Rogues Blog #11:
Beginning in 1970 the pioneer in orca research, the late Dr. Michael Bigg, began what would become by far the most important tool in field research on killer whales - photographic identification of individuals. He named the "stable" groups, known as pods, residents... and those "ratty little groups" (as Bigg called them) "transiting" the area as transients. The former eat fish, the latter eat mammals.
Last week Ruffles - the whale believed believed to be the oldest male orca among the resident J, K, and L pods (Puget Bay and surrounding area) - went missing and is believed dead. Researchers believe he was about sixty years old. A sad day! Here's a link to a video of Ruffles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJHA79h__QM
No estimate of his size was given, though most males are in the 4-6 ton range. The rogue killer whales in "Rogues" are 20x that size... and they're coming your way!
On a separate note... if you haven't seen the documentary "I AM" I highly recommend it... incredible film. Here's a link: http://iamthedoc.com/
Until next week...
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