scholarly journals The Whale and the Region: Orca Capture and Environmentalism in the New Pacific Northwest

2014 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 425-454
Author(s):  
Jason Colby

Although the orca is today widely recognized as a cultural and ecological icon of the Pacific Northwest, historians have ignored the impact of killer whale capture on the development of the region’s environmental values and identity. Between 1964 and 1976, the waters in southern British Columbia and Washington State were the world’s principal source of captive killer whales. The display of orcas by the region’s aquariums transformed human perceptions of this marine predator, and soon aquariums around the world were placing orders for Pacific Northwest killer whales. Yet the expanding capture and export of orcas in the late 1960s and early 1970s raised troubling ecological and moral questions for the region’s human residents. In the context of shifting attitudes toward cetaceans and rising environmental awareness throughout North America, Pacific Northwesters on both sides of the border increasingly viewed orcas as symbols of their region’s shared ecological concerns. The transnational nature of the region’s killer whale pods helped spur not only ecological reflection but also transborder cooperation among activists, scientists, and government officials to study and eventually protect the species. In the process, the shifting human relations with orcas helped redefine the Pacific Northwest.

Author(s):  
Jason M. Colby

Since the release of the documentary Blackfish in 2013, millions around the world have focused on the plight of the orca, the most profitable and controversial display animal in history. Yet, until now, no historical account has explained how we came to care about killer whales in the first place. Drawing on interviews, official records, private archives, and his own family history, Jason M. Colby tells the exhilarating and often heartbreaking story of how people came to love the ocean's greatest predator. Historically reviled as dangerous pests, killer whales were dying by the hundreds, even thousands, by the 1950s--the victims of whalers, fishermen, and even the US military. In the Pacific Northwest, fishermen shot them, scientists harpooned them, and the Canadian government mounted a machine gun to eliminate them. But that all changed in 1965, when Seattle entrepreneur Ted Griffin became the first person to swim and perform with a captive killer whale. The show proved wildly popular, and he began capturing and selling others, including Sea World's first Shamu. Over the following decade, live display transformed views of Orcinus orca. The public embraced killer whales as charismatic and friendly, while scientists enjoyed their first access to live orcas. In the Pacific Northwest, these captive encounters reshaped regional values and helped drive environmental activism, including Greenpeace's anti-whaling campaigns. Yet even as Northwesterners taught the world to love whales, they came to oppose their captivity and to fight for the freedom of a marine predator that had become a regional icon. This is the definitive history of how the feared and despised "killer" became the beloved "orca"--and what that has meant for our relationship with the ocean and its creatures.


2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 632-638
Author(s):  
Stephanie A Bryson

This reflexive essay examines the adoption of an intentional ‘ethic of care’ by social work administrators in a large social work school located in the Pacific Northwest. An ethic of care foregrounds networks of human interdependence that collapse the public/private divide. Moreover, rooted in the political theory of recognition, a care ethic responds to crisis by attending to individuals’ uniqueness and ‘whole particularity.’ Foremost, it rejects indifference. Through the personal recollections of one academic administrator, the impact of rejecting indifference in spring term 2020 is described. The essay concludes by linking the rejection of indifference to the national political landscape.


2004 ◽  
Vol 116 (4) ◽  
pp. 2589-2589
Author(s):  
Thomas Norris ◽  
Brad Hanson ◽  
Dawn Noren ◽  
Linda Jones

2011 ◽  
Vol 366 (1567) ◽  
pp. 1129-1138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Collard ◽  
Briggs Buchanan ◽  
Jesse Morin ◽  
Andre Costopoulos

Recent studies have suggested that the decisions that hunter–gatherers make about the diversity and complexity of their subsistence toolkits are strongly affected by risk of resource failure. However, the risk proxies and samples employed in these studies are potentially problematic. With this in mind, we retested the risk hypothesis with data from hunter–gatherer populations who lived in the northwest coast and plateau regions of the Pacific Northwest during the early contact period. We focused on these populations partly because the northwest coast and plateau differ in ways that can be expected to lead to differences in risk, and partly because of the availability of data for a wide range of risk-relevant variables. Our analyses suggest that the plateau was a more risky environment than the northwest coast. However, the predicted differences in the number and complexity of the populations' subsistence tools were not observed. The discrepancy between our results and those of previous tests of the risk hypothesis is not due to methodological differences. Rather, it seems to reflect an important but hitherto unappreciated feature of the relationship between risk and toolkit structure, namely that the impact of risk is dependent on the scale of the risk differences among populations.


2004 ◽  
Vol 61 (7) ◽  
pp. 1166-1175 ◽  
Author(s):  
M R Arkoosh ◽  
L Johnson ◽  
P A Rossignol ◽  
T K Collier

Twenty-six salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) stocks from the Pacific Northwest are listed as either threatened or endangered. A number of anthropogenic factors, likely including degradation of habitat by chemical contaminant exposure, have contributed to their decline. Techniques that can assess injury or judge the efficacy of regulatory actions on the recovery of this species are needed. We strive to understand why a population is changing by examining changes in their intrinsic birth rates, death rates, and (or) growth rates. However, salmon populations are influenced by other species in the community. To address this issue, we developed a parsimonious three-trophic-level community model consisting of prey, salmon, and parasites and examined the model's response to one anthropogenic factor (contaminant exposure) using qualitative analysis. This community model may not only provide valuable insight into salmon survival but also may broaden the approaches available to elucidate direct and indirect effects. We demonstrate analytically that some community members, possibly salmon themselves, might be ambiguous or unreliable variables to monitor. We also demonstrate that other species in the community, such as parasites, may be more sensitive than salmon in monitoring the influence of anthropogenic factors such as contaminants.


Author(s):  
Tahir Cader ◽  
Levi Westra ◽  
Andres Marquez

Although semiconductor manufacturers have provided temporary relief with lower-power multi-core microprocessors, OEMs and data center operators continue to push the limits for individual rack power densities. It is not uncommon today for data center operators to deploy multiple 20 kW racks in a facility. Such rack densities are exacerbating the major issues of power and cooling in data centers. Data center operators are now forced to take a hard look at the efficiencies of their data centers. Malone and Belady (2006) have proposed three metrics, i.e., Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE), Data Center Efficiency (DCE), and the Energy-to-Acquisition Cost ratio (EAC), to help data center operators quickly quantify the efficiency of their data centers. In their paper, Malone and Belady present nominal values of PUE across a broad cross-section of data centers. PUE values are presented for data centers at four levels of optimization. One of these optimizations involves the use of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). In the current paper, CFD is used to conduct an in-depth investigation of a liquid-cooled data center that would potentially be housed at the Pacific Northwest National Labs (PNNL). The boundary conditions used in the CFD model are based upon actual measurements on a rack of liquid-cooled servers housed at PNNL. The analysis shows that the liquid-cooled facility could achieve a PUE of 1.57 as compared to a PUE of 3.0 for a typical data center (the lower the PUE, the better, with values below 1.6 approaching ideal). The increase in data center efficiency is also translated into an increase in the amount of IT equipment that can be deployed. At a PUE of 1.57, the analysis shows that 91% more IT equipment can be deployed as compared to the typical data center. The paper will discuss the analysis of the PUE, and will also explore the impact of the raising data center efficiency via the use of multiple cooling technologies and CFD analysis. Complete results of the analyses will be presented in the paper.


1971 ◽  
Vol 1971 (1) ◽  
pp. 139-145
Author(s):  
Robert C. Clark ◽  
John S. Finley

ABSTRACT The Greater Puget Sound Basin is one of the largest oil handling areas on the West Coast of North America. Due to the increased local need for petroleum products and to the proposed influx of Alaskan North Slope crude oil in the near future, this area will undoubtedly experience even greater petroleum transportation and processing activities. In terms of living resources of economic value—fish, shellfish, waterfowl and aquatic animals—Puget Sound is one of the most productive estuaries on the Pacific Coast. There is increasing evidence that the extensive sport, commercial and aquacultural fisheries resources are threatened by pollution resulting from oil spilled in the transport, handling, and use of petroleum. This paper presents a stauts report of what is being done in the Pacific Northwest by the petroleum industry, state government and federal agencies to protect the environment prior to the anticipated expansion of the petroleum industry. Research activities which will provide additional information for minimizing the impact of oil pollution on an already pollution-stressed environment are also discussed.


2002 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 194-201
Author(s):  
Robin Rose ◽  
J. Scott Ketchum

Abstract This study documents the impact pre-emergent forestry herbicides have on germination of some selected seral woody competitors in the Pacific Northwest. Four commonly used pre-emergent soil-active herbicides (hexazinone, sulfometuron, metsulfuron, and atrazine) typically used for herbaceous weed control were applied at six rates over stratified seed of Ceanothus velutinus (CEVE) and Ceanothus integerrimus (CEIN) in a greenhouse efficacy trial. In addition, hexazinone and sulfometuron were applied over stratified Rubus ursinus (RUUR) and Rubus parviflorus (RUPA) seed and sulfometuron over stratified seed of Rubus spectabilis (RUSP) at the same six rates. Numbers of seed to successfully germinate and develop true leaves were counted over a 9 wk period immediately following herbicide application. The hexazinone treatments reduced germination and growth of CEVE, CEIN, and RUPA. The RUUR species was tolerant of the hexazinone herbicide at low rates but at higher rates was strongly affected. The sulfometuron treatments had less effect on survival probability than hexazinone but strongly reduced the average dry weight of plantlets of all species. Seedling dry weight decreased with increasing rate of both metsulfuron and atrazine. Increasing the metsulfuron rate reduced the probability for CEVE seedlings to survive but not CEIN. Finally, atrazine sharply reduced the plantlet survival and reduced dry weight of both CEVE and CEIN even at low rates.West. J. Appl. For. 17(4):194–201.


2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (8) ◽  
pp. 11103-11152
Author(s):  
F. L. Herron-Thorpe ◽  
G. H. Mount ◽  
L. K. Emmons ◽  
B. K. Lamb ◽  
D. A. Jaffe ◽  
...  

Abstract. Evaluation of a regional air quality forecasting system for the Pacific Northwest was carried out for the 2007 and 2008 fire seasons using suite of surface and satellite observations. Wildfire events in the Pacific Northwest during the summers of 2007 and 2008 were simulated using the Air Information Report for Public Access and Community Tracking v.3 (AIRPACT-3) framework utilizing the Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ) model. Fire emissions were simulated using the BlueSky framework with fire locations determined by the Satellite Mapping Automated Reanalysis Tool for Fire Incident Reconciliation (SMARTFIRE). Plume rise was simulated using two different methods: the Fire Emission Production Simulator (FEPS) and the Sparse Matrix Operator Kernel Emissions (SMOKE) model. Predicted plume top heights were compared to the Cloud-Aerosol LIDAR with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) instrument aboard the Cloud Aerosol LIDAR and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) satellite. Carbon monoxide predictions were compared to the Atmospheric InfraRed Sounder (AIRS) instrument aboard the Aqua satellite. Horizontal distributions of column aerosol optical depth (AOD) were compared to retrievals by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument aboard the Aqua satellite. Model tropospheric nitrogen dioxide distributions were compared to retrievals from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) aboard the Aura satellite. Surface ozone and PM2.5 predictions were compared to surface observations. The AIRPACT-3 model captured the location and transport direction of fire events well, but sometimes missed the timing of fire events and overall underestimated the impact of wildfire events at regional surface monitor locations. During the 2007 fire period the fractional biases of AIRPACT-3 for average 24 h PM2.5, maximum daily average 8 h Ozone, AOD, total column CO, and tropospheric column NO2 were found to be −33%, −8%, −61%, −10%, and −39%, respectively; while during the 2008 fire period the fractional biases were −27%, +1%, −53%, −5%, and −28%, respectively. Fractional biases of AIRPACT-3 plume tops were found to be −46% above mean sea level (a.m.s.l.), but only −28% above ground level (a.g.l.), partly due to the under-estimation of AIRPACT-3 elevation in complex terrain that results from the 12 km grid-cell smoothing.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document