In 2018 an orca in the Salish Sea in the North Pacific gave birth to a dead pup and pushed its body over 1,000 miles for 17 days. This year the same orca was spotted with the second deceased pup as it retraced the same harrowing path in the Puget Sound area of the Pacific Northwest. According to experts at the Washington state-based Center for Whale Research, this fact is devastating and shows how much the population of these cetaceans is suffering, sick and in grave danger. In fact, according to experts, this phenomenon reflects the problem of the ecosystem in crisis.
The orca, known as Tahlequah, or J35 is a member of the orca population native to the Pacific, and experts fear its species of is becoming extinct. The pups she lost were females. Her first cub was born 14 years ago and is still alive, as is her third that was born in 2020. However, as researchers at the Center for Whale Research point out, “The death of any orca pup in the endangered native population is a huge loss, but J61’s death is particularly devastating, not only because she was a female, who one day could have potentially led her own matriline, but also because of the story of her mother J35 who has now lost two out of four documented pups, both females.”
As the Guardian reports, in recent months, groups advocating for the preservation and conservation of this species have called on Canada’s environment minister to issue an emergency order to protect these cetaceans on the brink of extinction. A recent assessment by the U.S. federal government found that the Pacific killer whale population had dropped to 73, a figure confirmed by the Centre for Whale Research. There are currently believed to be only 23 reproductive females.
