In the year 2023, a minimum of nine orcas have lost their lives due to becoming ensnared in commercial fishing equipment off the coast of Alaska. This marked rise in deaths, well beyond the cumulative count of recent years, has sparked conjecture that a "novel behavior" exhibited by the species may be to blame.
NOAA Fisheries released a statement explaining that they’ve received 10 separate reports on orcas becoming trapped in fishing boats around Aleutian Island and the Bering Sea this year. One of those individuals managed to escape alive, but the remaining nine died.
Global estimates suggest that there are approximately 50,000 killer whales in existence, with a specific population of about 2,500 residing in the eastern North Pacific Ocean near this particular region of Alaska.
While these types of events have occurred previously, they are not common. As stated in a previous investigation by NOAA, the number of orcas that died from bycatch in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands fisheries of Alaska between 2016 and 2020 was only five.
These statistics have been affirmed by anecdotal reports among fishermen who say that encounters with orcas are becoming increasingly more common in Alaskan waters.
The Groundfish Forum, a fishery trade association located in Seattle, has been linked to several vessels involved in recent incidents. According to a number of sailors, these ships have become a frequent target of orcas, who use the opportunity to hunt fish. This has been noted as a new behavior by the sailors.
According to Groundfish Forum's statement provided to Anchorage Daily News, our fishermen have observed an escalation in the presence of killer whales near our boats in 2023. The whales seem to be drawn to our fishing equipment, taking advantage of the abundance of fish aggregated by our fishing activities and feasting in front of our nets.
The recently observed change in behavior, which has not been reported before, has left marine mammal researchers puzzled as they are unable to determine the reason for it.
Some individuals have proposed that the increasing incidents of orca deaths could be linked to the implementation of a new approach intended to minimize halibut bycatch through sorting the nets on deck and releasing the fish back into the ocean. Conversely, the Groundfish Forum refutes this claim, stating that their vessels do not engage in deck sorting during the presence of killer whales.
Not only have we observed new behaviors from orcas, but there have also been multiple accounts of them intentionally crashing into the hulls of boats and persistently pursuing them back to port along the southern coast of Spain. Just in May of 2023, there were a recorded 18 similar incidents.
The origins of this behavior continue to perplex marine mammal experts, while a few sailors suggest that commercial fishing could be a contributing factor.
According to sailor April Boyes' blog post, orcas, which have a migration pattern, are often found near the Barbate area where large tuna fishing nets are present. As a non-scientist, Boyes speculates that these intelligent creatures might associate boats with the threat of losing their prized fish to fishermen.