A North Atlantic Killer Whale workshop is organized prior to the ECS conference on the 25.3.2012 in Galway, Ireland. We were invited to give a talk and Heike Vester (Ocean Sounds) and Sarah Hallerberg (MPI, Germany) will present our New Discovery of Salmon Feeding Killer Whales in Lofoten. These are new findings from the summer months of 2011. Killer whales were observed from April-November feeding on salmon. Before we always thought the killer whales in Norway feed mostly on herring, even though attacks on seals and whales have also been reported. However, these killer whales seemed to be specialized to hunt salmon.
We have investigated group composition through Photo-ID and sound analysis. Our preliminary results indicate context specific calls when the whales are  hunting and feeding on salmon. The calls and the behaviour is new to us and no comparable studies exists yet in other parts of the world. 2 Bachelor student at the University of Nordland in Bodoe are currently working on the Photo-ID of these whales.

We are excited to present these new findings and listen to other new killer whale studies from scientists all around the north Atlantic!

visit the ECS conference website and find out more about the workshop and conference. We are co-authoring 2 posters at the conference: Killer whale attackes on sperm whales and Photo-ID of long-finned pilot-whales with scientists from Andenes Whale Watching.