1) After looking at the graphs in Figures 3 and 4, it is obvious that killer whales are the cause behind the deaths of a large amount of sea otters. Despite the data for Figure 3 showing all sea otter the researchers encountered, while the data for Figure 4 showing sea otters with radio tags, both figures still show a drastic decrease in sea otter population with the only main difference between Kulak Bay and Clam Lagoon being the ease of access that killer whales have to the areas. The researchers looked at 2 different sets of data because they wanted to show the general decline in the population in figure 3 and then show a more specific set of otters to show that the general decline was not because of human error. By having figure 4 focus on
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1,826.77755 otters per whale per year X 6 years = 10,960.6653 otters per whale over 6 years.
(40,000 otters over 6 years) / (otters per whale over 6 years) = whales needed to eat 40,000 over 6 years.
40,000 otters over 6 years / 10,960.67598 otters per whale over 6 years = 3.649 whales needed.
3) Three plausible hypotheses that could explain why killer whales are eating more sea otters:
a) Killer whales are eating more sea otters due to other food sources like seals and sea lions declining in quantity in high populated killer whale areas.
b) Massive population decline of the killer whales favorite prey—like the great whale—from human influence like over-hunting started a food chain disaster that led to a massive decrease in small marine mammal populations as killer whales moved from marine mammal to marine mammal.
c) Whether human or environmental factors, changes in the abundance of sea lions and seals and/or in the food they eat could cause killer whales to have to search for another food source to maintain their average field metabolic weight and because sea otters are smaller in caloric content, more sea otters are required to meet the metabolic
1,826.77755 otters per whale per year X 6 years = 10,960.6653 otters per whale over 6 years.
(40,000 otters over 6 years) / (otters per whale over 6 years) = whales needed to eat 40,000 over 6 years.
40,000 otters over 6 years / 10,960.67598 otters per whale over 6 years = 3.649 whales needed.
3) Three plausible hypotheses that could explain why killer whales are eating more sea otters:
a) Killer whales are eating more sea otters due to other food sources like seals and sea lions declining in quantity in high populated killer whale areas.
b) Massive population decline of the killer whales favorite prey—like the great whale—from human influence like over-hunting started a food chain disaster that led to a massive decrease in small marine mammal populations as killer whales moved from marine mammal to marine mammal.
c) Whether human or environmental factors, changes in the abundance of sea lions and seals and/or in the food they eat could cause killer whales to have to search for another food source to maintain their average field metabolic weight and because sea otters are smaller in caloric content, more sea otters are required to meet the metabolic