Grieving orca highlights species’ plight
Researchers are hoping that international interest in a female orca that has been carrying her dead calf through the ocean for more than a week will focus attention on the plight of endangered southern resident killer whales.
Michael Weiss of the Center for Whale Research in Friday Harbor, Washington, said the story of J35’s grieving process has received worldwide coverage in recent days.
“It’s a lot of attention and if anything good can come out of what’s been kind of a traumatic week for all of us and this whale, it would be a little more awareness,” he said.
Weiss, who has been tracking the mother at sea and monitoring her health, said researchers have long understood the threat facing the southern residents.
“There hasn’t been a successful calf in the last three years and the lesson that we keep learning from every study we do on their hormones, on their survival rates, is that these whales don’t have enough food,” he said.
The whales mostly eat chinook salmon and those stocks are in trouble on both sides of the border in the Columbia and Fraser rivers and in Puget Sound, he said.
“That’s due to a whole bunch of factors that are specific to each river,” he said, adding that global climate change is also a factor.
“I think people are really looking for something to do — a single action that can be taken. For Canadians, that might be trying to pressure the government into putting more effort into stream restoration along the Fraser. I think the main thing in the States is we need to remove the lower four Snake River dams on the Columbia,” Weiss said.
“We need to be taking big actions to restore salmon abundance. If we don’t, this is going to keep happening. This isn’t going to be the last dead baby we see.”
J35’s calf died a short time after it was born near Victoria on July 24. The Center for Whale Research team has watched the mother repeatedly retrieve the carcass and support it on her forehead as she moves through the ocean.
The weather was so rough Tuesday, however, that researchers were unable to find the mother to see whether she still had the carcass with her.
Jenny Atkinson, executive director of the Whale Museum in Friday Harbor, said its Soundwatch boat also was unable to locate J35 due to the weather conditions.
“We do know that the family seems to be helping her; that she’s not the only one carrying it,” Atkinson said. “They seem to be taking turns.”
But she said the health of J35 remains a major concern, given the energy she has expended giving birth and then carrying her dead calf over great distances.
“If she still has it today, they’re into the 200th hour of her carrying this calf. So it’s got to be a tremendous toll on her energy,” Atkinson said.
“Yeah, we’re really concerned for her, but it would be more concerning to interrupt the process because it literally could break her heart.”
Atkinson said it’s the longest grieving process that museum staff have witnessed among southern resident killer whales.
“But that doesn’t mean it’s the longest they’ve ever done this,” she said.
“We have quite a few traditions in the human community that would parallel this. What’s different is they’re not humans and they’re in the water and that’s their living room, so maybe this is their way of expressing deep grief, but also honouring and respecting that this calf will always be a member of their community.”