One of the world’s leading authorities on killer whales is a Dr Dolittle sort of figure who has spent decades not talking to marine mammals, but listening to them.
In an impressively influential career, University of Cumbria’s Associate Professor in Wildlife Conservation, Volker Deecke helps guide international protection policies in a raft of countries and has been at the forefront of raising public awareness.
He has played a pivotal role in acclaimed research leading governments in Canada, Iceland, America and the UK to assess the status of killer whales in their waters.
Significant in shaping conservation strategies for the largest member of the dolphin family, whose very survival remains on combating a catalog of pressing concerns, underwater acoustics has been key to Dr Deecke’s studies.
Having developed techniques where he can literally eavesdrop on orca communication, he has used the telling signals to successfully build-up vital data designed to protect populations and even save some from heading towards the jaws of extinction.
Although one of the most familiar and well-known cetaceans, killer whales are classed as data deficient by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Despite the lack of information, what is known is that there are populations now considered endangered.
Dr Deecke explained: “While those I have studied are reasonably healthy, southern residents in British Columbia, Washington State and UK waters are slowly declining.
“Thankfully, our research is very collaborative and rather than one of us ‘saving’ a population, we all contribute to a puzzle that will hopefully lead to better management and protection strategies.”
In 27-years of research, Dr Deecke’s work, particularly in communication tracking using digital recording tags, has helped build understanding of behaviour, feeding and, crucially, the impact of underwater noise.
Listening to tell-tale sounds is made possible by acoustic tags, the size of a mobile phone, and fitted with four attached suction pads via a five-meter pole from a research boat designed to minimize disturbance.
“It’s been very exciting,” he admits, “opening up new areas of understanding from beneath the waves. Before this, we were limited to observing whales on the surface. Tags have given us the opportunity to plot dive paths and record the sounds they detect and make.
“Hearing them opens a fascinating window on to their world. I like closing my eyes as I’m listening, imagining what it’s like down there.
“You need intricate knowledge of their behavior to slowly approach and tag them. We may see a slight flinch, but data shows they quickly summarize their normal activities.
“Between 2009 and 2012, we tagged 34 northern residents off Vancouver Island, classified as ‘threatened’ in Canada, but with a stable, even slightly increasing, population.
“In 2019, we tagged six more and the results are being analyzed, particularly against southern residents to explain the different trajectories. The work continues.”
The biggest single concern comes from noise. For whales and dolphins, sounds from boats, naval sonars, industrial operations like offshore windfarms and seismic surveys for oil and gas, have a bearing.
Dr Deecke explained: “Even though there are increasing trends to use marine mammal observers and only progress operations if there are no sightings nearby, deep-diving and more distant animals are not detected, but can still be affected.”
In the first trial of its kind anywhere in the world, vessels approaching the Port of Vancouver were asked to voluntarily slow-down to minimize sounds from propellers and engines to lessen the impact on endangered southern resident orcas.
“Global shipping is an area where considerable gains could be made by designing commercial freight carriers that are quieter,” argues Dr Deecke. “The slow-down trial is the first step towards creating economic incentives to cut noise.
“Our work in western Canada showed that even in this relatively remote area, northern residents were experiencing some sort of anthropogenic noise for the majority of the time.
“However, for southern residents in busy waterways between British Columbia and Washington State, the problem is even greater.
“Technology to make vessels quieter exists. The military have used it for decades to make ships less detectable. Considerable gains could be made in designing commercial freighters that produce less noise.”
To get to the heart of the matter and understand life in orca world, Dr Deecke has quite literally listened to what they have to say, not just on noise pollution, but on how and where they feed, their breeding patterns, what they like and Crucially, what upsets them.
This is not idle chatter, but essential communication signals between the animals so that they can find and identify each other.
Their ‘language’, based on three sounds, echolocation clicks, whistles and pulsed calls, speaks of navigation to find prey and spot danger within remarkable distances of up to tens of kilometers.
Pulsed calls even have dialects, while clicks, sounding a bit like a creaking door, indicate objects around them, helping identify prey and to navigate.
Because they have excellent hearing, mammal-hunting populations use their calls sparingly to avoid alerting the food supplies they are chasing.
Dr Deecke was born in Germany and brought up in Austria where his interest in animal behavior developed at a young age. It was while studying biology in Berlin that he found himself in Vancouver with the irresistible prospect of researching underwater communication.
It was here he completed his master’s investigating the evolution of dialects in resident fish-eating orcas. It led on to his doctorate from Scotland’s University of St Andrews and the emphasis on vocal behavior of mammal-eating killer whales in British Columbia and Alaska.
His earwigging gadgetry has also been used on dolphins and seals. But it is the beautiful, distinctive black and white orca, with their sophisticated hunting techniques and compelling vocal characteristics, often specific to a particular group and passed across generations, that have been the main focus.
“Our research in Shetland and Iceland used photographic identification and analysis of calls to show how individuals frequently travel between the two countries – and helped us recognize the several who became stranded.”
A male juvenile in Orkney was identified, successfully re-floated, and seen swimming off.
“In the 27-years I have been studying killer whales there have been notable changes, for better or worse,” he says.
“Persistent organic pollutants, toxic substances which take a long time to break down and accumulate in the food chain, present significant difficulties. The higher up the food chain animals and plants are, the greater their exposure. Top predators like killer whales and polar bears are particularly vulnerable.
“Flame retardants, commonly used in plastics and textiles, can cause disease and death where immune response is reduced. Many of the chemicals are being regulated, but the effects are global and will take centuries to clear from the environment.
“Effective preservation requires all nations within the killer whales’ range to collaborate and implement conservation measures.”
Where there has been intervention and preservation legislation, it has made a difference as Dr Deecke explained.
“Southern residents and Icelandic populations were hit when individuals were captured for display in aquaria. Fortunately, this ended in the mid-70s in America and 10-years later in waters off Iceland.
“Varying populations feed on different things, but food supply is a big concern for several of them. Along the western coast of North America mammal hunters were greatly affected by government culling of seals and sea lions, with severe consequences. Since this was stopped in the 1970s, they seem to be doing well in terms of survival and new births.
“However, those that feed on fish, like southern residents, are of particular concern as a major food source is Pacific salmon, particularly Chinook, which is becoming increasingly rare because of ruined habitats and makes up 80 percent of their diet.”
The work continues, with exciting plans afoot to study killer whales in Scottish waters, but that is another story.