[♪ and rushing water]
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Robert Pitman: Over the years, I've worked
with quite a few species of whales and dolphins.
But, for the last 15, 20 years or so,
I've become intensely interested in killer whales.
Lisa Ballance: Killer whales are fascinating animals,
at the very top of the food chain,
pack hunters with great degree of learning.
Robert Pitman: Right now, officially,
there's one species of killer whale in the world.
But there's at least a half a dozen
very different looking types out there,
and I think any one of them could be a different species.
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So, since around the year 2000, we have described
four different types of killer whales from Antarctic waters.
And in 1955, there was a stranding in New Zealand
of 17 killer whales,
and they were very different looking killer whales.
They had a big, round head,
a very tiny little eye patch,
the dorsal fin was kind of narrow and very pointy and swept back.
No killer whales like that had ever been seen before.
Lisa Ballance: So interestingly,
after the stranding occurred in New Zealand,
there were no more reports of those types for decades.
Robert Pitman: And then exactly 50 years later,
a French researcher was showing me some photographs,
and I'll never forget this,
they had the little tiny eye patch and the round head.
And I said, those are the New Zealand killer whales.
It was astonishing to see that these animals were alive.
And I knew immediately what they were.
[♪]
So, as part of our Antarctic killer whale research,
we started collecting photographs of killer whales
in the Southern Ocean to get an idea about
how these different types were distributed.
And the locations were very interesting.
The Type D killer whales didn't quite get into Antarctic waters,
which is why we had so few records of them,
because they live in some of the nastiest water in the world.
So, we had described types A, B and C,
and for the first time we called it Type D killer whale.
And then a colleague of mine sent me
some photographs of Type D killer whales
around a toothfish vessel fishing off Cape Horn.
And he said there had been a number of sightings
in a rather narrow area.
Once I got that information,
I knew that this was probably the best place in the world
where we could go to look for this animal.
[♪]
Lisa Ballance: So, right from the beginning,
we knew that this expedition was a long shot.
We were hoping for just a few good weather windows.
Robert Pitman: Where we were off Cape Horn,
you're either in a storm or you're between storms.
Lisa Ballance: We spent eight straight days at anchor
in 40, 50, 60 knots of wind.
It was so bad that we couldn't even get ashore.
Robert Pitman: After our 8 days at anchor, the captain said,
"You know it looks like there's going to be a break here
between these two storm fronts.
We might be able to get a few hours out there."
Lisa Ballance: And so, we decided to pull anchor.
We fought our way out to the location in very heavy weather.
The next morning was our weather window.
We got up at five in the morning
and shortly after that, there they were:
Type D killer whales.
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Robert Pitman: And to tell you the truth,
there was just a moment of "oh my God, there they are!"
And then we immediately went into our roles
as killer whale biologists and the mission that we had at hand there.
Lisa Ballance: We wanted to get underwater acoustic recordings
because killer whales are very vocal,
and these different ecotypes are known
to have distinctive vocalizations.
We were also able to get hundreds and hundreds of photographs.
And these are important because killer whales
are one of the species that are individually identifiable
based on unique shapes and markings on the dorsal fin,
the saddle patch.
Robert Pitman: But the most important thing that we wanted to do
was to get tissue biopsy samples of these killer whales.
"We've got the first ever sample of a Type D killer whale.
Maybe the answer to our questions right here."
Lisa Ballance: So, our next step is to analyze
these skin and blubber biopsy samples
in our molecular genetics laboratory.
This will tell us how distinct these Type D killer whales
are from other killer whales
and we're very excited about the results of that analysis.
Robert Pitman: And this is important stuff.
If you're going to do conservation work on anything,
the first thing you have to know is how many species you're dealing with.
And just to think that there's a whole new killer whale
out there that looks completely different.
It's like yeah, we need to look closer at what we have out here.
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