Lack of Chinook salmon keeps Southern Resident orcas on endangered list

The Southern Resident killer whale population is declining and without more Chinook salmon, it could drop further.

Co-founder and Board President of Orca Network Howard Garrett joined KIRO Newsradio Tuesday to discuss the impending death of orca calf L128.

Just a month ago, researchers were excited about the birth of L128 but now they believe she is dying. The calf was spotted off the coast of Vancouver Island being carried by L83, who is not her mother, according to a news release from the Center for Whale Research (CWR).

CWR researchers said the calf was emaciated, barely breathing and appeared “lumpy and skinny.”

“The calf did look lumpy and had lost its blubber layer,” Garrett said. “You could see the outlines of the skull. It looked emaciated, and it just didn’t seem to have much, if any, life left in it.”

Past coverage: Recently birthed Southern Resident calf believed to be dying

Garrett said the animal’s decline is most likely due to a lack of nutrients.

“Basically, Chinook salmon, which have been their primary diet for eons, are now very scarce out there,” he explained. “So they’re relying on other fish, coho, chum salmon, sometimes sablefish, other fish, steelhead when they can find them, but those don’t have the caloric value that a nursing mother, a lactating mother, needs to have in order to feed the baby and maintain her own body health. So according to the best prevailing theories, they were not getting enough to eat, so that does not allow the baby to grow normally.”

Because the calf’s mother could not find enough fish, she could not produce enough milk and the baby was not able to keep its layer of blubber. Garrett added that orcas are very active and their blubber is crucial.

“They’re very energetic animals,” he said. “They’re always swimming, they’re always moving and for foraging, they’re always diving and chasing fish and so it’s a very energetic lifestyle and the baby, of course, wouldn’t be catching fish, but needs to have a thick blubber layer. Needs to be a fat, bouncing baby, and just was not, so that doesn’t allow for normal growth when there’s not enough milk.”

Garrett said L128 has not been spotted since October 5 but researchers are on the lookout. However, he does not believe the calf will survive at this point.

Garrett added the Southern Resident Killer whale population is at 73, which is where it was in 1999 — after a five-year decline of about 20% — which is what triggered the process that led to the orcas being listed as an endangered species.

“They’re right back where they were when those alarm bells went off and have not increased at all,” he said.

More details: Census reveals decline in Southern Resident killer whale population

The main reason the population hasn’t grown is a lack of wild salmon supplies, according to Garrett. He said there has been a lot of salmon restoration lately but the four lower Snake River dams are blocking valuable resources.

“That’s a 5,000 square mile wilderness area that is perfect Chinook spawning grounds and has been for thousands of years, but the access has been blocked by four dams on the Snake River and those are preventing the smolts, the little seven or eight-inch fish that have been growing for a year up in the wilderness, to be able to get down to the ocean,” Garrett explained. “So that cuts off the supply of probably half of the normal, historical, supply of fish for the whales.”

Bioaccumulation of organic chlorine pollutants, PCBs — “a group of man-made organic chemicals consisting of carbon, hydrogen and chlorine atoms,” according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — and flame retardants have also had an impact on the reproduction process and health of newborns, according to Garrett.

The SeaDoc Society’s website offers recommendations that people can do in their everyday lives to help protect salmon, such as choosing safer cleaning products, throwing away dog poop, washing cars at a carwash instead of driveways, taking public transportation and more.

And while Garrett said removing salmon from your diet is a “wonderful symbolic gesture,” it’s not a big factor.

Julia Dallas is a content editor at MyNorthwest. You can read her stories here. Follow Julia on X here and email her here.