A Global Perspective: Commercial Fishery Interactions & Killer Whales

Killer whales are very intelligent, social, and globally distributed apex predators that sometime interact with commercial fisheries. Although not always, these interactions can result in negative impacts to the whales and the fishing industries. Given this species’ ecological diversity, geographic variability, and frequent encounters with fisheries, a global, comprehensive review of commercial fishery interactions with killer whales was undertaken by University of Alaska Fairbanks graduate student, Emma Luck, to understand overarching patterns and the potential for mitigating harmful impacts. Emma joins us on this episode to help us better understand these examples of human-wildlife conflict in marine ecosystems.