ORCAs off Palos Verdes.. We think we heard them loud and clear and..<gulp>... near!

[HBDiveGirl]

I think we heard several Orca whales in the water off Old Marineland Friday morning.

At the time, we all thought we must have heard Grey Whales, as they are commonly sighted here this time of year.

Then today, Jim started researching. (He'll post info in this thread.)
The sounds we heard are most likely made my Orcas. Wow.
Jim has been researching like a wild-man today, and will add the references to this thread.

Keep your eyes and ears open when you're at Palos Verdes. It was amazing.

THE DIVE:
Friday morning, 2/16/07, Buchanan's Reef near Old Marineland.

LAJim and I descended to 70fsw and meandered happily about for 10 minutes.
Frank-O and Jon Davies were gearing-up on deck above us.

As we circled back to check on the anchor line in the somewhat murky water (20-25 foot visibility), I heard and felt the craziest sound: A REALLY LOUD cyclic whistling, like a car alarm 20 feet away! "WHOOP-WHOOP-Weeeee-OOOOOOP-WHOOOOP!"

I jerked around to look at Jim, whose eyes were as saucer-like as mine.

"What the Heck is THAT??? "
It sounded almost like a Diver-Recall alarm that commercial dive boats use.
But there had been NO boats around us on the surface. We heard no boat engines since. (Jon and Frank confirmed later that no boats had approached.)

Jon and Frank heard the sounds as they descended down the anchorline, and we all gestured at each other again... "What the....???"

This was LOUD. I could feel the vibration in my head and in my facial sinuses.

We heard a variety of similar sounds throughout the 75 minute dive, and it was amazing!!! Whistling... low thrums.... that cyclic singing, again.... some LOUD and some soft and distant.

We surfaced laughing, all talking at once about the Whale songs and how amazing if we had had better visibility and the luck of actually seeing them. Just hearing them was great. I know sound travels long, fast and loud underwater, but the vibration in my head makes me believe the source really was close.

We were all convinced we had heard Grey Whales.

Today, Jim sent me audio samples of Grey Whale sounds.
They are NOTHING like what we heard.
Dolphin sounds are NOTHING like what we heard and felt.

The recordings that match most closely are those of Orca.

We did our second dive about a mile away, between Christmas Tree and Neptune Coves. We heard no whale sounds at all during the 70 minute dive.

Wouldn't it be fun to see Orca off our shores again?
Keep a weather-eye open, and your ears, too.

Claudette

 

[LAJim]

OK:

This is pretty hot. More details to follow but as 'Chica said, we got whistled at for an hour solid off of Buchannan's PV on Friday. Very,very loud. This PM I started listening to whale sounds on the internet - the only match is Orcas! Chica and I just spoke and decided to go public with this. No similarity to gray whales or dolphins. Turns out a pod of orcas used to live off of PV. They're back.

We think they were very, very close to us yesterday.


Gray Whales
http://www.learner.org/jnorth/sounds/pops.wav

http://www.learner.org/jnorth/sounds/croaks.wav

http://www.dosits.org/gallery/marinemm/17.htm

Orcas

http://www.compusult.nf.ca/ditt/sounds/orca.wav

http://www.compusult.nf.ca/ditt/sounds/orca2.wav


Whale Song Test

http://www.lhs.berkeley.edu/whale/whalesongs3.html

There used to be a pod called the LA pod off of PV - hasn't been seen since 1997.


The Orca K pod has recently been moving south.


Keep in mind that neither of us are whale biologists and we did not SEE any orcas, but we can't explain the sounds any other way. Those guys were on top of us - close.

John Davies and Frank O were with us on Frank's boat.

Jim

 

[riguerin]

Very cool ! Orcas definitely visit our coast line. In fact, I've seen them while surfing at Trestles around this time of year. Do you think there could be a link to the seasonal gray whale migration ? I've heard of Orca packs hunting calves.

 

[LAJim]

Very cool ! Orcas definitely visit our coast line. In fact, I've seen them while surfing at Trestles around this time of year. Do you think there could be a link the seasonal gray whale migration ? I've heard of Orca packs hunting calves.

That's what they do this time of the year apparently.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp...e=2&track=crosspromo&coll=la-headlines-sports

http://www.latimes.com/travel/desti...-travel-northerncalifornia&ctrack=1&cset=true

Jim

 

[mdb]

Very cool ! Orcas definitely visit our coast line. In fact, I've seen them while surfing at Trestles around this time of year. Do you think there could be a link the seasonal gray whale migration ? I've heard of Orca packs hunting calves.

riguerin: Good call. Orcas do hunt calves as they return north with their mothers. In Monterey bay there are, usually, yearly incidents of Orca pods attacking the whale calves as the whales enter Monterey bay. The Mothers are known to head inshore, put the calves on their backs, etc.

 

[riguerin]

riguerin: Good call. Orcas do hunt calves as they return north with their mothers. In Monterey bay there are, usually, yearly incidents of Orca pods attacking the whale calves as the whales enter Monterey bay. The Mothers are known to head inshore, put the calves on their backs, etc.

The footage I've seen appears brutal ... but that's the way the natural order works at times. Thanks for the info mdb & LAJim.

 

[divekim]

Wow, that is totally awesome you guys. Definitely completely different sounds between the Grey Whales and the Orcas. What an incredible photo that would have been of the looks on your faces.

Just a little disconcerting hearing something so loud, not knowing what it is, and having it there the entire dive. Keeps you on your toes though.

Jim, thanks for the research, I hope we hear more on this.

Kim

 

[drbill]

Will have to listen to the sounds after I get back from my dives today, but we have been seeing orcas out here off Catalina.

 

[scottfiji]

Penny, Randy and I dove at buchannon's reef right after you did on Friday. We all heard the same noises. thanks for investigating the possible sources!


send me the recording of the orca noises if you have a chance...

Scott

 

[Sam Miller III]

Dr. Bill,

Many years ago prior to you becoming a diver, your basic Scuba Instructor, Ron Merker was chased out of the water at Goat Harbor by a pod of three or four Orcas. This was the first time in anyone's recent memory that Orcas had such a close contact with humans at Catalina. I was on the boat cheering him on and Ron was swimming like a champion swimmer--I sure in the heck wasn't going in with a knife to fight off a pod of "man eating Orcas." Of course he made it back to the boat- the Golden Dubloon.

At that time divers and the world knew little about these creatures, and we were rightfully concerned --Later Bill High's underwater close encounter and his taking the first UW photographs of an Orca and the capture of Shamu a few years later dispelled our fears.

Now it is apparent they have become numerous and are often encountered in the wild by divers, however I do not recall a single report of a Orca attacking a human who was diving---do you?

Cheers from SoCal ---where it all began.

SDM