North Gulf Oceanic Society

06/01/2025

Date change! Hello all, we had to change to Wednesday June 4, 7:30pm for our whale presentation. Join us for some local killer whale information, regarding diet, body condition, habits and patterns. See you Wednesday!

06/04/2024

Hello Seward friends!

If you haven’t already heard, we are hosting a talk on the Killer Whales of Kenai Fjords in Seward, tomorrow night, Tuesday, June 4, 7:30pm, at the Rae Building, 125 3rd Ave. Topics include observed patterns, diet, newly proposed species, intelligence. Doors will open at 7 if you want to chat whales!
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04/22/2024

Yesterday we were walking the beach in Seward, Devin P. found a fin and part of the back of a Dall’s Porpoise. Quite likely, this was the result of successful foraging by Bigg’s killer whales. Just five days ago tour boats reported seeing the Chugach Transients (AT1s) in Resurrection Bay. These porpoise, along with harbor seal, are the main prey items for Bigg’s. A few years ago, captain Mike at Kenai Fjords Tours sent a photo of a very similar fin portion, after the Chugach Transients finished a hunt. There are teeth marks here that look different, but likely dogs or other scavengers did some work later

06/27/2023

With whale work in Alaska one’s fortunes can turn on a dime. Frustration instantly replaced by success. The first short spell of sun since April and it finds us in Hinchinbrook Entrance looking for AJ, AB and AB25 pods. It has been a very rough spring weather with rain, overcast, cold and low light despite the lengthening days. Today the sun seems unfamiliar, almost foreign. The seas are unusually calm in Hinchinbrook Entrance and our frustration level is peaking in late afternoon. we have heard killer whales on the hydrophone most of the day out in the central Sound, but haven’t found them. The area is so wide open and sound travels so well across it, finding source of calls becomes problematic. We are about to give up when we get a call from the fishing charter boat “Sweet Pea”. “Hey Natoa, there were some killer whales out past Schooner rock about 3 miles” It is 5pm but it will be light for hours yet. Rejuvenated we head down the outer coast of Montague Island and are finally rewarded by killer whales.
The whales are widely spread, but almost by command they begin to assemble into a couple large groups of twenty or more. In front we find AJ30, Santa Ana, and her juvenile, AJ72, and AJ40, Monsoon, and her juvenile AJ70. They seem a catalyst around which others coalesce All the whales turn and start heading north with the sinking sun nicely illuminating their saddle patches. A photographers dream. One large resting group is most of AJ8 pod and another centered around a large subgroup of AJ pod whales. Frustration has vanished as we glide alongside and get valuable ID photographs of all these whales. We are seeing these whales for the first time this year. Thank you Sweet Pea. Later after we have anchored, a group of the whales come and circle our boat and literally swim off into a brilliant orange Alaskan summer sunset. It is nearly midnight.

06/27/2023

06/15/2023

Its Diane’s confident voice on the radio on her fishing charter boat the Florette C “We got some of your black and white whales over here, four or five of them” Diane is a premier king salmon fisher. She is tolerant, but not fond of the resident killer whales that also are fishing for king salmon. When the Natoa pulls up to the four whales I see immediately that they are not fishing eating residents but mammal eating transients. “Well Diane, these are mammal eaters. They want nothing to do with you” Diane responds immediately with humor and relief in her voice “Story of my life”. Despite the pouring rain I am now rapidly photographing the animals on this first day out on Natoa. Both the camera and my hip, which was recently replaced, have their glitches today, but we get the photographs. The whales are AT142 her 7 year old AT184 with her 17 year old daughter, AT145, who has a calf, AT 205, a three year old. They are traveling in tight group at about 3 knots, likely listening for marine mammals but also socializing. We get improvement ID shots for the catalogue. The whales are quite tolerant and even, friendly, approaching alongside and on several occasions and passing under the boat. Unusual for transients. The three-year-old starts chasing birds and suddenly emerges with a murrelet in its mouth, which quickly vanishes. Birds work as great training tools young whales. AT 205 continues to persue murrlets with seven-year-old AT184. They swing back and forth beneath the boat as they terrorize their winged victims. We see no more consumed; it seems to be all about the chase for these two young whales See video.

06/06/2023

Last week we were happy to see that 2022 newborn ‘Porcupine’ (AK042) made it to this year. Survival in the first year can be rough! We also were able to collect 7 f***l samples from 2 different days from this pod, the AK6s, to study which fish DNA are present and learn more detail about their diet. The AK6s tend to have a different pattern than the other ‘local’ pods in May and June, spending more time deep in Aialik and Resurrection Bays, while the others are in Agnes. They may have a slightly different diet than the other pods. For the pods we study, Alaskan fish eating whales seem to focus on Chum, Chinook, and Coho, with Halibut also being consistent.

05/22/2023

Killer whale talk in Seward!

Wednesday May 24, 2023. 7:30pm Gateway Hotel, Seward

Dan from the North Gulf Oceanic Society will be giving a talk about killer whales (orca) this Wednesday at the Gateway Hotel at 7:30pm. We will give some info about the recent transients/Biggs’ that have been in Resurrection Bay, about why Agnes may be starting late, what we are finding about diet and body condition, and how the winter hydrophones help tell us which pods are calling when we can’t be there. We will also talk about the latest updates re: the age old question— will killer whales be split into separate species?!

Come on by at 6:30 or 7:00 if you’d like to buy and sip on one of Gregs Stoney Creek beers.

See you Wednesday,

Dan

ps Stoney Creek Taproom at Gateway opens at 5pm, food welcome

05/20/2023

Thanks to local Seward Captains for some photos of the Chugach Transients! On May 15, John Coffey and Mike Boyce sent along photos of AT2,4,9,10, and likely AT18. AT3 (39 years old) was not photographed, but hopefully was nearby. AT6 was not photographed, but swims on his own more often than not. After swimming through the crude oil in the 1989 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, these 7 are the last remaining of the original 22 whales.
Photo: John Coffey

07/16/2022

22 June 2022
“The chances of finding that hydrophone dragging around that camera are practically nil” I say, “ but lets go give it a try for an hour and a half before we look for whales”. Hannah is determined to find a lost remote hydrophone that had the recovery lines apparently silted in deep enough that would couldn’t with a grappling hook. The hydrophone itself would still be floating 5 feet above the bottom with a buoy keeping it suspended will of the bottom. Loss of this recording hydrophone would create a blank year for Hinchinbrook in her dissertation data. We repeatedly tried grappling again this trip and used a side scan sonar to search; all to no avail. She hauled this bulky 80 pound case of camera, electronics and cable all the way from Fairbanks. We’ve got to try it. After about 40 minutes of my trying to drive tracklines over possible locations with the tide running and Hannah glued to the camera screen, she shouts “Put in a Mark! I saw the buoy line!” We found it. I can’t believe it. Hannah is tenacious and it paid off. Now we will have to get divers out to retrieve from its location in 130 feet of water. This will be a real bonus if we can recover it and unlock the year’s data on whale presence and activity that is stored in its memory. Instantly Hannah is contacting her major professor, Brenda Konar and researcher Katrina Iken, both highly trained divers and setting up a date to attempt the recovery.

07/13/2022

The call comes just when we thought there were no whales around. “I’ve got three killer whales here at Montague Point” the voice comes over the radio. We arrive unable to find them and we get further directions “since I called you they headed up into Rocky Bay” the radio voice directs. We thank him and head into the Bay. “It’s got to be either transients or the beach loving AK2 resident pod”, I say to Hannah. It turns out to be Steller (AK16) and her offspring looking for fish where most resident whales do not go. And they do it very successfully; the AK2s have been the fastest growing of our pods in recent years. We get photos and follow them looking for scats. We had intended to go search for a lost remote hydrophone if we didn’t find whales today. As it turns out, the travel south into the entrance and then into Zaikof Bay and take us precisely to the spot we were going to search for the hydrophone. Then they dive around the area, echolocating and making strange “resting calls” before they make extremely close pass by the drifting Natoa as we stand on the bow. They surface alongside connecting eye to eye. Is this all a strange coincidence or were they giving clues as to where the lost hydrophone might be found? Nothing about these whales surprises me anymore.

07/09/2022

20 June 2022
We can hear weak AJ calls on the hydrophone from our favorite anchorage in outer Zaikof Bay. Our movements are slow that morning after another late night, put perk up quickly as we realize there is the opportunity to have an encounter earlier in the day. Natoa is off, again heading north. We are pretty confident in the direction since in all but one encounter the whales have been headed out of the Sound. Their pattern seems to be to head into the Sound at night and then come out the entrance during the day; generally late in the day, unfortunately
We find the whales by late morning. Again, the first whales we photograph are the “host pod” AJ8. Soon we are on other whales, though. Good news, its part of AJ pod which we have not fully photographed this year. Only a couple matrilines is seems. Moving on we head toward a group of spread out whales that seem to be headed rapidly out the entrance. When they coalesce for a to socialize we move in and realize it is the AN10 pod again. Great news! Hopefully we will have them all photographed after today which would be a great update of our life history information. Splitting up, they head offshore and eventually are lost in the open ocean.
After heading back into Zaikof to search for a lost hydrophone using an underwater camera, Hannah drops the hydrophone and again there are calls. The are just from AJ pod. It is late in the day when we find them. There are AJ pod whales that we have not yet photographed. This includes AJ22 and her matriline, including her older son Euros. This is good but we still don’t find a number of AJ matrilines. The whales are very widespread and feeding at depth with dive times of up to 10 minutes. It is 930 by the time we approach the anchorage for the night, photo and data yet to be processed. Another late night.