Southern resident killer whale stranded near Sechelt, British Columbia (IMAGE)

University of British Columbia

Southern resident killer whale stranded near Sechelt, British Columbia

Caption

An 18-year-old male southern resident killer whale stranded near Sechelt, British Columbia on December 21, 2016. Postmortem examination suggested he died from trauma consistent with vessel strike. Other cases of vessel strike were identified in this study, while an earlier study by Williams and O'Hara (2010) identified 10 killer whales struck by boats between 1995 and 2005. This suggests that vessel strike may be an under-appreciated but important threat to killer whales in the eastern Pacific.

Credit

PaulCottrell, Fisheries and Oceans Canada

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