Almost the entire population of southern resident killer whales gathered in central Puget Sound on Sunday, but the newest member of J Pod, a newborn known as J64, was not among them.
According to a tally by the nonprofit Orca Behavior Institute, 59 of the endangered population of 74 whales swam, hunted, and splashed as far south as Vashon Island , delighting onlookers on both sides of the sound.
The fish-eating orcas rely primarily on Chinook salmon, but in autumn, they also chase after chum, the second-largest salmon species, returning to the Nisqually and Puyallup rivers and other drainages in south Puget Sound.
Though all of the orcas’ J Pod and K Pod and most of L Pod were present, the newborn J64 was notably absent.
The nonprofit Center for Whale Research announced on Saturday that its researchers had repeatedly spotted J64’s mother, known as J42, swimming without her newborn in October in British Columbia’s Gulf Islands, just across the watery border from Washington’s San Juan Islands.
“We kept seeing J42 surface repeatedly, and there was no calf with her,” the researchers wrote after encountering J Pod near Mayne Island, B.C., on Oct. 23. “After a few long dives and still no calf, we had to conclude that J64 did not survive and was now gone.”
The Center for Whale Research said the month-old whale was its 18-year-old mother’s first offspring.
J64 is the second J Pod baby to die in the past two months. After an unnamed orca died within about 3 days of its birth in September, its mother carried it for at least a day on her nose in an apparent display of grief.
Most of these fish-eating orcas don't live past their first birthday due to toxic pollution and a shortage of salmon to eat.
The odds are especially bad for firstborns: Orcas offload long-lived pollutants like PCBs in their flesh through the mothers' milk. The lifetime buildup of toxics is mostly offloaded into their firstborns.
Biologists have said for decades that boosting Chinook salmon numbers is key to bringing the endangered orca population back from the brink of extinction. A well-fed orca is less likely to metabolize its heavily polluted blubber.
“Southern residents need healthy, abundant Chinook salmon populations to sustain themselves and the calves they raise if this population is to survive,” according to the Center for Whale Research.
According to the Puget Sound Partnership, most of the region’s Chinook populations remain far below their recovery targets, established after Puget Sound Chinook salmon were listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1999.
As apex predator of local waters, the endangered orca population is viewed as an indicator of the overall health of Puget Sound.
This story comes to you from the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington.
