This past summer, I wrote a post about the experience of trying to save a four-year-old orca in Puget Sound named Scarlet (J-50), who had been observed to be sick and starving. Scarlet was one of the Southern Resident orcas, an officially endangered population that has been ravaged, first by captures by marine entertainment parks in the 1960s and 70s, and now from toxic waters, acoustic pollution and lack of food.
Despite efforts by the rescue team that had been convened by NOAA, Scarlet passed away in September. Her demise came on the heels of the world watching as a young orca mother, Tahlequah (J-35), carried her dead infant for 17 days before finally letting go.
We tend to think of extinction in terms of populations and species, but the experience of participating in an effort to rescue a single individual who was part of an ongoing extinction event led me to realize that it is a very personal experience for the individuals undergoing it. Extinction is getting sick and struggling to live and watching everyone you love going through the same agony. This is where extinction lives: in the heart and soul of each individual animal.
All of this happened during a grim year where the population of orcas in that region declined to just 74 individuals– a 35-yr low. In an ominous statement, Ken Balcomb, director of the Center for Whale Research, has since said he will stop counting when their numbers fall to 70.
Photos of Scoter show his deteriorating condition over two years.
And now more bad news: Two more of the Southern Residents are starving and in failing health. Photos of 42-year old Princess Angeline (J-17) show she has “peanut head” – a loss of fat around the neck and a sign of severe starvation. And the young male Scoter (K-25), who lost his mother in 2017, is failing to feed himself.
Indeed, both whales are in such bad condition that Ken Balcomb says he is confident that “we are going to lose them by summer.” And the fact that Princess Angeline is the matriarch of her family group makes her troubles even more alarming.
“Every member of their society will become aware that their turn will come.”
Shortly after I read the news of Princess Angeline and Scoter, an email from a colleague raised the emotional stakes for me. He wrote that because of orcas’ close family bonds, their complex intelligence and their advanced level of self and situational awareness, “every member of their society will become aware that their turn will come, that they will suffer, as they’ve witnessed with families and friends.” In other words, these orcas may be aware that they are in an extinction event. They may not know the textbook definition of mass extinction or about the science of genetic diversity. But they may know nevertheless that something is happening to all of them and that, at some point, there will be none of them.
There is no way to tell them that we are trying to help: that a task force created by Washington State Governor Jay Inslee has recommended a number of actions that must be taken urgently and immediately. We don’t even know whether these suggestions will be fully implemented, nor whether they will be effective or simply too little too late. Regardless, the Whale Sanctuary Project will be ready to help in whatever way we can, just as we did last summer on behalf of Scarlet. But commercial and political interests may trump the needs of the Southern Residents. And in the end, we can only watch as the state and federal governments, and all of us in the public, decide to let, one by one, the Southern Residents disappear.
Perhaps the urgency of the situation is best articulated by 11-year-old student and marine mammal advocate London Fletcher, who writes: “It’s time to wake up and smell the extinction.”
12 Comments
Not just breach the dams; we need to work with Canada and Alaska and suspend all fishing of salmon for several years at a minimum, if not permanently. Humans must be willing to give something up for these whales.
Here is some deep insight about the state of our world and why so many are suffering at this time. This is a link to Deena Metzger’s article on Extinction Illness. https://www.tikkun.org/newsite/extinction-illness-grave-affliction-and-possibility?fbclid=IwAR2DbWDYRWaH4LjGKwpu1Zv
while you were posting this I was living on the road due to exposing corruption in high places. For those who do not have the decency, values or respect for the innocent and prefer to cover their behinds for careers and higher positions and disregard the victims they leave behind, this is what their children will inherit.
Two more Southern Resident Orcas are starving and will not make it through the year.
Join residents from across our region to request our leaders step up in much needed support for starving southern residents and in support of lasting Snake River restoration.
Bold action is needed for Southern Resident Orca recovery.
The losses of both J-17 (Princess Angeline), a mother of two, named after the daughter of Chief Seattle, and K-25 (Scoter) will be irreversible. Southern Resident Orca populations near extinction.
We need to recruit our Washington State Leaders to step up for bold action for Southern Resident Orca recovery.
RSVP to join us on Monday the 4th of February to ask our leaders to stand up for bold action:
https://actionnetwork.org/events/orca-advocacy-day?fbclid=IwAR2Howjc9VaQVw00-BWXVyZ9K7nCfLzN5bjN4sRaxeV_cPVgAQ5ze1bv_-M
We will be joined on this day by famous Tribal leader Paulette Jordan of Idaho, members of the frontline Tribal communities and Willie Frank Jr., son of the late Billy Frank Jr., Nisqually Tribal Leader.
Please come and stand in solidarity with the Nimiipuu and Palouse communities that called the Snake River home since time immemorial, and the Coast Salish and Coastal communities that have been in relationship with Southern Resident Orcas since time immemorial.
Breakfast, Lunch and Evening Appetizers Provided
Please Join us for the lobby day for a free-flowing Snake River in Olympia on Monday, February 4th.
We will be meeting with Washington State Legislative representatives and gathering support for Snake River dam breaching, an action integral in the survival of the Southern Resident Orca pods that depend on the Snake and Columbia Rivers for more than 50% of their diet.
https://www.meetup.com/Inland-N-W-Environmental-Events-Meetup/events/257894449/
The more we restrict ourselves in consuming goods and in our reproduction and the more we take care of the wild animals, that also prolongs our own human species. If the planet is completely degraded and destroyed due to burning fossil fuels and running factories and driving cars then we will not make it and we will join the orcas on the “extinct” list, just at a later date. The more we save the animals and set aside huge tracts of land and ocean for them, the better off we humans will be.
Orcas are leaving-there is one story only-anthropogenic.
The loss of these Orcas will be devestating knowing that there is a chance of saving them by feeding them from the Snake River Dam removal. This is nothing new the higher ups knew this was coming. Now at the 12th hour it may be to late. The clock is ticking and all we get is a bunch of political blah blah blah! Govenor Inslee, Senators, Corp of Engineers and others your killing them. Why we will never know sadly some speculate it’s about a pipeline that will kill many ocean beings if built. Greed is a culprit, it’s like cancer and it spreads with no turning back. What has happened to our country that the fight for the rights of these gentle giants will just fade away and be a distant memory of what used to be.
Surely we need to look at how to regenerate the food chain. By that I mean going backwards from the orcas for their food, their food as to what they need.
Plastic oceans/fat berg elimination clean the ocean !!
SORT THE DAMS NOW not when it is too late to reverse the extinction.
Of course they know !
Gut wrenching – soul destroying – they know they know they know 💔🐋
The Governor is not taking “bold actions” when he kicks the can down the road by not breaching the 4 Lower Snake River dams. There is research that has been done indicating that this may be the “only option” for their survival, if at this point they still have a chance to that. I personally will hold him responsible for their extinction I will not let him forget that.
If the dams are breached before the Spring salmon spawn, there MAY be enough to feed survivors in 2020 or 2021. Without breaching the dams this year, there will be no viable population left by 2021. Please call Inslee and ask him to breach: he has full authority this minute, just not the will to act.