What Orcas Are Changing in Antarctica Might Surprise You

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Orcas are changing Antarctica
faster than scientists expected.

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What if the most powerful predator in
Antarctica is also the least understood?

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Orcas aren't just hunting.

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They're teaching.

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They're adapting.

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And they're reshaping entire ecosystems
in real time, and scientists

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are just starting to catch up.

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Antarctic orcas are not
just one population.

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They're multiple ecotypes.

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Type 1, B1, B2

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and C each with different diets,
behavior and hunting styles.

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Recent research shows that
these groups rarely mix.

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They specialize deeply, and some may
even be on separate evolutionary paths.

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So this is not just biodiversity.

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This is multiple predators occupying the
same Ocean in completely different ways.

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Like just imagine all these
orcas in and around the same

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area, and they're not mixing.

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This is showing that there's
probably different dialects,

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there's different behaviors,
there's different eating patterns.

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It just goes to show that these orcas
are highly intelligent, emotionally

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intelligent, and very, very specialized in
their ways, just like humans in some way.

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And you wonder if they have beef
with other different ecotypes.

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One of the most studied orca behaviors
that we have seen is how they

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create waves to wash seals off ice.

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So if you've seen any of these
videos around, it's really cool.

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You'll see usually two orcas on
one side of an ice float where

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there's a seal on that ice float.

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And on the other side there is
one orca just waiting, waiting

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for this seal to fall off.

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And you're trying to wonder
like what do these orcas do

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to get this seal to fall off.

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The orcas behind two, maybe
three, they will drive.

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They will swim as fast as they can towards
the ice float and cause a tidal wave.

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They dive underneath the ice float.

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The wave hits the seal and the seal
gets moved closer to that one orca

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that's waiting on the other side.

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If that doesn't hit him off that
first wave, they'll do it again

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and again and again until that
tidal wave knocks the seal off.

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The orca either falls right into his
mouth or the orca goes and chases

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it in the water and gets his meal.

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This is coordinated behavior, coordinated
hunting, and it's really interesting

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because it's one of those behaviors where
we're seeing Marine mammals actually

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hunt for another individual in their pod.

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It's really interesting to
see if you ever have a chance.

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I know it's sad to see this poor seal
die, but the way these coordinated

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efforts work, these coordinated
hunts work is just unbelievable.

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It's really cool to see.

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Recent drone research revealed
that these groups are coordinated.

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They have different roles that they do.

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There's precise timing in this hunting
behavior, and there's learned behavior

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that passes across generations.

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This is culture, not instinct.

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That's what's really
interesting in how this is done.

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We talk about culture in animals as a bit
of a conservation factor because being

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able to study these animals, especially
orcas that have this type of culture, that

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have different dialects and behaviors with
the different pods that they're in, or

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even different ecotype especially in the
northeast Pacific, the Northwest of US

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and Southwest of Canada, you'll see like
resident orca populations past transient

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orca populations, and they don't even mix.

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They don't even have the
same dialect apparently.

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And so that's kind of a cool thing that
we need to study these different patterns,

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these different dialects, these different
behaviors to see why they're so different

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and understand this animal a lot more.

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'Cause losing one of these pods
could mean we lose a lot of

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information about these orcas.

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And that's something that I
don't want to see done in ever.

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And so that's something that is very
worrisome for me as a biologist, as a

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scientist, as an Ocean conservationist.

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And of course, as the Antarctic ice
declines, orcas are gaining access to

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new hunting areas that they've
never had access to before.

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Seal and penguin populations are
shifting because of that, and predator

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prey relationships are also changing.

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Some studies suggest orcas may
be increasing pressure on certain

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species as the ice retreats.

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Think about that.

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Not only is your home retreating for
penguins and seals and so forth where

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they need ice to relax, but you have
these orcas, these highly, highly

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intelligent animals that hunt together.

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They get smarter and smarter
every time in their hunting.

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They refine their hunting skills and
their hunting patterns, and they are

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now putting more pressure on penguins
and on seals in the Antarctic because

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they are hunting better and the ice
is retreating due to climate change.

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That is kind of scary, to be
honest if I were one of those

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animals, those prey animals.

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It's something that once they have access
to new areas, they change everything.

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Very similar to the wolves that
were reintroduced in Yellowstone.

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They're everywhere now.

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They've repopulated places.

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They've actually expanded more
than ever and they're now doing

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really well, which is great to see.

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But they've actually changed that
entire park, the way from what it was.

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And so that's really interesting.

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So you can almost ask the question
for the orcas, like, are the

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orcas stabilizing or destabilizing
ecosystems in climate change?

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Are they that much of an added pressure?

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You talk about Antarctica, but
we also talk about South Africa.

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You have these two orcas that are
inhibiting the population of great whites

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by adding another cumulative effect
onto climate change, onto overfishing,

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onto a lot of different things.

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That's a big problem for those
great whites in South Africa.

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They're disappearing.

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They're declining, and they're
moving around to find more food.

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And now they have to worry about
these pressure for these orcas.

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So orcas are really, like I said,
they're very efficient hunters and they

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are something to be worrisome about.

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That's something that's
really interesting.

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Oracles are not just predators.

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They're also ecosystem
engineers, if you will.

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So just hold on for like
stay with me for a bit.

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When they change behavior, prey
population shift, just like

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penguins and seals in Antarctica.

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Food webs get reorganized and
entire systems end up responding.

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This is happening right now in Antarctica.

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When you have animals being
pressured because their habitat

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is decreasing, you're gonna start
to see things being removed.

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Like I said, great white sharks
in South Africa are being removed.

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That's changing the ecosystem.

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That's changing the food web
dynamics of that entire system.

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You're seeing other sharks increase in
population ' cause there's less pressure

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on there and there's overfishing involved
so that can cause a lot of problem.

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There's a lot of predator drama that
happens when you start to see these

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different animals put pressure where other
things are causing so much more pressure.

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So climate change is
causing a lot of pressure.

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And then you have this predator that
moves in and kind of eviscerates a

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population or changes that population.

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We still don't know
their population sizes.

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We still don't know how climate
change will affect each ecotype.

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Whether human activity will disrupt
their culture, we don't know.

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And to be honest, that's the risk.

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You can't protect what you
fully don't understand.

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And I think that's a, a big, big problem.

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There's so many gaps.

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Antarctica used to be such a big
area to worry about because we

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can't get there all the time.

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It's very difficult to work in there.

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And by the end of the week, you're
gonna hear an interview I did with

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Ocean Networks Canada on their work
installing essentially a system, a

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data acquisition system, or two in
Antarctica because something had already

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gone wrong before they teamed up with
some Spanish researchers on their

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Spanish base, and they implemented
these things to look at ice flows.

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Really interesting research.

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Now, a little bit more accessible
because Antarctica is melting.

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Not a good thing that it's accessible
but we're starting to learn

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more about this melting and more
about how this can really change.

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The logistics of work in Antarctica is
very, very difficult, very challenging.

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Now we're just starting to learn
the ramifications of climate

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change, especially in these areas.

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So you wonder like, are we reacting
too late to Antarctic research?

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Is this something that we should
have done maybe a little bit earlier?

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But we are doing it now.

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And that's the really the thing.

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And orcas and Antarctica are
not just surviving change.

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They're actually driving change.

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And if we don't understand
them, and we don't understand

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the future of the Southern Ocean.

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And I think that is a big thing when
we look at science, when we look at

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biology, when we look at Antarctica and
how these penguins and seals and other

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animals that are in Antarctica, how
important they are to our system and

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how important, just the habitat, just
Antarctica in general, that's this big

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ice island, that continent really, that is

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driving so much change in the world
and we don't really understand it and

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we need to understand it a lot better.

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So, that's it for today's episode.

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I really appreciate it.

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If you wanna learn more about Antarctica
this week, you will learn a lot

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because we're gonna be talking about
different animals that are around.

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We're gonna be talking about leopard
seals and penguins, and we're also gonna

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be talking about glaciers and we're
gonna be talking about what it's like

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to work there in an interview on Friday.

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So we have all week of just Antarctica
News and I can't wait to bring it to you.

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So follow How to protect the Ocean
for your daily Ocean Science updates.

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It's gonna be a lot of fun.

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I can't wait to see you tomorrow.

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Thank you so much for joining
me on today's episode of the How

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to Protect the Ocean Podcast.

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Have a great day.

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We'll talk to you next time
and happy conservation.