Last week naturalists on our Best of the West charter were squealing in delight over a recent sighting that was a first for many onboard. Ashley Loveday, divemaster onboard the Wild Side Specialty Tours charter said, “We had heard of false killer whales about two miles outside of Makaha Beach, so we shot over to find about 6 for sure, possibly up to 10. They were moving south pretty fast, going under for a few minutes then popping back up. We stayed with them for as long as we could before leaving to go snorkel. It was a very exciting find and my first time seeing them.”
Mahi- mahi stalked by Hawaiian false killer whale
Back in the late 1980s spotter planes observed large aggregations of 350 to 400 of these whales in a single area, and they might see more than one of these large groups within the same day. The entire population today numbers less than 200. This decline is believed to be because false killer whales are the most frequently recorded bycaught cetacean (whale or dolphin) in the Hawai‘i-based offshore longline fishery.
Hawaiian false killer whale eating a mahi mahi
Likewise, this fishery and the whales compete for the same food supply. Species such as yellowfin and bigeye tuna, which themselves are dwindling both in body size and in number.
Through ongoing citizen science, Wild Side has obtained photographs identifying the false killer whales since the early 2000’s. Taken onboard during sightings, these photos are turned into Cascadia Research Collective (CRC) for cataloging and publications. In 2012 combined efforts led to a sub-population of Hawaiian false killer whales being listed as an endangered species – similar to their blackfish cousins, the Southern Resident Killer Whales (SRKW) of the Pacific Northwest.
While killer whales, or orca, are categorized into members of different social “pods” – in Hawaii, cohesive groups of false killer whales are termed “clusters”. Sabre Mahaffey of CRC reported that the false killer whales seen on O’ahu last Thursday were members of “Cluster 3” the false killer whale group know to primarily use oceanic areas off both O’ahu and the island of Hawai’i. Cluster 3, comprised of ~ only 60-85 individuals, is the largest of the four recognized clusters in the islands.
