A killer whale calf recently encountered near San Juan Island is believed to have died after disappearing from its pod, according to the Center for Whale Research.
The Friday Harbor, Wash.-based center said J60, the J-Pod’s youngest member, was missing during the encounter on Saturday, January 27, and “likely deceased.”
CWR researchers were conducting a photo ID survey of the pod in the central San Juan Strait. said in a Facebook post Monday afternoon.
During the encounter, “photos were taken of all other members of the pod, including all of J60’s potential mothers, but J60 himself was not seen,” the center writes. .
The protocol requires at least three complete censuses to confirm mortality, but given the calf’s age, it is “very unlikely that J60 was on its own for the entire encounter period.” ‘, the center points out. “Unfortunately, we now believe that J60 has passed away.”
The calf was about one month old.
CWR documents detect and post findings. here. At one point, they were “taking photos of all the pod members except J60, and it became clear that the calf was no longer there.”
It states that J42 is the most likely mother of the calf, given its pattern of association and the pregnancy status of the J-pod female in late 2023.
“However, given the variety of social partners during the calf’s early life, this would enter our dataset as a ‘likely’ relationship,” CWR said, adding that J46 also entered the relationship late last year. She added that she was “heavily pregnant” but was not “consistently associated” with J60.
The center said this may have been the first calf seen for either female.
The report said mortality rates among Southern calves, particularly those born to primiparous mothers, were due to “overall poor” nutritional status and the transfer of toxins from mother to calf during pregnancy and lactation. The reason for this is that it is “extremely expensive”.
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“Southern residents need abundant and large Chinook salmon to raise calves to maturity and maintain populations,” the report said.
According to CWR, J pods are the pods most likely to occur year-round in waters of the San Juan Islands and southern Gulf Islands, lower Puget Sound and the Strait of Georgia in British Columbia.
of Latest Southern Resident Killer Whale (SRKW) population survey data Since July 1, 2023, 25 orcas have been found in the J pod, nine fewer than in the L pod but nine more than in the K pod.
In late December 2023, CWR reported that an endangered Southern Resident killer whale calf was born around Christmas.
For more information on the latest encounters, here.
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