Prince William Sound, on Alaska's southern coast, is a maze of fjords, islands and glacier-fed bays where harbor seals rest on shoreline rocks and floating ice. However, the mammal-eating orcas are called transients and biologists track individuals by the shapes and patterns on their dorsal fins and the white saddle patches behind them. Photographs taken during summer seasons produced catalogues detailed enough for scientists to determine which whales were alive in a given year.
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