— by Jim Robbins from the New York Times —
For the last three years, not one calf has been born to the dwindling pods of
black-and-white killer whales spouting geysers of mist off the coast in the Pacific
Northwest.
Normally four or five calves would be born each year among this fairly unique urban
population of whales — pods named J, K and L. But most recently, the number of orcas
here has dwindled to just 75, a 30-year-low in what seems to be an inexorable, perplexing
decline.
Listed as endangered since 2005, the orcas are essentially starving, as their primary prey,
the Chinook, or king salmon, are dying off. Just last month, another one of the Southern
Resident killer whales — one nicknamed “Crewser” that hadn’t been seen since last
November — was presumed dead by the Center for Whale Research.
In March, Gov. Jay Inslee issued an executive order directing state agencies to do more to
protect the whales, and in May he convened the Southern Resident Orca Task Force, a
group of state, tribal, provincial and federal officials, to devise ways to stem the loss of the
beloved regional creature. “I believe we have orcas in our soul in this state,” he said. At
another point, he wrote of the whales and Chinook salmon that “the impacts of letting
these two species disappear would be felt for generations.”
(To read the full article, go to https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/09/science/orcas-whales-endangered.html
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