The grieving orca mother has been pushing her calf to the surface for days. Image: Center for Whale Research
For the last week, researchers have been watching as an orca mother swims with its dead calf off the coast of Vancouver Island.
According to the Center for Whale Research, the calf was born on July 24th. Within hours, however, it died. “As the body sank into the water,” wrote AJ Willingham for CNN, the mother repeatedly pushed it up, keeping it afloat for at least three days as she and her pod swam on.”
It’s not at all uncommon for killer whales to act this way when a calf dies. “They know the calf is dead. I think this is a grieving or a ceremonial thing done by the mother,” Ken Balcomb, the Founder of the Center for Whale Research, told CNN. “She doesn’t want to let go. She’s probably lost two other calves since her first offspring eight years ago.”
The calf’s death is part of a much more concerning situation that’s occurring to the Southern Resident killer whale population. That population in particular, which calls the Pacific Ocean between the northwestern United States and Canada home, number about 75. For the last three years, however, no calves have survived.
Orca calves in the Southern Resident population have been struggling for around two decades. The Center for Whale Research estimates that some 75 percent of them have died during infancy. Salmon in the area have been struggling for years due to human involvement that blocks spawning routes, and it’s taking a toll on the killer whales. “The cause is lack of sufficient food resources in their foraging area,” Balcomb said. “There’s not enough food, and that’s due to environmental reasons.”
Hatcheries and over-fishing are a big part of the problem. “The hatcheries are not working,” Balcomb explained. “You’re genetically homogenizing the populations and they’re smaller and less fit and more expensive to produce.”
Female orcas generally give birth to an average of five calves over the course of their lifetime, and with the Southern Resident population already waning, their future is bleak. Balcomb’s outlook is a grim one. “Extinction,” he warned, “is looming.”
