Joining us as our guest, from Vancouver Island, is our friend Gary Sutton. Gary is a whale researcher with Ocean Wise Research and Bay Cetology. He is also a professional whale and wildlife guide. After recently returning from his field research season off northeast Vancouver Island and the central BC coast, Gary shares information about the focus of their research and tells some great stories about his time up there. The overarching goal of the research he is working on is to use photogrammetry to take photos and measure cranial fat deposits in Northern Resident killer whales and track changes over time to assess body condition and health. Gary talks about this research and what we can learn about whales using drones to take photos from above. As we do with all of our guests, we asked Gary to share some memorable encounters from his field season. Gary tells some great stories about seeing bubble-net feeding humpbacks and the first documented sighting of some famous California Bigg's killer whales in the inland waters of BC. We also discuss the latest sightings, including a new calf with the T37Bs and a rare winter Southern Resident killer whale superpod. We discuss how the Southern Residents are adapting to declines in their preferred prey availability and the changes we are seeing in their distribution and travel patterns. The episode concludes with an email from a listener in response to our discussions about humpbacks intervening in Bigg's killer whale predations on marine mammals. The email points out that hippos have been well documented to interrupt hunts on other animals as well. If you are enjoying listening to our podcast, please follow/subscribe, leave us feedback/reviews and share with your friends! You can also find us on Instagram, Facebook and Youtube. Please send us feedback or questions at afterthebreachpodcast@gmail.com.
For complete show notes, links and photos, please visit our website: https://www.afterthebreachpodcast.com/e/episode-0-orca-research-stories-latest-sightings/
Links mentioned in this episode:
- Gary on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gary_j27/
- Ocean Wise Research on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oceanwiseresearch/
- Bay Cetology: https://baycetology.org/
Photos mentioned in this episode:
New calf with T37B. Photo by Jeff Friedman
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!