‘It’s up to us:’ Researchers voice concerns over survival of new orca calf

There is exciting news for the orca community as a new calf has been spotted swimming in the Salish Sea.

According to a Facebook post by the Orca Conservancy on Tuesday, the Center for Whale Research confirmed orca J35 Tahlequah birthed new calf J61. However, the report is bittersweet as researchers voiced their concerns for its survival.

SR3 SeaLife Response, Rehabilitation, and Research is the agency that records body measurements of the whales. SR3 researchers, according to the Orca Conservancy, believe the calf is premature and Tahlequah looked to be in subnormal body condition in October.

“Ideally, mothers need to be robust with ample fat storage to help with the demands of lactation,” the Orca Conservancy wrote in its Facebook post.

Researchers with West Coast Fisheries Management and Marine Life Protection, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), spent time with the new calf and brought back distressing news.

“They observed the calf remaining underwater for extended amounts of time indicating nursing or attempts to nurse,” the Orca Conservancy wrote. “The calf had also been observed being pushed around on J35’s head and was not looking lively, which is a concern, but also added calf behavior is not fully understood. All of this serves as a reminder that in order for new calves, salmon stocks need to be recovered to levels that will help support population growth.”

Other whale news: Family of orca Tokitae revisits site of her capture more than 50 years later

According to the Orca Conservancy, J61 is Tahlequah’s third viable calf. Her two previous offspring are J47 Notch and J57 Phoenix who are both male. However, NOAA stated J61 is likely female.

Tahlequah is the same whale who made headlines in 2018 when she was seen near the San Juan Islands carrying her dead calf for more than two weeks and 1,000 miles.

“I always try to err on the side of cautious optimism with new southern resident calves because they have a 50% mortality rate and researchers are not without concern on J61,” an Orca Conservancy spokesperson said via the Facebook video.

The spokesperson ended the video by highlighting the importance of salmon and the fight to keep orcas from going extinct.

“I hope that this new baby inspires everyone and gives them hope to work for them and to fight for them because the southern residents show us time and time again that given the chance they will thrive and survive, so it’s up to us to give them that chance,” they said.

Orca Network president speaks on salmon restoration

Co-founder and Board President of Orca Network Howard Garrett joined KIRO Newsradio in October to discuss what now appears to be a similar decline of orca calf L128.

“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.”

More details: Lack of Chinook salmon keeps Southern Resident orcas on endangered list

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,” he said. “So that cuts off the supply of probably half of the normal, historical, supply of fish for the whales.”

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.

Other negative impacts on the reproduction process and health of newborns, according to Garrett, are bioaccumulation of organic chlorine pollutants, flame retardants and PCBs (“a group of man-made organic chemicals consisting of carbon, hydrogen and chlorine atoms,” according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency).

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