“A mix of tragedy and joy.” Whale researchers recount death of orca calf

One of Washington’s beloved Southern Resident Orcas is breaking hearts across the world again. In 2018, Tahlequah garnered global attention for carrying her dead calf for 16 days in what was called a “tour of grief.” This week she was spotted doing the same, just more than a week after researchers announced she had birthed a new female calf.

Researchers from the Center for Whale Research and the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration ventured out on the Sound Wednesday, capturing video and pictures of Tahlequah when they discovered a surprise—in addition to spotting Tahlequah and her dead calf, they spotted another young orca that wasn’t seen when they confirmed Tahlequah’s young a week ago.

“What a mix of tragedy and joy,” Howard Garrett said, the co-founder and board president of the Orca Network.

Brad Hanson, of NOAA, and Michael Weiss, with the Center for Whale Research, were both on the water Wednesday. Hanson said during a press call Thursday there were signs for the first calf, number J61, looking frailer, even by newborn standards. J62, the calf discovered this week, he said was more ‘robust’ especially when they have seen it surface above water.

“These are some small signs,” Hanson said. “We try to get input from other researchers in terms of what they’re seeing and whether or not this is normal or abnormal behavior.”

Weiss says for calves they have documented, around 70 percent survive through their first year. That number has a caveat however, because he acknowledges there are countless calves they never are able to document so the Center for Whale Research estimates the true survival rate is around 50 percent.

“Our research shows that for females that have more sons who they are taking care of are less likely to produce a calf that survives that past year.” Weiss said.

Weiss notes that Tahlequah, number J35, has two sons, the most recent of which was born in 2020. That timing has researchers theorizing that Tahlequah may not have had enough time between pregnancies to recover before her 18-month gestation period began with the most recent calf.

“The odds are not necessarily in her favor there,” Weiss said.

To get a full idea of why J61 died, researchers would need to perform a necropsy but say they will not interrupt Tahlequah’s grieving to do so.

While researchers are still trying to figure out J62′s sex and family tree, they say it appears she has an older brother and a grandmother, the latter of which helps its chances of surviving its first year. Weiss says he is “cautiously optimistic.” Garrett has a similar perspective.

“I’ll be about 50% reassured in a month if that baby is still looking good and about 80% reassured in six months. But, it’ll really be a year or more before I can feel confident,” Garrett said. “It’s going to be a long, cautious wait to make sure that that baby does all right.”

Tahlequah’s two sons, Garrett notes, have shown some slightly concerning conditions when recently spotted. Really, the hope is that more female Orcas are spawned in the pod to help the viability of future Orcas.

Southern Resident Orcas are a distinct species of Orca that are biologically diverse from their ocean-dwelling relatives. They have cultural and genetic differences that are unique to the three pods: J, K, & L. Garrett says J pod has had the most recent success of calves making it past the first year, but not enough to overcome the whales that have died. 73 whales were counted in the most recent census of the pods, though one of the orcas has been considered “missing” since that count.

From 2012 through 2020, the Center for Whale Research documented 17 births with six calves missing or dead. During that same time, 26 other orcas went missing or died. Federal regulations require a population growth of nearly 2.3 percent every 28 years to delist an animal. Southern Resident Orcas are on the very of their population drastically decreasing without more viable calves.

“They’re just not getting enough nutrition to bring their young into the world,” Garrett said. “Chinook [Salmon] are their selected prey and there’s just not enough of them in their habitat.”

Chinook Salmon populations are one of three great threats to the Puget Sound’s Orcas. The other, collisions and noise with ships and other water vessels, and contaminants and pollution to their environment, like PFAS ‘forever’ chemicals.

As 2025 began, a new law went into effect requiring ships, boats, and water vessels to stay 1,000 yards from Southern Resident Orcas. While the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife is still crafting its education policy for the law, Garrett says the move will make a “marginal difference” that will help whales find their prey with less noise from the man-made machines.

“It is valuable. It’s helpful to the whales, but it really misses the big point that what they need is more fish in their habitat,” Garrett said.

If there’s one thing about the new law that encourages Garrett, it’s the ability for people and government to mobilize and create action to help their water-bound neighbors. It’s that kind of action he says is needed to remove four damns along the Snake River that would help increase the size and health of the salmon population that feed the Orcas. The damns have created lakes with warm, stagnant water that hurts the fish’s ability to switch from living in a freshwater environment to a salt-water environment. Garrett notes a significant amount of the salmon that feed Southern Resident Orcas spawn upriver in the Snake, that feeds into the Columbia and its tributaries.

“That’s what needs to be done. If we want to take care of these whales, we’ve got to look at those dams.” Garrett said.

EMEA Tribune is not involved in this news article, it is taken from our partners and or from the News Agencies. Copyright and Credit go to the News Agencies, email news@emeatribune.com Follow our WhatsApp verified Channel