Talk:Southern resident orcas

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This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 9 January 2020 and 18 April 2020. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Keneeso.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 09:53, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Requested move

 * The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section. 

The result of the move request was: moved to Southern resident killer whales. Jenks24 (talk) 15:04, 16 June 2014 (UTC)

Southern Resident Killer Whales → Southern resident killer whale – The only reason for the title case page name is the existence of an acronym, SRKW. Although terms with acronyms are often capitalized to illustrate the origin of the acronym, this is not a actually valid reason for continual use of capitalization (and in this case no explanation of the acronym is needed). Furthermore, there is no need to make the title plural; we don't generally use plural terms for members of other animal populations. WolfmanSF (talk) 17:05, 5 June 2014 (UTC)


 * oppose This is a proper noun, the SRKW is a specifically identified "family", not a mere descriptive phrase. Gaijin42 (talk) 17:46, 5 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Every type of organism we talk about in Wikipedia, other than individuals, e.g. Granny (orca), is a "family" of some sort - whether it be a subspecies, species, genus, etc. They are all specifically identified populations. There's nothing different about this one, just because it is a subpopulation that currently has no recognized taxonomic rank. We don't treat any of them as proper nouns. WolfmanSF (talk) 21:25, 5 June 2014 (UTC)


 * Since this is a vernacular name for an animal, WP:MOS should apply here. WolfmanSF (talk) 01:19, 6 June 2014 (UTC)


 * Support decapitalization per nom. This is a common enough prose practice to indicate an acronym or initialism, but is improper and clashes with the MOS. See Talk:Amusement with prize. Since the topic seems to be a discreet class, however, I think a plural title is acceptable here. I'm neutral on the pluralization question. --BDD (talk) 01:06, 8 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Oppose depluralization. This is not a subspecies, which the proposed title implies, but a specific group of individuals. Suggest Southern resident killer whale communities. --SmokeyJoe (talk) 08:09, 14 June 2014 (UTC)


 * Support Southern resident killer whales As says, the title has been worked backwards from the acronym. As, it's not a sub-species. "Communities" introduce a series of issues, like wp:concise, or whether "pod" might not be a better term. By the way, it seems like an egregious lacuna of wikipedia any entry at all anywhere for pod or whale pod. walk  victor falktalk 04:01, 15 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Yes, pods would suit better than communities. If needed, which is probably not. Support Southern resident killer whales. --SmokeyJoe (talk) 06:54, 15 June 2014 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Class of 2015
Population appears to be up to 83 according to recent articles, one example below. Some articles discuss the jump in births (6 this year) as the class of 2015:

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Page Evaluation
Hi Wikipedia community! Here are some suggestions for improving this page on the Southern Residents:


 * The lead needs to be more comprehensive. Their endangered status is stated, but there is no quick mention of threats or recovery efforts.


 * The information about Granny should be removed from the lead and used to create a new section about "Notable Whales". This section can also include information about Lolita, the orca at Miami Seaquarium who came from the Southern residents.


 * Some of the information seems out of date - it is now confirmed that only 76 SRKWs remain (http://www.orcanetwork.org/Main/index.php?categories_file=Births%20and%20Deaths).


 * Many of the references on this page seem to be news articles or general information about orcas with little specificity to SRKWs. New scientific articles have explored the many threats these whales face, a few of which are included below:


 * 1) NOAA 2016 technical report on SRKW exposure to toxic chemicals - doi:10.7289/V5/TM-NWFSC-135
 * 2) "Effects of age, sex and reproductive status on persistent organic pollutant concentrations in ‘‘Southern Resident” killer whales" - doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2009.05.014
 * 3) "Predicted polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) and polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) accumulation in southern resident killer whales" - doi: 10.3354/meps09658
 * 4) "NOISE EFFECTS ON THE CALL AMPLITUDE OF SOUTHERN RESIDENT KILLER WHALES (ORCINUS ORCA)" - DOI: 10.1080/09524622.2008.9753802
 * 5) "Close approaches by vessels elicit surface active behaviors by southern resident killer whales" - doi: 10.3354/esr00205


 * The statement "Aquaculture has had a negative effect on world fish supplies" in the "Decline in Prey" section is very opinionated and doesn't seem to be backed by much evidence. I would argue instead that damming of native salmon rivers has had more of an adverse effect on fish stocks. The movement to remove dams in the Pacific Northwest for salmon restoration and improving food stocks for the SRKW should be mentioned in this section.

Thank you! Emazur94 (talk) 22:52, 29 September 2017 (UTC)

Rewrite lead section
I am proposing to completely rewrite the lead section. The current lead section contains valuable details which mostly belong in the body of the article, where I would move them. What is needed is a nonspecialist, less technical summary that covers the whole article and serves as an introductory miniarticle. It should more broadly explain the multiple ways this population is significant. I think that what I want to do is more in line with Wikipedia guidelines on lead sections than the current lead section, and I invite comments, support, and objections. Rebecca Beecham Gotzl (talk) 18:02, 4 February 2023 (UTC)