UW dog tracks Orca scat and contributes to a number of new studies

From My Fox Spokane: UW dog tracks Orca scat and contributes to a number of new studies

SEATTLE—
Labradors are natural born hunting dogs, but what Tucker is retrieving is a little out of the ordinary.

The research team from the University of Washington is in the San Juan Islands tracking Orca poop. Samples they've collected so far show our Southern Resident Killer Whales don't have enough to eat.

"The fact that there is less food means they have to metabolize their fat and then the toxicants are released into their bodies," researcher Deborah Giles said. "It's a bad deal. Last year we lost two males that were just coming into that time when they could have been helping with the gene pool."

Research shows one stressor impacting the Orcas is the noise of boat engines which interferes with the sonar they use to hunt and communicate.

Another threat was recently discovered in a study by NOAA, led by Dr. Michael Ford.

The study shows the Orcas in J, K and L pod are inbreeding, a circumstance that can cause a host of health issues in whales, just as it does in humans.

"You expect to see problems with the immune system, robustness of the genetic code and the ability to reproduce and be fertile," Orca Relief president Mark Anderson said.

Inbreeding isn't something we can do much about, so researchers are working twice as hard to get a handle on problems that can be prevented and learn more about how boat noise and pursuit impacts the whales' well being. In fact, the National Marine Fisheries Service is conducting a new study on the issue right now.

"We have a tagging project and there are some suction cup tags our science center will put on the whales. It will record the sound level that the whales are hearing and that will give us a better indication not only what sounds the boats make but how the whales are receiving that sound," Lynn Barre with NMFS said.

In another project, Soundwatch, a non-profit group that educates boaters on whale watching guidelines, are working with Tucker and his team tracking the number of boats near the Orcas. The UW crew collects scat and cross references the day and time with Soundwatch to measure increased stress levels of the whales in the presence of a lot of boats.

"Physiologically if they’re having stressors coming from vessel activities we want to know that so we can alleviate that by having some new guidelines and laws. It would be a good indicator and we’re really happy to partner with them," Kari Koski said.