Fourth International Orca Symposium and Workshop - CEBC - CNRS

o Lack of governance, and
o Climate change.
• It was recognized that there are major overlaps and connections between these threats.
• Given that killer whales are fairly adaptable, one means of identifying key threats is to
consider what might affect the carrying capacity of killer whales (i.e., what controls their
birth and death rates). As such, key threats are likely related to factors that affect:
o Quality and quantity of food, and
o Direct mortality
• We proceeded by defining the 7 key conservation concerns for killer whales and identified
the key issues and information needs for each (i.e., what do we know and what do we not
know in terms of what is needed for conservation, where are the gaps and what are the
solutions and priorities).
7 Threats to the Conservation of Killer
Whales
1. Prey Abundance and Fishing
Killer whales need to be able to access a relative abundant supply of high quality prey
unfettered by human activities in the ocean.
Highest research priorities are to determine and monitor:
• What do they eat?
• How much?
• What is the abundance of prey?
Medium priorities are to determine:
• Where do they eat?
• Quality of prey and how does it vary by season?
• What are the competitive interactions?
Other Questions:
• How do they eat/capture prey?
• How dependant are killer whales on by-catch and fisheries caught prey?
• What are the implications of killer whales predation on the food web? – develop
ecosystem models
• What is the status of killer whales prey?
FOURTH INTERNATIONAL ORCA SYMPOSIUM AND WORKSHOPS
SEPTEMBER 23-28 2002, CEBC-CNRS, France
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