You can learn a lot from killer whales, or orcas, about how to live your life, Alexandra Morton believes. They have seen her through happiness and tragedy- including the death of her husband Robin, who drowned while trying to film them underwater. She started her career in 1976 working for noted dolphin researcher John C. Lilly in California, and has lived in British Columbia since 1984. Her book, Listening to Whales: What the orcas have taught us, is published by Ballantine Books.
You鈥檙e an unusual scientist in that you鈥檝e never taken a graduate degree and have no academic appointment 鈥�
Yes. I don鈥檛 actually recommend it. But it has allowed me to keep an open mind, which might be harder if you specialise. If you鈥檝e invested in a very focused education, you鈥檙e going to see the world through that glass. Not getting paid has been pivotal, and now I鈥檓 almost obsessed with it, because as soon as you get paid, you have strings. Nobody鈥檚 responsible for anything I say, so nobody鈥檚 trying to make me be quiet. I鈥檓 not representing a university, I鈥檓 not representing any large institute, I don鈥檛 have a corporate sponsor. I am funded a bit by the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society in Britain, but not enough to make a salary. That comes mostly from writing and living cheaply. I get a huge amount of protein from the ocean, I get a lot of electricity from the sun, and there are no restaurants, movie theatres or toy stores to tempt us.
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You began your research on killer whale communication by studying captive animals at aquariums. What led you to move out here?
I thought as an 18-year-old that I could walk up to a tank of killer whales and figure out what they were saying. I admire the confidence of that young woman, but now I know you鈥檝e got to come to their natural environment. You鈥檝e got to know what鈥檚 normal for them. This place was more ideal than I knew. It was fantastic for the first few years. Nobody knew what killer whales did in the winter, so every sighting gave me new information. I learned so much. In the summer the whales have this river of salmon to sustain them, and they鈥檙e very sociable. But in the winter they鈥檙e quieter, they form little groups and forage around kelp beds. The ideal situation for me is if there鈥檚 only one family in the area, with one dialect. That way I can keep track of everybody.
What kind of culture do killer whales have?
It depends on what they eat and how they survive. There are mammal-eating and fish-eating whales and they are genetically distinct. Fish-eaters are loud and there鈥檚 no limit to the size of their families, because they鈥檙e preying on species that school in large numbers. They are allowed to talk a lot, because fish don鈥檛 have the brainpower to avoid killer whale calls. Mammal-eaters have a 鈥渓aw鈥� that restricts them to a family of five or less- that way they鈥檙e harder to spot. They adhere to this strictly, so if a family exceeds five, somebody has to emigrate. And they rarely talk. The only time I鈥檝e heard mammal-eaters talk is when their prey is incapacitated or when they鈥檙e full. Then they can be quite social and vocal.
Do you think killer whale societies have the equivalent of art or high culture?
If they do, it鈥檚 acoustic. Sometimes when they鈥檙e calling they almost appear to create a sound sculpture. It鈥檚 easily fragmented if there鈥檚 boat traffic, but in some areas here their voices will echo five or seven times. They鈥檒l start interplaying with the echoes, putting sounds out as the sounds come back. I find it hauntingly beautiful.
You were involved this summer in the return of a stray orphaned killer whale named Springer from off the coast of Seattle to her clan in British Columbia after many months of separation. What did you hear?
It was a phenomenal opportunity. I wanted to be there to record Springer鈥檚 first conversation with the wild whales. When Springer first heard them, she got really excited and began to cry out in a very unorganised way. Then she seemed to collect her thoughts, and let loose the most beautiful stream of perfect calls of her clan. She was sending out an identifying signal: I am A73 of the A4 clan of the Northern Residents. When she did that, the other whales just zipped up; no signals sent. The rules of killer whale society say that if a whale speaks your language she is of your group, but they still had to figure out where this whale came from.
Later, the oldest matriarch swam right at her, and the next thing I see is Springer fleeing. About seven hours later, circumstances forced the matriarch to call out, and when Springer heard her- the same whale that she had fled from- she ran after her and joined her. That was so interesting to me, because it spelled out very clearly that she needed to hear that whale. Seeing meant nothing. Whether the story ends happily remains to be seen.
You鈥檝e said killer whales may be as intelligent as we are, yet their language doesn鈥檛 appear to have a huge vocabulary. What makes you think they鈥檙e so smart?
Some people argue that they鈥檙e not that intelligent. A fellow I worked with at the US Navy believed that whales are no more intelligent than pigs. Then why aren鈥檛 their brains the size of a pig鈥檚 in relation to their body weight? And why would a killer whale need 15 years of childhood? Brain size is a dangling question. A large brain is an extremely expensive item to be carrying around in the ocean. For a mammal to carry a brain that large, it鈥檚 got to be used. It may be required as a memory bank of the coastline, and they do seem to have an intimate knowledge of the coast. But it seems an awful lot of brainpower for that.
But can you call their signalling a language?
There are indications that they have a real language. Whales can lie side by side and have long acoustic exchanges that are not territorial displays or mating calls. But it鈥檚 not a language like ours. It鈥檚 going to take a blind leap to figure out how it works. One call I鈥檝e studied confused me for a long time, because it occurred in such a wide range of behaviours that didn鈥檛 seem to have any relationship to each other. Then it struck me that in all those behaviours, each whale in the group was focused on the same thing.
The call is associated with the act of synchronicity- whether it鈥檚 turning around as a group, beginning a conversation or attending a birth. Synchronicity is a fundamental characteristic of orcas. It springs from the need to breathe with your mother to survive. If a baby whale doesn鈥檛 roll to the surface and open its blowhole at exactly the same instant as its mother, it will not learn where the air is and it will die.
In your book you mention occasions when the whales seemed to know what you were thinking and responded to it 鈥�
There have been these uncanny experiences. For example, once I was at a whale meeting and they talked about capturing an entire pod- Springer鈥檚 family. I felt extremely defensive, and said, 鈥淓xcuse me, that family has had enormous difficulty, and I don鈥檛 think that鈥檚 right.鈥�
The next day I was out with that same family of whales. They started circling my boat so I couldn鈥檛 move. I was getting scared, because this is exactly what they do when they鈥檙e hunting. Then they started to move. Three times they went through the one body of water where I鈥檇 said at that meeting that whales never went. It was as though they were showing their approval. I know that鈥檚 hard to believe, but whales have never corralled me like that before or since.
Yet when your husband drowned while filming underwater, one of the whales had a chance to save him and didn鈥檛. What do you make of that?
I was angry at the whales for a long time, particularly that one female. She was scared- that鈥檚 the way I read it later. She went in right towards him, and then she was out of there. She surfaced right at the bow of the boat, and I immediately knew something was wrong. She may have given me a 鈥渉eads-up鈥� that I didn鈥檛 read properly. There were two of us who could have helped him- her and me. Neither of us did. I was angry at both of us. However, I think whales in general are confused about our inability to hold our breath.
What have you learned about orcas that you apply to your personal life?
Killer whales are very capable organisms. I don鈥檛 even know that they have fear. I, on the other hand, am a fearful person, particularly after the death of my husband. The whole Universe seemed very random to me after that, and out of control. It鈥檚 been good for me to be around these very confident animals. I鈥檝e learned a lot from whales about raising children. For example, I think it鈥檚 a requirement for intelligent young mammals that they stay close to their parents. That way they grow up far more confident and capable.
How has salmon farming affected the whales?
I hear the whales maybe twice a year from my house. It used to be twice a week, before the salmon farming industry arrived. For the first few years it was all OK and I thought, this is good, it will bring jobs and more families. Then the whole thing started to unravel. The farms brought parasites, bacteria and viruses, and the loud underwater noise-makers they use to repel the seals also drove the whales away. This industry would never have been allowed on land. You鈥檇 have a huge excrement smear, and you鈥檇 have escapees wandering around with oozing sores.
There are more fish farms here every year. The place is going straight down. What it boils down to is that the alternative to farmed salmon-wild salmon- are a political nightmare. You have to negotiate with the US, the aboriginal communities and all the major industries, because of the watersheds. Salmon need so much habitat.
I think the politicians thought they could continue having their wild salmon at the same time as mining, logging and damming. But the thing about salmon is that they make up the loss of nutrients from the watershed by bringing in nutrients from the open ocean. A huge percentage of nitrogen in the trees here is from salmon. If you want to continue cutting trees, you鈥檙e going to require wild salmon.
You must have noticed these changes more than anyone 鈥�
I have been here a long time. You can come out here and think, this place looks beautiful. But when you鈥檙e staring down into the water for 18 years, you begin to see the warning signs. I feel lucky that I know where I want to be. I have a place in the world that I love. I think it鈥檚 human nature to be attached to a place. I feel totally cut off when I leave. I just like being with the whales. I feel at peace with the world when I鈥檓 with them. They are my plumb line in life. As long as I put myself in the path of those whales, I鈥檓 in the right place. They are where I belong.