Killer whales occasionally find themselves where they don’t belong. In the Arctic, they routinely get stuck on the wrong side of encroaching sea ice

We’ll Get You Out of Here—Just Follow the Sound of My Voice | Hakai Magazine

submited by

Style Pass

2024-05-07 18:30:03

Killer whales occasionally find themselves where they don’t belong. In the Arctic, they routinely get stuck on the wrong side of encroaching sea ice. Or they swim into an enclosed space at high tide, their escape cut off when the water recedes—as in the case of kʷiisaḥiʔis (Brave Little Hunter), a young female killer whale that recently became trapped in a lagoon in British Columbia.

That’s also what happened last year when two male killer whales inadvertently became imprisoned in Barnes Lake, a tidal lagoon in southeast Alaska.

Although killer whales can often get themselves out of trouble, other times people have to step in to help. And when scientists want killer whales to move—to lead them back to open water or away from an oil spill—what can they do?

For the males stuck in Barnes Lake, scientists led by Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) ecologist Jared Towers leaned on a novel approach that involved some seemingly irresistible bait: the recorded calls of female killer whales.