Video shows a new calf in K Pod off Oregon coast, its first calf in more than a decade

‘Any new calf is really valuable and really, really great for the population’

||| FROM CBC NEWS |||

Biologists and whale-watching enthusiasts are celebrating what appears to be a new orca calf in a southern resident pod that researchers say has been shrinking in recent years.

New video, taken by John Goodell, shows a small orca swimming with K-Pod off the coast of Oregon.

It could be the first baby in a decade for this particular group of orcas, biologist Michael Weiss said — the last documented calf in that pod, that is still around today, was in 2011, a male named Ripple (K-44).

“Any new calf is really valuable and really, really great for the population,” said Weiss, who works with the Centre for Whale Research (CWR) based in Friday Harbor, Wash.

But before scientists can confirm anything, they’ll head out to the water to learn more, including observing the calf’s behaviour and watching to see which females it spends the most time with to determine the mother. Right now, Weiss says, it appears to be swimming with K-20.

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