KILLER WHALE (Orcinus orca): Eastern North Pacific Transient Stock

• Main Authors: Stock Definition, Geographic Range
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: eastern North Pacific (shaded area). The distribution of the; Bering Sea; Chukchi Sea; Gulf of Alaska; Pacific; Chukchi; Killer Whale; Orca; Orcinus orca; Alaska; Aleutian Islands; Killer whale
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.294.5820; http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/pdfs/sars/ak1998whki-pent.pdf

Killer whales have been observed in all oceans and seas of the world (Leatherwood and Dahlheim 1978). Although reported from tropical and offshore waters, killer whales prefer the colder waters of both hemispheres, with greatest abundances found within 800 km of major continents (Mitchell 1975). In Alaska waters, killer whales occur along the entire Alaska coast from the Chukchi Sea, into the Bering Sea, along the Aleutian Islands, Gulf of Alaska, and into Southeast Alaska (Braham and Dahlheim 1982). Their occurrence has been well documented throughout British Columbia and the inland waterways of Washington State (Bigg et al. 1990), as well as along the outer