Caring, Sharing Killers

Abstract

![Figure][1] CREDIT: DAN J. MCSWEENEY; (INSET) DERON VERBECK/IAMAQUATIC.COM The table manners of false killer whales put ours to shame. Once they've caught a fish, each whale politely takes a bite and passes it on to another. If there's a human nearby, he or she will be offered some, too. Dan McSweeney once had half a large tuna handed to him by a 5-meter-long false killer whale. “I pushed it back. He took it and started chewing on it and then left. It was one of those magical moments,” says McSweeney of the Wild Whale Research Foundation in Hawaii. Their compulsive food sharing is one trait that has endeared Hawaii's false killer whales, which are actually dolphins, to whale watchers and divers. But over the past 2 decades, the state's genetically distinct population has plummeted from more than 500 to 123 animals. The first-ever study based on satellite tagging the species, published last week in Endangered Species Research by McSweeney and others, found that at least once a month they venture far enough offshore to get caught on the hooks of longline fishers, who are barred from near-shore waters. This week, a federally appointed “take reduction team” is expected to consider extending the no-fishing zone. Fishing gear is a leading cause of the decline, along with pollutants and the overfishing of the tuna they depend on, says lead author Robin Baird of the Cascadia Research Collective in Olympia, who's a member of the panel. [1]: pending:yes