Orca Adoption Program of The Whale Museum

09/07/2018

Sunday, September 16 from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m., the Samish Indian Nation is organizing a Vigil/Memorial to honor the Southern Resident Community of orcas. The hope is to give love to the whales and show support for them. The event will take place at Deception Pass at the Maiden at Rosario State Park. There will be food and speakers (Ray Frieberg and Howard Garrett). If you are inclined to give donations, they would like to designate them for The Whale Museum and Orca Network. When I was talking with Rosie of the Samish Nation, she wanted to make it clear that the event is organized by the Samish but is hosted by the community - it is all of us together who will make this gathering happen.

We also talked about whale names. There's been a lot of conversation about naming calves. As you know, The Whale Museum runs the Orca Adoption Program where whales receive familiar names and are available for symbolic adoption. It has long grieved us that calves who do not survive long enough do not receive names. Each November, The Whale Museum hosts an event to honor the whales who have passed. This year, this StoryKeepers event will take place at 3 p.m. on Friday, November 2nd. We will be naming those calves and sharing their names at that event. However, since Tahlequah has just gone through a very public process of mourning her deceased calf, Rosie suggested a name that we love for this little calf - TiTahlequah, which means little Tahlequah . We accepted this name and will include it in the Storykeepers. Thank you, Rosie, for such a beautiful name.

Photo caption: Princess Angeline, Notch and Tahlequah (June 2010). Photo credit: Jeanne Hyde/The Whale Museum

01/29/2018

Orcas rubbing - West Sechelt, BC - January 27, 2018

01/10/2018

KING 5 Environmental Reporter Alison Morrow explains.

09/25/2017

Sad and disturbing news from the Center for Whale Research. 2-year old J52 "Sonic" has been declared deceased. This brings the Southern Resident orca family down to just 76 (or 77 counting Lolita/Tokitae still captive in Miami), lower than it has been since the early 1980s, and only 5 more than the all time low of 71 in 1976 after the capture era.

J52 "Sonic"
2015-2017

He was the first offspring of J36 "Alki." He is survived by his uncle J26 "Mike" and aunts J42 "Echo" and J50 "Scarlet," who was born only two months before J52.

J52 was reported emaciated Sept. 13 from unmanned hexacopter photographs by Holly Fearnbach, Drs. John Durban (NOAA) and Lance Barrett-Lennard (Coastal Ocean Research Institute).

Ken Balcomb, Senior Scientist, Center for Whale Research, provides background and implications of the loss of J52:

"The SRKW population as of 1 July 2017 was 77 whales. As of 19 September, another SRKW (J52 - a two and a half year old male) is deceased, presumably from malnutrition. All of the SRKW observed this summer appear lean, and they appear to us to be skinny and small compared to Bigg’s Transient killer whales in the Salish Sea that have abundant prey resources (seals and other marine mammals).

"In the early years of our study, the average calving interval (live birth) for sexually mature females was calculated to be 5.2 years, with a 3 year interval observed for some females. The abort/neonate mortality was estimated at 42% of conceptions. The average calving interval (live birth) is now 9+ years, and the abort/neonate mortality is estimated to be 75% or more.

"All indications (population number, foraging spread, days of occurrence in the Salish Sea, body condition, and live birth rate/neonate survival) are pointing toward a predator population that is prey limited and non-viable. We know that the SRKW population-sustaining prey species is Chinook salmon, but resource managers hope that they find something else to survive. If something isn’t done to enhance the SRKW prey availability almost immediately (it takes a few years for a Chinook salmon to mature and reproduce, and it takes about twelve years for a female SRKW to mature and reproduce), extinction is inevitable within decades to a century with current predator/prey trajectories.

"This situation is not pretty, and its solution is politically and practically complex. I have advocated for a relatively practical fix for the time being (remove dam obstacles to natural Snake River Chinook production - potentially hundreds of thousands to a million or more adult Chinook spawners returning), and work toward restoration of natural runs of Chinook salmon in the Salish Sea watersheds for the long term. But, obviously, the political will (votes and $$) is not there yet. We are trying to save this iconic Pacific Northwest population of very charismatic animals with information."

Photo of J52 with mom J36 by Sara Hysong-Shimazu, June 21, 2015

09/14/2017

The most iconic whale in the Southern Resident Community of killer whales has been missing since November 2010. J1, nicknamed Ruffles for hi...

08/29/2017

A Courtenay man got up close and personal with an orca Saturday night . When Ken Heinrich and his two daughters spotted a pod of killer whales breaching in the waters off Gartley Beach, they grabbed their cameras and hopped into their kayaks to get a better look. “We were simply drifting when…

08/25/2017

Plastic straws, in particular, really suck. Scientist and EcoWatch contributor Dr. David Suzuki wrote, "In the U.S. alone, people discard ...

08/25/2017

NASA is using Narwhals, whales with 9 foot long unicorn-like tusks, to understand what's happening inside Greenland's ice cap.

08/18/2017

Stakeholders and whale lovers are invited to take part in an online survey at letstalkwhales.ca until Sept. 19, 2017.

B.C.'s endangered southern resident killer whales are one of three species the Department of Fisheries and Oceans are focusing its efforts on.

08/02/2017

Mexico City just passed a set of laws putting an end to the commercial exploitation and use of marine mammals, among them, notably, dolphin performances!

07/06/2017

A swim in the ocean turned into quite the whale tale for two men at Whytecliff Park over the weekend.

06/29/2017

A new study nails dearth of chinook salmon as the primary cause of the endangered resident orca whale’s failure to rebound.