J42 with calf (foreground)
Welcome baby orca! There’s a new calf in J pod, born to J42 (Echo) last week. Researchers Mark Sears and Maya Sears caught up with the J16s on Saturday near Seattle and confirmed the baby looked healthy and bonded with her mom. Mood: cautiously optimistic.
J pod spent a good part of last week in central Puget Sound, near Whale Trail headquarters in West Seattle. Researchers Mark Sears and Maya Sears went out and reported that the new calf appeared healthy, and bonded with its mother. ]As shown by the helpful labels (thank you Maya!) that’s the new baby in the foreground (so tiny!), next to mom J42 (Echo), grandmother J16 (Slick) and aunt Alki (J36), with companion J46 (Star) close behind. Uncle Mike (J26) was nearby.
With this addition there are now 12 calves under 6years old in the population and 7 of those are female. The future of the population is here! Watch them from shore and stay 1000 yards away at sea.
It was a wonderful though sometimes headspinning week on The Whale Trail in West Seattle. First, it’s a little bit early for J pod to be here – they usually come back in October. However a large coho run might explain it! Mark says there were fish everywhere.
Second, the addition of Echo’s calf is tempered by the loss of her sister’s. Alki’s calf was either stillborn or died shortly after birth last week. Even in healthy populations, orca calves have a 50% chance of surviving their first year.
The good news is that J16, the matriarch, is still here. So many orcas have lost their moms, and the knowledge and experience they carried. Every survivor is a little miracle, given the pressures they have been all been under.
The orcas split into two groups on Friday. The J16s + J46 (this group) stayed near Vashon and West Seattle, while the rest of the pod traveled south – under the Tacoma Narrows bridge! Passing Fox Island and entering Carr Inlet for the first time in a long while.
I am sorry to tell you there was a lot of boat traffic around the whales in the south Sound. Land-based watchers reported that jet skiers, paddle boarders and motorboats came within yards of the whales—just like the bad old days. I contacted WILDCOMM (WDFW Communications Center) as did many others. A marine patrol was mustered and the scene settled down. J pod exited the south Sound safely, and headed up Colvos Passage.
We watched J pod make the crossing from Blake to Bainbridge Island in the late afternoon. It was a sunny day and they were on the far west side of the sound, a little hard to pick out in the haze. Lucky for us they were in a breaching kind of mood, and splashed their way all across the Sound, making them a whole lot easier to see. We shared Whale Trail binoculars with dozens of people, and helped them see the orcas too – many of them seeing orcas for the first time.
We last saw the orcas traveling slowly north of the Bainbridge ferry lanes. We assume they met up with the J16s somewhere along the way.
Godspeed, baby orca. Come back soon!