Killer Whales of California and Western Mexico: A Catalog of Photo-IdentifiedIndividuals

摘要

This catalog includes 268 photographs of killer whales from California andwestern Mexico depicting the best available perpendicular view of the dorsal fin and saddle patch. Photographs of both left and right sides of each whale are included when possible. The compilaton of this killer whale catalog is based on more than 15 years worth of photographs taken opportunistically off California and Mexico. There was some dedicated effort to identify whales in Monterey Bay over the last six years. of the 268 identified killer whales, 211 whales were identified off California (whale numbers begin with 'CA') and 71 off Mexico (whale numbers begin with 'ME'). Fourteen whales were photographed in both California and Mexico, and are included in the California numbers. In the eastern North Pacific, there are at least three recognizable types of killer whales ('residents,' 'transients,' and 'offshores') that do not associate with members of the other groups. Each type exhibits different home ranges, vocalizations, dietary preferences, foraging patterns, morphological features, and genotypes. This catalog also includes a group termed 'LA Pod,' as they have been most frequently sighted off Los Angeles and do not intermix with the other types. The photographs compiled for this catalog were compared to similar catalogs from other regions of the Pacific, including Washington State, British Columbia, Queeen Charlotte Islands, Southeast Alaska, Prince William Sound, and the central Gulf of Alaska to the southeastern Bering Sea.