Why are Ish River's orcas traveling all the way to central California this winter? Dozens orcas from Puget Sound have been spotted recently in Half Moon Bay and around the Farallon Islands. Scientists have identified them as belonging to the "K" and "L" pods, and the obvious answer as to why they are so far out of their historic range has to do with their appetites: salmon are more plentiful in the Sacramento and San Joaquin River systems than they are in the ailing Puget Sound. "They are extending that far to try to keep everybody fed," said David Bain, research director for Global Research and Rescue in Seattle. "It's a bad thing, in that whales ought to be able to make a living locally."
Spotting them so far south "extends their range 1,000 miles," according to one researcher, which brings to mind questions about the lengths to which animal species can adapt their behavior in response to human-caused disruptions in the ecosystem and about the long, winding, mysterious pathways of evolution.
By the way, orcas can travel at 3 miles per hour, and cover 75 miles a day. Thus, it would take them something like 10 days to two weeks to move from Ish River country to San Franciso.
Informative articles in the San Francisco Gate here and Seattle Times here
orcas
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