The video footage shows the five-year-old humpback BCX1773 Valiant in the middle of a large group of Bigg killer whales (T34, T37 and T65B). Credit Pacific Whale Association An annoyed hunchback, aptly known as Valiant, escaped a violent attack by a group of nine transient killer whales in the Salish Sea using his own form of aggressive behavior. The dramatic scene took place on Tuesday afternoon for about 20 minutes in the southern strait of Georgia, right in the lane of a BC Ferries sailing from Tsawwassen. Whale watching boats, including a boat from the Princess of the Whale of Victoria, called at the meeting and the ship changed course. Five-year-old Valiant, whose gender has not yet been determined, was seen by whale watchers being surrounded and harassed by nine Big orgasms in two hunter families, said Erin Glaze of the Pacific Whale Observatory. But the humpback was able to repel the pods by rolling and trumpeting each time it came to the surface, “a behavior associated with humpback aggression,” according to a naturalist on one of the two boats on the scene. This is not Valiant’s first documented attack on Bigg’s killer whales. At the age of two, on July 11, 2019, Valiant was seen chasing a group of Bigg killer whales in the Juan de Fuca Strait until the orcas left the area. On June 26 last year, Victoria-based Eagle Wing Tours spotted the Bigg T125A killer whale, a large male, pushing Valiant as some younger orcas tried to climb to the top of the whale, but Valiant came back. in the attack, chasing the team. away from. Gless said the “extreme scars” on Valiant’s tail suggest that the whale may have survived a brutal orca attack at just a few months old. “Did this initial meeting shape the way Valiant interacts with orcas today?” “The message is quite clear – do not put up with Valiant,” said Gless. Transient orcas – the largest species in the dolphin family – eat seals and sea lions and will hunt and eat younger whale calves, Gless said. Scientists have shown in studies on both coasts of North America that orcas are also known to harass adult humps – and even quickly grab a piece of meat. Oaths seem to have the advantage of superior speed and teeth. Humpback whales, which are whales, have no teeth. Instead, they use baleen – a series of dishes with capillary fringes – to filter krill and other foods from the water. But humps are not a boost, Gless said. Adult humps weigh between 30 and 50 tons, some grow up to 15 meters in length, Gless said. The humpback’s tail is extremely strong and its pectoral fins are larger than any whale, up to five meters long. Often coated with sharp barrels, flippers are another deterrent to orca attacks, Gless said. Aggressive trumpet, or short, sharp bursts of breath, also occur in breeding ground when males compete with females. Gless said that based on documented scars on humpback whales in the Salish Sea, at least 25 percent had had vows at some point in their lives, usually at a young age. But even when the humps grow larger and heavier, orca attacks occur, he said. Humpbacks consider arch vows an enemy, Gless said. “There have been many documented cases around the world of humps protecting other types of whales,” he said. “Us [whale-watching] “Members have also seen humps stop hunting sea urchin lions.” Gless said whether humps are trying to help other mammals or acting aggressively for self-preservation is unknown. In 2016, a team of researchers from Oregon State University found 30 cases in which humps attacked orcas while hunting whales and other mammals. “The humpback whale is, as far as we know, the only whale that deliberately approaches and attacks whales that eat mammals and can repel them,” said Dr. Robert Pittman, a marine ecologist and co-author of the report. “We suggest that the evolution of the humpback’s massive pectoral fins may have given it an advantage over killer whales and possibly changed the balance of power in their interactions.” The Oregon State newspaper reported that the humpback’s awesome components, when used in conjunction with whales, “withstand humps with front and back, offensive and defensive weapons – a skill unique among living whales. The incident this week comes after whale observers reported record numbers of Bigg orcas and observations of a saloon in the Salish Sea last year.
