Transcript
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Introduces Ken Balcomb and his lifelong interest in orcas, along with the basic questions that drove his early research. He explains why these whales captivated him and what he wanted to learn about their lives.
well this is ELP pod and we've got sport fisherman here uh everybody's looking for the same thing a nice big salmon blows down south there there was another group ahead of they call this guy Papa Orca in factKen belcom is to Orcas what Jane Goodall is to chimpanzees he's become a legend in the wild research community and his work helped rewrite the books on the family lives and longevity of wild killer whales no one inthe world knows these whales like Ken balom they're not just his subjects they're his extended family I've been interested in whale since I was a little kid I got interested in Orca primarily when I was contracted to doa study to tell the government how many were here and they just hooked me they just have a air about them a Charisma that draws you and it just takes you in my personal goals in studying this population
were very simplistic uh I was curious about just how long does it take for a whale to grow up how often do they have a baby how long do they live what do they need in terms of uhsocial environment and food environment and uh I haven't answered all those questions but we've made approaches and uh We've yet to break into their mystique and
Describes how public perception of orcas shifted from vicious killers to entertainment icons and eventually to symbols of a healthy ecosystem. It also explains the early capture era and its impact on the resident whale population.
understanding when we began this study in the mid '70s the species or sinus Orca had just gone through sort of a a makeover in its human perception they've been considered vicious killersand then they were uh caught and put in Ocean area and then they were movie stars Teddy whales they became Show Business and entertainment Commodities now they're a whale watching industry and they're a magnificent creature all the thingsthat people have thought they were probably are unrelated to what they really are they're uh natural leaders of this EOS system that they live in not that they lead it but they're the top of that food chain they'reuh super supremely adapted to their environment and it would do us good to pay attention to how well they're doing just so we know how uh this environment's doing they're the
indicator the captures in this area started around 1966 when entire pods were rounded up whales mostly young whales were removed moved in about a 10-year period we had 58 whales taken out and uh there were about 70 leftwhen that capture era was over and we found that they were resident here and that uh if they kept up that kind of activity they were going to basically remove all of the the growing stock that were goingto be out of Wales in another 10 years if they kept it up
Recounts the speaker's role in the Penn Cove whale capture and the deaths that occurred during the operation. He describes the emotional and ethical weight of the event and how it shaped his view of the animals.
well in 1970 I was hired to be a diver and work on the whale capture so we ended up down here in pen Cove and uh that's where all
happened the actual capture was uh 100 yd off of that uh Pier right over there
the holding pin was just a big circular net that was put down then um trying to get the smaller ones work them into this little Corral area and uh and that's where the animals died they got caught inthe net and drowned and although there were guys hired to patrol that for that purpose you know well stuff happen you know and it
did um we we' had a couple of three die and they came and got us and I guess they have get a permit for six or so and if you lose someway they're not on your permit well youhaven't got them so they had us cut the animals that were already dead open and put rocks inside their cavity there and put anchors around their tail and sink them it was because of publicity and the money anywaywe had released them all and they we took uh the last one over to the uh Dock and and all of the animals that were in the holding pin and the animals that hadn't been caught at all cameover to the dock right where we were loading the last baby and uh stayed there and they just communicated back and forth and and it was uh it was just awful you know the the terror of just ripping
that baby animal away from it mother like that and uh when as soon as that stretcher left the water when the baby whale was no longer in the water that was the last of the communication and they knewit and they just would just kind of like they took a deep breath and they just all turned at one time and they swam out of pin Cove and they tell me they haven't been back since it was28 years ago
at that particular time we had other animals in the Nets we were busy I was sorry that we did Kill the animals but there was nothing I could do they were already dead and I had to be concernedabout the live animals so we flid open their stomachs put anchors on them and sunk them because no one else would take them and that's that's what happened I did not advertise the fact that I lost him Idon't like to lose animals but uh I did lose them and uh no one would take them so I wasn't going out and put up a big billboard I I killed x amount of animals I did it anduh that was it it was just that simple uh I care more about these animals than all environmentals put together I think my ex partner myself have done more for these animals than all environmental groups put together we've
showed the public what they are like they're beautiful
The speaker reflects on the trauma of separating calves from their mothers and how that experience changed his life. He argues against keeping intelligent animals in captivity after witnessing the suffering firsthand.
animals well anyway um uh when we were loading them on from the water onto the truck Terror of the separation well that's the worst thing that that I ever did and that ever happened to me in my lifethere any question questions or you just want to stand there and watch a grown man cry it changed my whole life and U it uh I very seldom can get through it without breaking down and it it's embarrassingand I don't I don't tell the story very often but it uh I just it just it's a very strong thing that happened and if people realized that every time they bought a ticket to see one of theseanimals if they're supporting that kind of thing I don't think they would spend the money to go to go do that because nobody would want to see what I what I saw now now I'm against any animal like
that in captivity whether it's a ape or gorilla whatever you know I just don't think it's right and uh once you see that what I what I saw what I tried what I Tred to explain uh I don'tsee how anybody can see it anymore
Shifts to what researchers learned from early SeaWorld captivity studies and why that knowledge had limits. It ends with a brief explanation of how orca family structure helps scientists estimate the ages of individual whales.
different well when the uh first captives went on display uh I went to see the early SeaWorld parks and uh I was amazed at how much could be learned by having the entire animal visible by being able todraw blood and samples from it uh how trainable they were but there was just a limit to all that it was like uh studying a fish in a bowl it had nothing to do with the system that itcame from and it took long enough to learn about how to keep them alive in that bowl now we have to translate some of that knowledge and all of what we get from the wild to learn how tokeep them alive out
here baby orcas stay with their mothers all their lives and that's how re researchers determine the ages of the orcas babies always stay with their mothers who in turn stay with their mothers so if you figure in theage that female orcas generally have their first baby which is about 13 years simple math can help you calculate the ages of the animals