At the end of December 2014, The
Center For Whale Research confirmed that Jpod has a new baby! J50 was seen yesterday with
J16 “Slick” who may be the mother. We wish the newest member of the
Southern Resident Killer Whales a Happy & healthy life!
Press Release from Ken Balcomb, Center for Whale Research:
PRESS RELEASE
From Center for Whale Research
To Contact List
12 February 2015
Another New Baby in J pod!
After spending the past two weeks near the west entrance of the
Strait of Juan de Fuca, J pod finally came back into the interior Salish
Sea waters and showed off another brand new baby whale to the few
observers that braved the mist and light rain and watched the whales
swim by from land and from vessels at respectful distance. Dave Ellifrit
from the Center for Whale Research, and Jeanne Hyde who first heard the
whales on Lime Kiln hydrophone this morning, embarked on the Center ‘s
research vessel “Chimo” to Haro Strait while CWR Senior Scientist, Ken
Balcomb, watched from shore and managed communications.
The late December calf, J50, with its J16 family were seen today as
well; but, the big news is that J19 and J41 were swimming protectively
on either side on another new baby that we estimate is about one week
old. This newest addition to J pod is designated J51, and the presumed
mother is thirty-six year old J19. Her ten-year old daughter, J41, was
also in attendance. The newest baby appears healthy.
This brings us to twenty-six whales in J pod, the most viable pod in the
Endangered Southern Resident Killer Whale population of the US and
Canada Pacific Northwest. K pod has 19 individuals, and L pod has 34
individuals for a total population of 79 SRKW’s as of today. That number
can change anytime with the birth or death of one of these charismatic
whales.
Photos by Dave Ellifrit, Center for Whale Research.
New L pod calf!!
Dr. Brad Hanson (NOAA) gives us this latest news from the orca research cruise as well as an update on location of L pod:
25 February update – We were
about 15
miles west of Westport this morning when we resighted the whales and
observed a new calf – L94 appears to be the mother. To recap since our
previous posting, on 23 February we were off Cape Lookout, Oregon
following the whales north. Yesterday, we continued following the whales
north past the mouth to the Columbia River. Since L84 was tagged a week
ago we have been with all of K pod but only part of L pod. On 23
February Jon Scordino with Makah Fisheries sent us photos taken on 20
February of L25 off Cape Flattery, which indicated another part of L pod
was in the general area. This morning, shortly after we launched our
Zodiac we observed L41, part of the group that includes L25, indicating
that another group of L pod had joined up overnight – this is first time
we have documented pods reuniting on the outer coast. Fortunately the
whales were very grouped up and within a few minutes we observed the new
calf – with its unique orange-ish color on the white areas. The calf
looked very energetic. We have five more days on the cruise and look
forward to additional observations of the calf and collecting additional
prey and fecal samples.
