Spirit Whale?
The Spirit Bear is emblematic of the Great Bear Rainforest. Can Spirit Whales become symbolic stewards of the North Pacific?
White black bears, Kermode or Spirit bears, are the provincial mammal of British Columbia. Since their eyes and skin are pigmented, they are not albinos. Similarly, a white killer whale, recently sighted off the coast of Nanaimo was not an albino. White killer whales rarely show up but the records suggest that they most commonly occur in the North Pacific (Filatova et al. 2016). From both the transient and resident ecotypes, white individuals have been spotted. Some of them albinos, others not. Chimo, a white killer whale held by the Vancouver Aquarium ended up dying of poor health associated with his albinism. Albinism is thought to result from inbreeding (Filatova et al. 2016). But as to what causes the white, spirit-like colouration on non-albino killer whales, the jury is still out.
Researchers have speculated whether killer whale culture may be part of the explanation. You read that write, killer whales are the second species for which evidence has been found that their evolution is dependent on their culture.
Interestingly, the individual most recently sighted, T46-B1B, used to have typical black and white colouration. Some resident ecotype killer whales have had yellow rather than white colourations. Further, when killer whales scar (e.g. from lamprey’s leeching off them), the wound has a surrounding white colouration which fades into a black scar (Samarra et al. 2016).
Aside from cool did-you-know-that facts, important cultural questions wait to be answered. Can we call white killer whales spirit whales? Is that respectful of the views First Nations hold on killer whales? Could a spirit whale garner support for coastal conservation?
Cited Literature:
Filatova OA, Fedutin ID, Titova OV, Siviour B, Burdin AM, Hoyt E. White killer whales (Orcinus orca) in the western North Pacific. Aquatic Mammals. 2016 Jan 1;42(3):350–6.
Pitman RL, Ensor P. Three forms of killer whales (Orcinus orca) in Antarctic waters. Journal of Cetacean Research and Management. 2003;5(2):131–40.
Russel C. Spirit Bear. Key Porter Books. 1994.
Samarra FI, Fennell A, Aoki K, Deecke VB, Miller PJ. Persistence of skin marks on killer whales (Orcinus orca) caused by the parasitic sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) in Iceland. Marine Mammal Science. 2012 Apr 19;28(2):395–401.
