The Critically Endangered Resident Killer Whales in Puget Sound

A group of killer whales or orcas (Orcinus orca) live in and around Puget Sound in the U.S. state of Washington throughout the year. Unfortunately, these animals are critically endangered. In January, 2019, a new calf was seen. This is potentially great news, since no calf has been born and survived in the group in three years. A researcher who studies the animals tells us not to get too excited because the calves have only a fifty percent survival rate, however. The Puget Sound group last came to the public's attention in 2018 with the sad story of Tahlequah, a female who carried her dead daughter for seventeen days before she released her.

A killer whale or orca

Credit: skeeze, public domain license

Puget Sound

Puget Sound is located in the northwestern part of Washington State. It's an inlet of the Pacific Ocean and has a complex, branched structure. It's connected to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, which comes directly from the Pacific Ocean, and the Strait of Georgia, which travels into Canada. The boundary between the United States and Canada travels along the middle of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and along the middle of the southern part of the Strait of Georgia. (The northern part of the strait is located in Canada).The map below shows the connections. The water channels shown in the map are sometimes collectively referred to as the Salish Sea.

Map of Puget Sound

Pfly, CC BY-SA 3.0 License

Killer Whales in the Puget Sound Area

Four groups of killer whales are recognized in the northeastern part of the Pacific Ocean: the northern residents, the southern residents, the transients, and the offshores. According to the Encyclopedia of Puget Sound published by the University of Washington, the groups differ in morphology, behaviour, and diet.

The southern resident killer whales (SRKW) live in both the northern United States and southern Canada. They are most often seen in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the southern part of the Strait of Georgia, and Puget Sound. The group as a whole exists in several smaller collections. The J, K, and L pods frequent the Puget Sound. These pods consist of 74 whales in total. Three of them have died in the last year.

The whales are in trouble due to the lack of sufficient Chinook salmon to eat. Multiple populations of the salmon are endangered, like the killer whale population that enters Puget Sound. The reason why the salmon and whale populations in the Salish Sea are in trouble is multifactorial. As some people have said, there are no easy answers, but if we want to save the whales we need to take action soon.

Whales Of Concern

The new calf was born to a female in pod L known as L77. It was estimated to be a few weeks old when it was discovered with its pod in the eastern part of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Hopefully it will survive to adulthood and produce calves of its own.

Unfortunately, a young whale in the K pod known as K25 hasn't been doing very well since his mother died in 2017. One researcher says that the youngster is continuing to lose weight and may not live though the upcoming summer. Young whales nurse for around a year and then rely on fish that their mother catches for them for some time afterwards. Whale J17 is also very thin and is a concern. She was Tahlequah's mother.

Though researchers are often reluctant to interfere in the lives of the animals that they are studying, it's sometimes hard to avoid doing so, especially when a population is endangered. J50 (or Scarlet) was a young whale in a very emaciated state. A veterinarian from the Vancouver Aquarium injected her with antibiotics to fight infection by firing a dart at her. Canadian and American officials were creating a plan to capture and treat her if she fell behind her pod. Before the rescue plan could be put into operation, Scarlet was pronounced dead in September, 2018. Though her body was never found, her family was seen without her three times. She hasn't been seen since.

Tahlequah the Killer Whale

The story of Tahlequah (J35) and her calf captured the public's imagination in 2018, and understandably so. Her calf died a few hours after birth. Whale calves are born underwater, but their mother quickly pushes them to the surface so that they can breathe. If a calf dies, it's normally dropped and sinks. Tahlequah didn't drop her calf for seventeen days and until she had swum 1,000 miles, however. She continued to hold the calf at the water's surface and carried her on her forehead as she swam, even though this interfered with her swimming and her feeding. Researchers were worried about Tahlequah's health.

Many people describe Tahlequah's behaviour as a "tour of grief." Others say that we shouldn't ascribe human emotions to other animals because we don't know what they are feeling or experiencing. It's known that whales have complex brains and behaviour, however. Tahlequah certainly behaved as though she was in mourning.

It would be a great shame if the Puget Sound whales disappeared. They are intelligent and interesting animals. It's true that other groups of the whales exist and that the population of orcas as a whole may not be in trouble. The IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) classifies the total population of the animal in its Data Deficient category, however. More research is needed to determine its true status. I think that the unique characteristics of each group of whales are important. I hope the orcas in the Salish Sea survive.

References

New orca calf seen in Puget Sound from the phys.org news site

Killer whales in Puget Sound from the Encyclopedia of Puget Sound, University of Washington

Tour of grief is over for killer whale from CNN

Attempts to help whale J50 from NPR

United to save salmon and orcas from The Seattle Times