{"id":339516,"date":"2025-12-12T02:47:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T02:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/339516\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T02:47:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T02:47:11","slug":"orcas-and-dolphins-caught-on-video-collaborating-to-hunt-salmon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/339516\/","title":{"rendered":"Orcas and dolphins caught on video collaborating to hunt salmon"},"content":{"rendered":"

When dolphins swam onto the scene during a study on northern resident orcas off the coast of B.C., at least one researcher admitted to being a little annoyed.<\/p>\n

The Pacific white-sided dolphins had nothing to do with the study at hand.<\/p>\n

The research group \u2014 a collaboration between Dalhousie University, the University of British Columbia (UBC), the Leibniz Institute and the Hakai Institute \u2014 wanted to understand how northern resident orcas find food, and compare that to the struggling southern resident population.<\/p>\n

But those seemingly annoying dolphins ended up offering an unexpected glimpse into their symbiotic foraging relationship with the orcas, according to new research published in Scientific Reports.<\/p>\n

\"AA Pacific white-sided dolphin is seen in this image from researchers. They captured video of the animals collaborating on a salmon hunt. (Dalhousie\/UBC\/Hakai Institute)<\/p>\n

The researchers found the dolphins were helping the orcas hunt Chinook salmon.<\/p>\n

Dolphins have often been considered \u201cpesky critters\u201d who steal fish from the orcas, according to Sarah Fortune, assistant professor of oceanography at Dalhousie University in Halifax and Canadian Wildlife Federation chair of large whale conservation.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not what was happening \u2014 on deep, deep dives below, the dolphins and orcas were communicating.<\/p>\n

\"AnA dolphin is seen with a pod of northern resident killer whales in this still from researchers’ drone footage. (Dalhousie\/UBC\/Hakai Institute)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt became really clear that the dolphins weren’t there for a free lunch,\u201d said Fortune, the study\u2019s lead author.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were actually exerting time and energy to dive deep, to chase the salmon.\u201d<\/p>\n

How the orca-dolphin partnership works<\/p>\n

Andrew Trites, professor and director of the marine mammal research unit at the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries at UBC and study co-author, said videos showed orcas following the dolphins down on dives.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat seemed a little bit odd,\u201d Trites said.<\/p>\n

\"AA pod of northern resident killer whales with the research vessel Steller Quest in the background. (Andrew Trites\/UBC)<\/p>\n

And recordings of the mammals\u2019 echolocation seemed to indicate the orcas were eavesdropping on the dolphins too.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were noticing that the killer whale was going quiet, and it was listening to the pings from the Pacific white-sided dolphins.\u201d<\/p>\n

The dolphins were scouting out the salmon, Trites said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were sort of spread out and pinging through the water in a much broader area than what the whales can search \u2014 and the whale was listening.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TwoTwo northern resident killer whales near Hanson Island, B.C., are seen with electronic tags planted by researchers. (Dalhousie\/UBC\/Hakai Institute)<\/p>\n

The orcas could identify when the dolphins found a large Chinook salmon. Then they went in for the kill.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can hear the crunch sound as it bites down hard on the fish \u2014 literally, it\u2019s a real crunch,\u201d Trites said.<\/p>\n

WATCH | How orcas became emblematic of B.C.:\"\"<\/p>\n

How orcas became such a big symbol of British Columbia<\/p>\n

They were once seen by many as threatening monsters, but today are beloved. How did the perception of orcas change so much? Justin McElroy reports.<\/p>\n

The orca shared its prey with other orcas, and in the ensuing bloody, messy feast, the dolphins fed on the scraps of flesh and tissue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s their payoff,\u201d Trites said, noting salmon are too big for the dolphins to eat without the orcas\u2019 help.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone’s happy at the end of a successful fishing trip, everybody gets to eat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trites added the dolphins aren\u2019t thieves stealing the fish from the orcas.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe killer whales are so much bigger. They could take out a dolphin if they wanted to. They’re very, very tolerant of them. And so there\u2019s absolutely no aggression.\u201d<\/p>\n

How the research was done<\/p>\n

Fortune said the two-year study did its field work in summer of 2019 and 2020, working in the Johnstone Strait and Queen Charlotte Sound in Queen Charlotte Strait. <\/p>\n

Researchers gathered underwater footage with tags suction-cupped to the orcas, Fortune said.<\/p>\n

The tags would stay on for several hours and eventually pop off, float to the surface and emit a signal to satellites overhead.<\/p>\n

\"ThreeResearchers Mike deRoos (Cetacea Contracting, Ltd), Andrew Trites, and Sarah Fortune look at footage from the CATs. (Andrew Trites\/UBC)<\/p>\n

Researchers retrieved the tag, downloaded the data and watched the \u201corca-eye view\u201d on what Trites called \u201cOrca TV.\u201d<\/p>\n

Drone videography shared the more traditional \u201cbird\u2019s-eye view.\u201d <\/p>\n

Keith Holmes, drone pilot, geographer and fellow researcher with Hakai Institute, first spotted the dolphin-orca interactions.<\/p>\n

\"TwoDrone operator Keith Holmes from the Hakai Institute and researcher Taryn Scarff are seen observing the animals. (Andrew Trites\/UBC)<\/p>\n

\u201cAt first you’re like, \u2018Oh, get out of here. We’re trying to do some research,\u2019\u201d he said, wryly admitting to being \u201ca little annoyed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut then you see them doing foraging dives together, and you know, it\u2019s really unique in the animal world,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Study shows ‘collaboration and connection’ of animals<\/p>\n

Holmes said the hours-long dives took place over multiple days \u2014 the footage showed \u201call these really interesting acrobatics underwater.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the new videos raise many more questions, Holmes said, they also document another piece of the puzzle not often observed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is just another piece of evidence of what kind of intricacies are happening out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

WATCH | Hundreds of citizen scientists photograph orcas:\"\"<\/p>\n

Hundreds of citizen scientists help photograph orcas in coastal waters<\/p>\n

B.C. is learning more about killer whales in its coastal waters thanks to the collaborative work of hundreds of people. Citizen scientists are taking photos of whales’ dorsal fins in the Salish Sea and sending them to researchers. As Alanna Kelly reports, there’s good news about these whales, which are known to frequent B.C. waters.<\/p>\n

The researchers recorded 258 \u201cunique\u201d events of dolphins travelling near the tagged orcas.<\/p>\n

Researchers only observed the dolphin interactions in 2020.<\/p>\n

Janie Wray, CEO and lead researcher for B.C. Whales who wasn’t involved in the research, said the study is fascinating.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a research paper that really needed to come out,\u201d she said. \u201cIt really shows the collaboration and connection that animals have with each other in nature.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said it isn\u2019t surprising that two species would help each other out with different foraging techniques.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s something we’ve actually seen a lot with other species,\u201d she said, offering the example of sea lions \u201changing out\u201d with humpback whales to snack on little bits of food leftover from the whales.<\/p>\n

Fortune said the next steps will include examining whether certain matrilines of northern residents prefer to forage with the dolphins \u2014 and if they do, whether those matrilines are in better physical condition.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe [the dolphins are] more useful than we gave them credit for. So yeah, don’t discount a dolphin,\u201d Fortune said.<\/p>\n

LISTEN | How researchers made the discovery:<\/p>\n

As It Happens7:01Researchers learn that orcas and dolphins team up to hunt salmon<\/p>\n

Scientists set out to study how northern resident orcas find food,\u00a0and what they observed\u00a0made them gasp. They saw collaborative feeding\u00a0behaviour\u00a0between the whales and usually \u201cpesky\u201d Pacific white-sided dolphins. Sarah Fortune,\u00a0Canadian Wildlife Federation chair of large whale conservation, spoke to\u00a0As It Happens\u00a0host Nil K\u00f6ksal\u00a0about researchers’ efforts to learn more\u00a0about how the practice benefits both creatures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When dolphins swam onto the scene during a study on northern resident orcas off the coast of B.C.,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":339517,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":["post-339516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/339517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}