The Black Canaries of Puget Sound

As a child in Pennsylvania I remember seeing pictures of miners carrying little cages of canaries down into the depths of local coal mines. The sad fact was that the canaries were expendable indicators of the presence of ‘coal gas’. The tiny birds were much more sensitive to the dangerous gas than humans were. So when a bird keeled over, the miners would evacuate as quickly as possible.

Today, when I read about a significant loss in the number of Puget Sound Orca whales, I can’t help but think we are looking at another sensitive environmental indicator. Something is very wrong. We overlooked the loss of salmon, herring, and crabs. We disregarded the absence of thick kelp beds. We decided to study the possible causes of dead fish in Hood Canal…..And now Nature, in her inimitable way, hits us in the face with dead big black whales.
But this is no comedy. Our big ‘Black canaries’ are mammals with brains much larger than ours. Captive Orcas can put on a great show at marine parks, but are they intelligent? Who knows? Who knows how to measure their intelligence? Orcas’ brains are designed to process great quantities of acoustic information from their surroundings. They see fish, rocks and boats in three dimensions. They sing and communicate with other Orcas thousands of feet away. They see well above water, too.
Who will champion these wonderful brothers of the water world? Orcas have even demonstrated that they understand how limited we humans are in their environment. Despite our mistreatment of them, they have exercised exceptional restraint, and have even helped humans on many occasions. Let’s return the favor. Let’s set up salmon hatcheries just for the benefit of Killer Whales. And we can catch those annoying seals that feast at the fish ladders at the Seattle locks and the Columbia river and then release them in front of the nearest San Juan whale pod. Let’s do what we can to improve the Orca’s environment. Unfortunately, it may be that their ability to understand another species exceeds ours. There is so much more we can learn from our big Black Canaries.