1-21-2019
SEATTLE, Wash. (AP) — Over the years, scientists have identified dams, pollution and vessel noise as causes of the troubling decline of the Pacific Northwest’s resident killer whales.
Now, they may have found a new and more surprising culprit: pink salmon.
Four salmon researchers were going over data on the Center for Whale Research website when they noticed that significantly more of the whales have died in even-numbered years than in odd years.
In a newly published paper, they speculate that the pattern is related to pink salmon, which return to the Salish Sea in enormous numbers every other year — though they’re not sure how.
They suspect that the huge runs of pink salmon might interfere with the whales’ ability to hunt their preferred prey, Chinook salmon.