{"id":63109,"date":"2018-07-20T16:15:05","date_gmt":"2018-07-20T22:15:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=63109"},"modified":"2018-09-05T09:52:59","modified_gmt":"2018-09-05T15:52:59","slug":"at-play-in-the-strait-of-san-juan-de-fuca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2018\/07\/at-play-in-the-strait-of-san-juan-de-fuca.html","title":{"rendered":"At play in the Strait of Juan de Fuca"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Rock<\/a>
Looking to the north across the Strait of Juan de Fuca, toward Vancouver Island
(Wikimedia Common public domain)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

We went whale watching for several hours today. \u00a0We saw only one humpback whale, but we saw (and spent much more time with) two or three groups of orcas or killer whales. \u00a0And, at the end, we cruised over by Race Rocks, where, because of the\u00a0high tidal current, an exceptional variety of marine life can be found, including mammals, sea birds, fish, various invertebrates, marine algae, and sea grass. \u00a0There, we watched California and northern (or Steller) sea lions as well as harbor (or, since this is Canada, harbour<\/em>) seals and elephant seals.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Race<\/a>
The 1860 lighthouse on the largest of the islands in the Race Rocks group (Wikimedia Commons public domain)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The onboard naturalist was superb, as good as I have seen. \u00a0He talked about culture among the orcas, how such things as language and hunting techniques are passed on within \u2014 and differ between \u2014 various pods. \u00a0He discussed their brains, and particularly their\u00a0limbic system, which, he claimed, is larger and more complex than ours. \u00a0In humans, the\u00a0limbic system\u00a0supports a variety of functions, including emotion, behavior, motivation, long-term memory, and olfaction. \u00a0Orcas lack an olfactory sense (or sense of smell), but (again, according to him) they may have an emotional life that is more complex or, anyway, more powerful than ours. \u00a0Their ups, he suggested, are higher than ours, and their downs lower. \u00a0They are, for example, known to mourn very intensely. \u00a0In particular, orca mothers will lament dead calves, and some have been known to carry them about in their mouths for days. \u00a0And \u2014 orca society is matriarchal \u2014 even middle-aged males will mourn their mothers. \u00a0He mentioned one case in which a heavily-studied orca individual, a male, mourned its mother and even fasted for long period of time, and then, for the rest of its life, would take circuitous routes that avoided the place where she had died. \u00a0Remember that, above, the limbic system was said to be involved with both emotion and long-term memory.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

At one point, one of our friends (a physician) asked the shipboard naturalist a question about the evolutionary relationship between pinnipeds and land animals. \u00a0If I\u2019m remembering correctly, the naturalist pointed out that Steller sea lion skulls are virtually identical to a grizzly bear\u2019s. \u00a0In fact, he said, sea lions are closer, genetically speaking, to grizzlies than are black bears. \u00a0(If it wasn\u2019t precisely that, it was very similar.) \u00a0The evolutionary tree, he said, is a \u201cmess.\u201d \u00a0I would love to have heard Tom Bethell\u2019s<\/a> response to that.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe thinks the book is interesting,\u201d complacently wrote one of my less-interesting critics about my invitation to read Bethell\u2019s Darwin\u2019s House of Cards<\/em>, \u201cbut it\u2019s not.\u201d \u00a0(This from a fellow who has, so far as I can tell, never laid eyes upon a copy of the book. \u00a0Such unashamedly rigid conformism and lack of curiosity never ceases to amaze me.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, the book is<\/em> interesting. \u00a0But it certainly won\u2019t interest people who are too dogmatic or too frightened to read it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Posted from Victoria, British Columbia<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 We went whale watching for several hours today. \u00a0We saw only one humpback whale, but we saw (and spent much more time with) two or three groups of orcas or killer whales. \u00a0And, at the end, we cruised over by Race Rocks, where, because of the\u00a0high tidal current, an exceptional variety of marine […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nAt play in the Strait of Juan de Fuca<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    We went whale watching for several hours today. \u00a0We saw only one humpback whale, but we saw (and spent much more time with) two or three\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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