There might be missing links in food chain

Strange things are swimming in the deep blue sea.

A primitive-looking frilled shark surfaced recently in a marine reserve off Japan, providing scientists with rare footage of this “living fossil.”

It brought to mind the 15-foot oarfish, likewise an occupant of lightless depths, that emerged among swimmers not long ago off Santa Catalina Island.

That same week, fishermen to the north, near Santa Cruz Island, discovered remnants of a freshly dead 20-foot giant squid, proving that Jules Verne knew what he was writing about in “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.” Then, another large oarfish washed ashore off Baja California.

No telling what raised these mysterious creatures. Perhaps age or illness. Or maybe, and this is just speculation, their surfacing represents further evidence of a marine world tilting increasingly off-kilter because of global warming, pollution and over-fishing, or some combination thereof.

Things definitely aren’t as they were. The increasing abundance locally of Humboldt squid, a South American species of mollusk much smaller than giant squid, is but one hint.

Now comes news that perhaps dozens of killer whales from the Puget Sound area off Washington are foraging in California. They’ve been seen as far south as Santa Cruz, 1,000 miles from home.

This might be easily explained, as these federally endangered “southern resident” orcas of the Pacific Northwest may simply be running out of food.

They’re increasingly looking to the south for salmon, which themselves are struggling to survive. Near the California-Oregon border, for example, the Klamath River runs of coho and Chinook salmon are collapsing because of dams and diversions.

Further south, the San Joaquin and Sacramento River system runs in the San Francisco Bay area are faring better, so presumably the famous killer whales, perhaps like Humboldt squid, are expanding their territory out of necessity.

“That’s the crux of the situation,” Kelley Balcomb-Bartok, a spokesman for the Whale Research Center in Friday Harbor, Wash., said in reference to the orcas.

“On the one hand, it’s good news to hear that they’re off California because now we know where they are. It’s not necessarily good news that they have to go to California to feed.”

Sightings of southern residents in California date to January 2000, when a positive ID was made near Monterey. The most recent photo identifications, of an orca labeled K20 and her 3-year-old calf, K38, were made Jan. 24 west of San Francisco.

It raises concern because Bay Area salmon runs are already being hammered by California sea lions, which are so numerous and bold that they’ve begun to jeopardize commercial and sportfishing operations.

Meanwhile, in Sacramento, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is gleeful amid praise this week from the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative, largely because of the state’s pioneering role in closing large parcels of ocean to commercial and recreational fishing.

That might grow a few fish, but it won’t help the southern resident orcas or the salmon. It won’t chase away the Humboldt squid, and it surely won’t delve deep enough to aid the denizens of darkness, if in fact they’re in trouble.

And given the warming of their realm, the continuous influx of polluted water via storm drains, and who knows what else, it’s safe to assume they are.

Thick as thieves

Sea lions, whose numbers are so high that some scientists believe a die-off is imminent, have become pests to fishermen and now, it seems, even to migrating gray whales.

Dozens of the pinnipeds have been harassing the leviathans off the Palos Verdes Peninsula and observers last Sunday witnessed what appeared to be an act of revenge.

Hugh Ryono, a volunteer with the Gray Whale Census and Behavior Project at Point Vicente, said about six sea lions were resting on their backs when a large whale altered its course, sounded, then emerged among them, scattering them in a panic.

“We had a good laugh!” Ryono said via e-mail.

On the move

The gray whale migration, which is slowly getting later because of climatic changes, is beginning to peak off Southern California. The Point Vicente volunteers this week have been posting daily counts in the 20s and 30s.

Hazardous for humpbacks

Thousands of humpback whales have arrived in Hawaii, only to find their seasonal paradise a virtual vessel minefield.

Three have been struck already by boats -- compared with six known collisions all of last winter -- and there are four months left in this breeding-calving season.

Around Molokai, Lanai and Maui, as many as 10,000 whales gather and currently, “every moment there’s a blow somewhere in a given view,” said Jeffrey Walters, co-manager of the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary. “It’s reasonable to suspect there will be more collisions.”

Fishing notes

The Saltwater Sportsman National Seminar Series will be at Long Beach State’s Carpenter Performing Arts Center on Feb. 10 from 9-4. Experts Fred Archer, Barry Brightenburg, Greg Stotesbury, Jimmy Decker, David Brackmann and Jim Hendricks will join hosts George Poveromo and Tom Waters for a show focusing on small and big game. The cost is $55. Registration information is available by calling (800) 448-7360.

Bob Kurz of Laguna Niguel has been recognized by the International Game Fish Assn. as one of fewer than 50 people to have achieved the “royal billfish slam” by catching all nine billfish species. He completed the task, after 36 years, in September when he caught a white marlin off Venezuela.

pete.thomas@latimes.com