The Salish Sea Trilogy, Part 1: Call of the Orcas

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Call of the Orcas, the first film in The Salish Sea trilogy, explores the urgent effort to understand and recover resident orcas of the Salish Sea, through the eyes of one of their early science champions, Ken Balcomb. Balcomb's determined survey work over nearly fifty years helped people to see these orcas as individuals, in family groups led by grandmothers. His sustained research effort transformed how people of the Pacific Northwest understood their urban orca neighbors, and it helped to end the practice of capturing orca calves for sale to Seaquariums.

The Salish Sea Trilogy is a series of films exploring the entwined extinction threat facing iconic Southern Resident Killer Whales, and the Chinook salmon they prey on in Pacific Northwest waters. Infused with science and indigenous perspectives, this series invites viewers to imagine how traditional indigenous knowledge and contemporary science might come together to help recover an iconic species.

"This is a truly important and powerful documentary that focuses on the intertwined ecologies and lives of the Southern Resident Orcas, Chinook Salmon, water, land, and human residents of the region. Members of the Lummi Nation and their Orca relations under the waves show the need for Native sovereignty, Ceremony, knowledge, and kinship to be at the forefront of conservation initiatives and environmental policy. This is one of the foremost messages of our time that everyone should hear and be familiar with, and this superb documentary makes it clear. I cannot recommend The Salish Sea Trilogy enough." —Kyle Keeler, Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies, Lafayette College

"The Salish Sea Trilogy is a powerful resource illustrating how the wellbeing of humanity is interwoven with the health of the rivers, salmon, and orcas of the Pacific Northwest. The world was heartbroken when Tahlequah the whale lost her calves and this series urges us to move from grief into action. This intimate look at the legacy of the Lummi Nation and the orcas (the relatives under the waves) shows that it's not too late to save the whales from extinction and highlights the people actively creating hope for the future of the whole ecosystem." —Tierra Curry, Endangered Species Co-Director, Center for Biological Diversity

"Accessible and engaging, this is the powerful story of both the Southern Resident Killer Whales and the people who are working to protect them. The science, history, and cultures surrounding the Southern Residents and their plight is beautifully intertwined with perspectives from researchers, Indigenous leaders and advocates on the past, present and future of these whales. The Salish Sea Trilogy is a fantastic resource for learning more about these whales, the issues they face, and how we can work together for their conservation." —Cindy Elliser, Associate Director, Salish Sea Institute, Western Washington University

"The Salish Sea Trilogy is essential storytelling for anyone who wants to better understand the history of the Pacific Northwest and our deep connectedness with each other and this place we all call home. It tells a story of heartbreaking loss, but also of hopeful opportunity. Salmon, orca, and regional Indigenous leaders are all raising the alarm and urging a new/old way forward. It's time to listen." —Joseph Bogaard, Executive Director, Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition

"This trilogy of films explores the complex challenges facing both the endangered Southern Resident killer whales and their Chinook salmon prey through a solutions-oriented lens, acknowledging the many dimensions of an often contentious story. The Salish Sea Trilogy is both educational and hopeful, highlighting the possibilities for recovery when communities work together." —Misty MacDuffee, Director, Wild Salmon Program, Raincoast Conservation Foundation

"The Salish Sea Trilogy is a moving and powerful film that really struck me, especially having worked with these whales as a naturalist. I love the depth of knowledge it showcases - from Indigenous voices to the scientists who have studied these populations for decades. The beautiful stories and stunning cinematography will spark heartfelt conversations about ecosystem connection, responsibility, and hope for the future." —Sarah Davies, Associate Professor of Biology, Boston University

"This film is an enlightening exploration of the endangered 'people under the waves' of the Pacific Northwest being managed to extinction." —David Montgomery, Professor of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Washington - Seattle, Author, King of Fish: The Thousand-Year Run of Salmon

"The Salish Sea Trilogy is a moving exploration of the critical but sundered relationships among orcas and people, and on the salmon they depend on. The profound losses of these fish due to damming and other habitat impairments have reverberated with both starving whales and with a diminishment of the salmon-reliant culture of indigenous peoples. Nonetheless, there are rectifications being made that inspire optimism for a return towards a healthier ecosystem." —John Waldman, Professor of Biology, Queens College - CUNY, Author, Running Silver: Restoring Atlantic Rivers and their Great Fish Migrations

"The Salish Sea Trilogy is a searing portrait of the deeply intertwined relationships between killer whales, their ecology, and their history with human cultures, past and present. The intimate lens on the whales, the committed marine mammal scientists, the ecologists trying to save the rivers that support salmon, and the Lummi peoples shows the value of cultural history and long-term scientific data and provides enriched and engaging educational material for young and old alike." —Janet Mann, Professor of Biology and Psychology, Georgetown University, Author, Deep Thinkers: Inside the Minds of Whales, Dolphins, and Porpoises

"The Salish Sea Trilogy is a wonderful introduction to the plight of the charismatic but endangered Southern Resident killer whales. Through this series, viewers will gain an understanding of what makes these whales unique, the research that has contributed to our greater understanding of them, and how our fate is tied to theirs. People of all ages and backgrounds will connect to this story and be inspired by watching these films." —Monika Wieland Shields, Co-founder & Director, Orca Behavior Institute

"This is a wonderful film on the plight of orcas in the Salish Sea. Combining traditional environmental knowledge with scientific environmental knowledge, we see a synergistic path emerge seeking solutions to the ecological crisis we face. The Salish Sea Trilogy is a must see for those who care about our maritime environment and the edification of our children who will be forced to deal with the course of the future." —Daniel Boxberger, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, Western Washington University, Author, To Fish in Common: The Ethnohistory of Lummi Indian Salmon Fishing

A MARC record for this title is not available yet.

Keywords

Salish Sea,orcas,whale,whales,killer whale,killer whales,Southern Resident,Ken Balcomb,Pacific Northwest,aquariums,seaquariums,biology,marine biology,environmental science,conservation biology,wildlife,Pacific Ocean,conservation,ecology,indigenous studies,extinction,salmon,chinook salmon,endangered species,food web,habitat loss,environmental policy,Lummi Nation,Lummi; "The Salish Sea Trilogy, Part 1: Call of the Orcas"; Bullfrog Films

00:00:00.402 --> 00:00:03.485
[whales spouting]

00:00:05.520 --> 00:00:07.743
- [Ken] Calm seas, resting whales

00:00:09.210 --> 00:00:10.623
30th September,

00:00:11.910 --> 00:00:15.001
2019, off False Bay.

00:00:15.001 --> 00:00:17.668
[pensive instrumental music]

00:00:23.187 --> 00:00:26.270
[whale spouting]

00:00:37.440 --> 00:00:39.690
Why are these whales so remarkable?

00:00:39.690 --> 00:00:41.400
They're intelligent as we are.

00:00:41.400 --> 00:00:43.830
They're social as we are.

00:00:43.830 --> 00:00:45.783
They're successful as we are.

00:00:47.580 --> 00:00:51.303
But their success is being
cramped by our success.

00:00:52.795 --> 00:00:56.037
[orcas vocalizing]

00:01:01.412 --> 00:01:03.750
- [Michael] To understand
anything in nature,

00:01:03.750 --> 00:01:07.743
you have to study it on its own timescale.

00:01:09.780 --> 00:01:12.480
- When Ken and I started
in the early 1970s,

00:01:12.480 --> 00:01:14.004
we had no idea that there were

00:01:14.004 --> 00:01:16.979
three completely different
forms of killer whales

00:01:16.979 --> 00:01:18.630
on those coasts.

00:01:18.630 --> 00:01:21.063
And they lead totally different lives.

00:01:22.020 --> 00:01:24.360
The resident killer whales are unlike

00:01:24.360 --> 00:01:25.998
any other mammal out there.

00:01:25.998 --> 00:01:28.748
[gentle piano music]

00:01:32.280 --> 00:01:34.782
The South Residents in
particular in this area

00:01:34.782 --> 00:01:35.820
are iconic.

00:01:35.820 --> 00:01:38.283
They are such a magnificent animal.

00:01:39.480 --> 00:01:43.023
- They are more likely to be gregarious.

00:01:45.090 --> 00:01:48.030
Their breaches, the spy hops,
the tail lobs,

00:01:48.030 --> 00:01:52.065
the indescribable bursts
of joy that you see.

00:01:54.750 --> 00:01:57.723
And they're also more attuned to humans.

00:02:01.980 --> 00:02:04.170
- Our people, since time immemorial,

00:02:04.170 --> 00:02:06.420
have shared the same waters.

00:02:06.420 --> 00:02:10.500
Our relationship with
the Southern Residents

00:02:10.500 --> 00:02:14.340
is we grew up being told

00:02:14.340 --> 00:02:19.340
that qwe 'lhol mechen are
people under the waves.

00:02:19.830 --> 00:02:24.830
So we know that they're just
an extension of our family,

00:02:24.900 --> 00:02:29.760
that they put on their regalia

00:02:29.760 --> 00:02:32.001
and it allows them to
live under the water.

00:02:32.001 --> 00:02:34.418
[gentle ambient music]

00:02:37.320 --> 00:02:40.170
- Southern Resident killer
whales were considered

00:02:40.170 --> 00:02:42.000
to be so abundant

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that they could walk across
their backs on a sunny day.

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There were permits being
allowed for capture

00:02:50.370 --> 00:02:52.680
in the '60s and '70s

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that were based on the premise

00:02:54.450 --> 00:02:57.210
that there's hundreds of these animals.

00:02:57.210 --> 00:03:00.630
- And nowhere in that
permit process at the time

00:03:00.630 --> 00:03:02.073
were we consulted.

00:03:05.551 --> 00:03:08.468
[orcas vocalizing]

00:03:17.580 --> 00:03:20.403
I don't even understand how
it was allowed to happen.

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They just did not know enough

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about the structure of a pod.

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Residential schools happened to us.

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Our children were taken.

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Those captures were the same thing.

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The young were taken,

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the wild was taken out of 'em,

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and they were taught to perform.

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Naming the whales, numbering the whales,

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I believe that work was super important

00:03:52.590 --> 00:03:56.880
because that helps teach
the greater population

00:03:56.880 --> 00:04:01.003
the importance of every individual orca.

00:04:01.003 --> 00:04:03.586
[rousing orchestral music]

00:04:06.990 --> 00:04:09.480
- I was just fascinated
with whales in general,

00:04:09.480 --> 00:04:11.790
and when they, along with others,

00:04:11.790 --> 00:04:13.720
discovered that we
could tell 'em all apart

00:04:13.720 --> 00:04:15.870
individually with photography,

00:04:15.870 --> 00:04:17.280
I thought, well, if we can do that once

00:04:17.280 --> 00:04:18.630
why don't we do it annually,

00:04:18.630 --> 00:04:20.970
and we'll keep track of something

00:04:20.970 --> 00:04:23.880
that we otherwise have
not been able to find out?

00:04:23.880 --> 00:04:24.810
And that is,

00:04:24.810 --> 00:04:26.190
how often do they have babies?

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How long does it take to grow up?

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How long do they live?

00:04:30.420 --> 00:04:32.580
- This was really the dawn

00:04:32.580 --> 00:04:35.880
of the application of photo ID,

00:04:35.880 --> 00:04:38.970
a technique that Mike Bigg developed.

00:04:38.970 --> 00:04:41.913
- [Ken] We were shooting
Plus-X Kodak film at the time.

00:04:43.001 --> 00:04:45.834
[camera shutter clicking]

00:04:46.890 --> 00:04:48.240
- [John] We started to realize

00:04:48.240 --> 00:04:49.830
these animals are family groups.

00:04:49.830 --> 00:04:51.660
They're matrilineal,

00:04:51.660 --> 00:04:54.840
female-descent kin groups,

00:04:54.840 --> 00:04:57.390
and individuals are born into the group

00:04:57.390 --> 00:04:59.103
and stay in the group for life.

00:05:01.470 --> 00:05:03.660
- I think that a lot of
people thought it was crazy

00:05:03.660 --> 00:05:06.810
that you could actually identify
these animals individually

00:05:06.810 --> 00:05:08.700
through the nicks and scratches

00:05:08.700 --> 00:05:09.850
and so on and so forth.

00:05:14.250 --> 00:05:16.170
People were seeing a lot of whales,

00:05:16.170 --> 00:05:17.880
or at least they thought they were.

00:05:17.880 --> 00:05:21.540
What they were in fact seeing
was a small number of whales

00:05:21.540 --> 00:05:23.073
that just moved around a lot.

00:05:24.330 --> 00:05:27.600
- [Kelley] Ken's photographs
confirmed what Mike Bigg knew

00:05:27.600 --> 00:05:30.477
about the number of J,
K and L South Residents,

00:05:30.477 --> 00:05:32.503
and the number was finite.

00:05:32.503 --> 00:05:35.503
[keyboard clacking]

00:05:37.860 --> 00:05:39.690
- The first big impact they had

00:05:39.690 --> 00:05:43.700
was putting a real solid permanent end

00:05:43.700 --> 00:05:46.997
on the capture era out here
in the Pacific Northwest.

00:05:46.997 --> 00:05:49.914
[pensive instrumental music]

00:05:53.700 --> 00:05:56.103
- [Kelley] Now, we've
got the first baby boom.

00:05:56.940 --> 00:05:57.990
There's a period of joy

00:05:57.990 --> 00:06:00.030
where there's these babies are being born,

00:06:00.030 --> 00:06:03.480
there's a population of
just increasing numbers.

00:06:03.480 --> 00:06:05.010
And numbers are individuals,

00:06:05.010 --> 00:06:08.010
and these individuals are healthy
and seem to be doing well.

00:06:09.001 --> 00:06:11.584
[gentle piano music]

00:06:17.130 --> 00:06:19.353
- Their society's so
much like our society.

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We were both subsistence fishers.

00:06:26.910 --> 00:06:29.670
- Young whales have to learn what it is

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that their mother or
grandmother has to teach them

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about catching fish,

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about vocalizations.

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Different societies of killer whales

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have different prey items

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and have to learn different things.

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Basically, our whales here,

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our Resident whales are a salmon culture.

00:06:51.868 --> 00:06:54.868
[keyboard clacking]

00:06:55.998 --> 00:06:58.581
[gentle instrumental music]

00:07:04.560 --> 00:07:08.297
- [Brad] No one saw what
happened in the 1990s coming.

00:07:10.170 --> 00:07:13.260
- [John] We found that
they're not foraging randomly

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from the population of
salmon in their vicinity,

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that they're selecting
for the most rare species,

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Chinook salmon.

00:07:23.880 --> 00:07:26.520
- [Michael] A lot of those
Chinook populations they rely on

00:07:26.520 --> 00:07:28.560
are themselves threatened or endangered,

00:07:28.560 --> 00:07:30.660
in various states of decline.

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The Southern Residents
are essentially always

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one bad day away from being in some

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real, real trouble nutritionally.

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- What I'm looking at in the
Southern Resident killer whale

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population that I study

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is a slow motion extinction.

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- Our lives are so intertwined,

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because whatever affects us affects them.

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You rule out the salmon,

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we're gonna cease to be the salmon people.

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Our culture will not
survive without salmon.

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They won't survive without them.

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[pensive instrumental music]

00:08:09.930 --> 00:08:13.110
- There's no one person
or even one organization

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that's going to save the
Southern Resident killer whales.

00:08:16.080 --> 00:08:18.810
There is a community of scientists working

00:08:18.810 --> 00:08:22.080
on decades of work that came before us

00:08:22.080 --> 00:08:24.000
doing everything we can.

00:08:24.000 --> 00:08:26.667
[pensive instrumental music]

00:08:39.990 --> 00:08:42.900
- [Ken] Well, they're
looking for a fecal sample.

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Let's hope they got one.

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I'm hearin' approaching whales.

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There they go.

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Nice little group.

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[gentle piano music]

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What better life could you
have than one of inquiry

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and discovery?

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You know, it isn't man against nature.

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It's man with nature.

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And that's the only way it's gonna work

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for either one of us.

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[rousing orchestral music]

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[music continues]

00:10:15.697 --> 00:10:19.114
[music continues]

00:10:40.451 --> 00:10:43.368
[orcas vocalizing]

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The Salish Sea Trilogy, Part 1: Call of the Orcas

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