November 26, 2024 — King salmon, or chinook, are a critical part of the diet of Southern Resident Killer Whales (SRKW). The population of Southern Residents has been dangerously low for decades, at around 75 members.
Research into this problem focuses on the habitat, and especially the availability of chinook. There is a preponderance of evidence correlating, for example, low birth rates among Southern Residents to years of low abundance of chinook. There are also statistical models that point to the same conclusion: Southern Residents aren’t getting enough of what they need to thrive.
But no one has ever gone out and counted the chinook in the Southern Resident habitat – until now.
“And what we found was the opposite of what we expected, what was predicted,” said Dr. Andrew Trites, “the prevalence of chinook was double in the Southern Resident Killer Whale habitat.”
Trites is the director of the Marine Mammal Research Unit at the University of British Columbia. He expected his research to confirm the premise that Southern Residents lacked a readily available supply of chinook – not upend it.