
(01:12:18):
much as we're seeing the death of the
old. This population is
not sustainable as we see it.
Until you start getting that regular
reproduction rate and that regular
success in reproduction and those calves
surviving beyond two, three, four, five,
six years and be able to get to sexual
maturity and be able to reproduce
(01:12:39):
themselves. We do not have
a sustainable population.
So we are not only losing these animals
as apex predators, but we're also losing
the culture that they bring and something
that we can learn from them and that we
can understand what they can do this
behavior. Although it might seem small to
some this reshapes what we know about
work intelligence and culture.
(01:13:00):
It reaffirms what we think that they can
do, but also brings us to another level
in terms of what they can do.
So it calls for like broader conservation
measures to understand like the
protection, not just of the species, but
of their traditions. And this also has a
big tie probably to the indigenous
populations that know them that have
(01:13:21):
cultural ties to them.
There are some indigenous population. I
don't know if it's all who believe that
when their elders die or pass away or
somebody from their community passes
away, they become the orcas.
This is very close to tying to their
cultural feelings and very close to the
time to like how they learn from the
orcas and how the orcas learn from them.
Right? So there's a lot of stuff going on
(01:13:42):
here and it's a big deal probably bigger
than you think of like, Oh, that's cool.
Yeah, they can use kelp to kind of like
exfoliate themselves. That's kind of
cool. No, no, no, this is bigger than
that. It shows how intelligent
they are, how they use tools.
And it's the first time we've ever seen
something like this other than hunting,
which we already know they're smart at.
So I want to bring this to your
attention. I think it's really important.
(01:14:03):
I'd love to hear what you think. Put your
comments down below.
If you're watching this on YouTube or if
you're listening to this on your favorite
podcast app, you can email me by going to
speak up for blue.com forward slash
contact fill out the form. It goes right
to my email or you can contact me just DM
me on Instagram at how
to protect the ocean.
That's at how to protect the ocean. I
hope you enjoyed this episode as much as
(01:14:24):
I did telling you all about it and
recording it. This has been another
episode of the how to protect the ocean
podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Lewin from
the true north strong and free for a lot
of this happened in Canada. Have a great
day. We'll talk to you next
time and happy conservation.
Now you might have been to the spa and
gotten, you know, facial and you've used
all these different types of plant
material to make your face look good,
make your body feel good.
But how do animals react to itchy skin or
sensitive skin in the ocean?
I mean, the saltwater can
be kind of harsh on our skin.
Is it harsh on like
marine mammals like orcas?
(01:00:21):
Maybe so. And they
have a remedy for that.
It's called allo-kelp.
It's the first documented use of a tool
other than for hunting where an animal
like the orca gets off a piece of kelp
and rubs it in between two orcas to take
care of any itchy skin or sensitive skin.
It's pretty cool.
And we're going to talk about it on
today's episode of the How
to Protect the Ocean podcast.
(01:00:42):
Let's start the show.
Hey, everybody. Welcome back to another
exciting episode of the How
to Protect the Ocean podcast.
I'm your host, Andrew Lewin.
And this is the podcast where you find
out what's happening with the ocean, how
you can speak up for the ocean and what
you can do to live for a
better ocean by taking action.
Now, look, I know that a lot of the times
(01:01:02):
when we talk about the ocean and how to
protect it, we have to talk about some of
the stuff that's not so fun to talk
about, you know, climate change,
overfishing, water quality issues,
plastic pollution and so forth.
But today we're going to do
something a little different.
We're going to talk about some really
cool things that orcas do.
And they do a lot of cool things.
But we found another cool thing to do.
And that's using a
tool to help their skin.
(01:01:24):
It's a really fun thing to do.
And, you know, this is what we do on the
How to Protect the Ocean podcast.
We kind of teach you about the ocean,
some of the cool things that animals do
and how to protect a little bit more.
But we go a little bit deeper now when I
decided to join a group of cofounders
that we're putting
together an undertow community.
It's called the undertow.
It's a community where you can join.
It's going to be a digital app.
(01:01:44):
You can join as a community.
We want 10 million connections, 10
million of you to take five million
dollars worth of action by 2030.
It's an ambitious goal,
but we want you to get there.
We want to help guide you to doing the
right thing and protecting
the ocean and how to do that.
Get over all the greenwashing or blue
washing or however you want to call it.
Really get down to the nitty gritty and
(01:02:05):
be able to say, hey, this
is how you protect the ocean.
So go to speak up for blue dot com at
forward slash join the undertow.
Join the undertow and get better and
guided experience or guided ways and
methodologies of protecting the ocean and
being involved in a community where
you're not worried about algorithms on
social media and be able to kind of join
(01:02:28):
a community that's
there to protect the ocean.
No algorithm all ocean all the time.
It's a lot of fun. All right.
Let's get back into the episode.
Orca's orca's are cool.
We love orca's and they
did something really cool.
We're going to go over to the orca's not
the orca's by the Strait of Gibraltar who
are taking down boats and who are
(01:02:48):
continuing to harass boats.
That's kind of a cool thing in its own
right, but a little scary.
We're going to go to the critically
endangered southern resident orca
population just off the coast of BC and
the sailor sea and as well as off the
northwest coast of
Washington or the United States.
And we're going to look at how these
orca's who are very well monitored and
(01:03:09):
very well studied how they are
interacting and how they are kind of just
living right how they are enjoying life
and being able to live and survive.
There's only 73 of them left. There used
to be over 150 160 and they went through
some pretty critical impediments in their
population in the 1970s. A lot of that
population was grabbed up caught and
(01:03:30):
shipped off to a number
of marine theme parks.
So what we know now is like marine land
in Canada and the sea world parks as well
as many of them in Russia, China and
Europe probably South America as well.
And we know that's documented as
captivity is not good at all for marine
mammals and it affects their psyche. It
affects their emotions. It affects their
(01:03:51):
physicality, their physical presence.
They are stuck in small, you know, tubs
and that's not good. Right. We know
that's not good. So a lot of them were
captured after that and the population
went down quite a bit.
I think 60 of them were caught. And then
we have the lack of salmon that's coming
back. We have dams that were put up in
critical rivers where salmon were
frequenting for hydropower.
(01:04:13):
And we saw a lot more predation by sea
lions as they started to increase. And
with that effect, that cumulative effect
of climate change and so forth, we are
seeing a lot less of the coho salmon,
which is their favorite food.
The southern resident oracle population
favorite food. And so we kept seeing a
continued decline in their population. So
(01:04:34):
now there are 73 of them. We've seen a
couple of calves be born over a couple of
times. But then we've also seen some that
have died at a very, very young age,
which is heartbreaking.
We know the behaviors of the ability of
these orcas to mourn their lost calves.
And it's been heart wrenching to watch,
but also very interesting to see how they
have this culture about them. We know
that each pod, even within the southern
(01:04:56):
oracle resident population have their own
language and have their own dialect.
And the transient orcas also have a
dialect, which eat marine mammals and
sharks and large animals. And then you
have the northern resident population,
which also each pod has their own
dialect. And some of them can understand
each other. Some of them
can't. It really depends.
But that's something that becomes more
and more interesting as we look at this.
(01:05:18):
And so the culture of these animals is
something that's very, very interesting
to scientists, very
interesting to ocean conservationists.
And just I would imagine anybody who's
not in the field just because it's so
cool to see. And it helps us understand
their behavior and helps understand what
is critical to their survival.
This behavior that we saw through drone
(01:05:38):
footage, so drone monitoring, where you
have these drones that have like highly
defined cameras on them, and they're
flown with permits and they have to
follow certain rules and the drone
operators have to be licensed by like if
you're in Canada has to be like the
National Federation of
Flights of flying or flying.
Or whatever you call it the equivalent of
the FAA. And then the FAA in the US has
(01:05:59):
specific guidelines and tests to be able
to operate a drone. And especially if
you're around a marine mammal, they used
to never allow it around a marine mammal
because the Marine Malle Protection Act
in the US didn't allow
anybody to harass these animals.
And there's such a noise that comes off
of some of them that it can be considered
harassment. But the things that progress
since the beginning of drones and drone
(01:06:20):
operations and using drone operations to
monitor marine mammals.
And there have been some more research on
it. It shows like they're in specific
situations with the proper permitting and
the proper drone operators. You've been
able to use drone as a monitoring tool to
monitor these behaviors.
And it's really difficult to go up on a
boat 200 400 meters away, depending on
what the permits are for and be able to
(01:06:42):
monitor things because you're present,
you're there. And so the animals are
probably going to behave
differently when you're there.
They might be curious and come over and
see you or they might have tried to avoid
you, but you're not seeing their natural
behavior because there's somebody
present, right? There's a boat present
that's causing noise that can affect
their communications and so forth.
Having a drone go above them in certain
(01:07:05):
height and everything and following those
permits, you're able to see things that
they don't display when you're present.
And this is one of
those things I imagine.
And it's basically defined as allo
kelping, which is like trimming the kelp
types of part of the kelps, the kelp
plants, and then wedging the kelp types
between their bodies.
So taking two orcas and wedging it
(01:07:25):
between their bodies and then S shaped
rubbing each other. So they're rubbing it
down. And what they notice is that like
it happened between all sexes.
It happened between all ages, akin among
peers, among family members, among peers.
A lot of times the peers were about the
same size. Some were like really close
relatives and some may have been mates in
the past, but all of them were doing it.
(01:07:46):
And this was something that's part of
their general upkeep and maintenance, it
seems. One of the tools used is the first
known mutual grooming tool
among wild marine mammals.
Isn't that fascinating to be able to
capture that using technology from far
away, using high resolution cameras,
following permits and following the
rules. It's amazing what you can do when
(01:08:07):
you do things ethically
and what you can discover.
It's amazing. It's absolutely amazing. So
why do they do this? Well, it's a
physical kind of remedy and social
strengthening for bonds. But
essentially, it's skincare.
We as humans, you know, a lot of us go to
the spa. I've been to a couple of times.
You get massage, you get treatment, you
get like your face down, like a facial,
(01:08:27):
you'll get your nails trim like a
manicure and a pedicure.
You'll put like kelp products, you'll put
seaweed, you'll put cucumbers, whatever
it is. I haven't been to many. You
probably noticed that by then. But you
use all of the properties of these
seaweed or kelp or sea grasses that are
used for antibacterial treatments or, you
(01:08:49):
know, facial treatments and like
exfoliating and all that kind of stuff.
Well, that's what marine mammals have
been doing for a long time. We just
didn't know about it. I don't know how
long they've been doing this, but they're
definitely been doing it for a while
because they do it. It's very much
compared to like primates
on land who groom each other.
There are other animals that use the
tool, but to think that comparing, you
know, primates to marine mammals, like
(01:09:11):
primates have the hand coordination. They
have that very, very close, really
related to humans. And they have a lot of
the same kind of movements and the same
kind of abilities to grab things with
their hands to be able to grip things to
be able to use tools and fine tune tools.
You look at an orca, they're a 60 to 65
(01:09:31):
foot animal. They have fins. They don't
have fingers. They can't grip things
unless it's with their mouths. So they
have to be very intricate in placing this
kelp type and be able to put it between
their bodies and rub it back and forth so
that they actually feel the effect of it.
And they're usually like the
antibacterial properties of the kelp to
(01:09:52):
be able to do it. And then look, look,
they are in habitats where there is kelp,
there's bull kelp. That's the type of
kelp that they use. They could use other
type of kelp, but that's what they were
seen using. So we're going
to assume that it's them.
Now here is the important part with
conservation. You have a population that
is critically endangered. They are having
trouble finding salmon. They are having
(01:10:13):
trouble with climate change. They are
having trouble just
being able to reproduce.
And their physiology is facing some dire
straits when it comes to chemicals in the
water or from plastics and it gets into
their tissue and it degrades their
system. It degrades their health. And so
they are facing a lot of problems.
(01:10:33):
Now we've discovered that they've been
using this bull kelp to help with their
skin care. Right? That could be something
that's critical to them. We don't know
how often they do it. We don't know if
this is a necessity or if this is just
for fun. We don't have a clue.
And so when you have bull kelp, which is
reducing in its number and its spatial
coverage, and you have a critically
(01:10:53):
endangered species that is using that
bull kelp for potential skin care. Now
you're looking at the conservation
connections here. Right? You're looking
at critically endangered population and
you're having a kelp that used to be very
abundant along the
coast of BC and Washington.
And now it's reducing because of
pollution, climate change and so forth.
We have no idea how important the skin
(01:11:15):
care routine is for the orcas. It could
be vitally important. It could help them
get rid of parasites. It could help them
get rid of any kind of cuts or flush
wounds or anything like that.
That could be important in terms of their
overall care, their outer care, right? To
protect their skin. And we don't know how
often they do it, but we're going to
(01:11:35):
start to figure that out as we can
observe where we're not directly
interfering with their regular patterns.
And we can observe using drones. So
hopefully we see more of this. We see how
they use it, but it's definitely
something to emphasize that not only is
this good for conservation, but it's also
good to understand their culture.
To emphasize that cultural loss, like
loss risk if populations decline further.
So that we lose that culture of those
(01:11:57):
species and how they interact and how
they strengthen bonds with each other by
rubbing close to each other, how they
take care of each other, how it's like
all sexes, all ages, and they
partner up in different ways.
This is all part of their culture and the
more we lose from these animals, the more
culture we lose in these animals. We are
not seeing the replacement of young as
(01:12:18):
much as we're seeing the death of the
old. This population is
not sustainable as we see it.
Until you start getting that regular
reproduction rate and that regular
success in reproduction and those calves
surviving beyond two, three, four, five,
six years and be able to get to sexual
maturity and be able to reproduce
(01:12:39):
themselves. We do not have
a sustainable population.
So we are not only losing these animals
as apex predators, but we're also losing
the culture that they bring and something
that we can learn from them and that we
can understand what they can do this
behavior. Although it might seem small to
some this reshapes what we know about
work intelligence and culture.
(01:13:00):
It reaffirms what we think that they can
do, but also brings us to another level
in terms of what they can do.
So it calls for like broader conservation
measures to understand like the
protection, not just of the species, but
of their traditions. And this also has a
big tie probably to the indigenous
populations that know them that have
(01:13:21):
cultural ties to them.
There are some indigenous population. I
don't know if it's all who believe that
when their elders die or pass away or
somebody from their community passes
away, they become the orcas.
This is very close to tying to their
cultural feelings and very close to the
time to like how they learn from the
orcas and how the orcas learn from them.
Right? So there's a lot of stuff going on
(01:13:42):
here and it's a big deal probably bigger
than you think of like, Oh, that's cool.
Yeah, they can use kelp to kind of like
exfoliate themselves. That's kind of
cool. No, no, no, this is bigger than
that. It shows how intelligent
they are, how they use tools.
And it's the first time we've ever seen
something like this other than hunting,
which we already know they're smart at.
So I want to bring this to your
attention. I think it's really important.
(01:14:03):
I'd love to hear what you think. Put your
comments down below.
If you're watching this on YouTube or if
you're listening to this on your favorite
podcast app, you can email me by going to
speak up for blue.com forward slash
contact fill out the form. It goes right
to my email or you can contact me just DM
me on Instagram at how
to protect the ocean.
That's at how to protect the ocean. I
hope you enjoyed this episode as much as
(01:14:24):
I did telling you all about it and
recording it. This has been another
episode of the how to protect the ocean
podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Lewin from
the true north strong and free for a lot
of this happened in Canada. Have a great
day. We'll talk to you next
time and happy conservation.
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