Conflict between humans and killer whales
Floppy Fin (left) and Nicola (right) of the West Coast Community, photographed during a research expedition in 2004
As part of her volunteer placement with us this summer, Lauren delivered a (sold out!) evening talk in our Fins and Gins series, sponsored by Tobermory Distillery. While researching her chosen topic, she uncovered an extraordinary tale of the devastating conflict between humans and orca here in the North Atlantic.
On my very first day at HWDT, I was lucky enough to spot John Coe and Aquarius from Tobermory Lighthouse. Inspired by this unforgettable encounter, I jumped at the chance to deliver a talk on the West Coast Community of killer whales. In preparation for my talk I wanted to do some further research into potential human activities which could have impacted this iconic pod.
The story of the West Coast Community - a unique group of killer whales found on the West Coast of Scotland – is a sad tale. At one point numbering at least 10 identified individuals, and anecdotally at one time being a much larger pod of around 20, in recent years just two males – John Coe and Aquarius – have been seen. Although we know that they have been greatly affected by ocean pollutants (most notably PCBs), they are also thought to be highly inbred – a symptom of their isolation and a reduction in group size. How this group became so isolated remains a mystery.
My first port of call was the whaling records for the whaling station on the Isle of Harris - the last whaling station in Scotland that closed in 1954. Although whalers were primarily hunting larger whales (such as fin whales and sei whales), there are records of killer whales being taken, and so this could have potentially affected the West Coast Community too. However, only one killer whale was listed as having been actively hunted and killed from the Harris station.
I decided to cast my net wider - it has been theorised that at one time the West Coast Community may have covered a wider range as well as being a larger group. Individuals still routinely "disappear" for 2-3 months at a time, and so it could be that they still cover a wider range offshore. I therefore decided to look for killer whales in whaling records in other areas, such as Iceland. However, in looking for records of killer whales killed by the whaling industry, the story I found instead was perhaps even more shocking.
In the 1950s, herring stocks in the Northeast Atlantic declined dramatically. The most likely cause of this was overfishing (an issue that persists throughout the world’s oceans today). However, the Icelandic government and local fishermen held another species responsible – killer whales. These animals, which also relied on the herring stocks for food – were in direct competition with the fishermen, which until the collapse of the fish stocks was driving Iceland’s economic growth. As the fish stocks decreased, tensions grew and Iceland asked for help from one of its international allies to eliminate the competition. They called on the US navy – which had thousands of servicemen stationed at a NATO airbase in the area.
In a 1954 Time magazine article, it was reported that “79 bored G.I.s responded with enthusiasm” and “armed with rifles and machine guns... wiped out a pack of 100 killers.” Killer whales are vilified throughout the article, referred to as “savage sea cannibals” that “terrorized the seas of Iceland.” The article reports that this killing of 100 animals was not even the largest to take place, with the reporter having witnessed an even larger killing, though he does not report the exact numbers of animals killed. At the end of the article, the newsman states “It was all very tough on the whales, reported the newsman, but very good for American-Icelandic relations.”
Despite the articles attempts to vilify the killer whales, many who read the article were outraged, but this did not stop the US navy continuing with these operations.
In 1956, an article appeared in the US navy’s personnel newsletter All Hands outlining further operations by US navy servicemen against killer whales. The piece mentions that this is the second consecutive year that long-ranged patrol bombers used depth charges to “destroy...or scatter” killer whales in the area. It reports that on one mission, 90 percent of a group were killed, and on another more than half were killed, whilst “whales not killed by the explosion were frightened by the blasts and diverted from the area.”
Although the purpose of these killings was to control competition between the fishermen and herring-eating killer whales, there seems to be no discrimination, with any killer whales spotted being targeted.
These stories in themselves are horrifying, and for such long-lived, intelligent and highly social creatures, this extermination of groups over multiple years would have had a profound and long-lasting effect on the populations of killer whales across the areas around Iceland.
The West Coast Community are an exceptionally isolated population today – with just two remaining males they are sadly a group that will become extinct within our lifetime. A unique group that do not socialise with other killer whales, how they became so isolated will likely be a question that we will never truly be able to answer. Could it be that they were once part of a much larger group that were victim to this mass killing of killer whales around Iceland - pushed out of their usual range and reduced drastically in numbers by the repeated bombings and shooting of their kind? While the West Coast Community have only even been reported off the UK and Ireland, other populations of orca found off the Scottish coast travel between Iceland and Scotland.
Aquarius (left) and John Coe (right) , two old males, thought to be the remaining members of the West Coast Community