SEATTLE – A baby orca that had not been seen among its pod in state waters, turned up Sunday, triggering cheers and family photos at the Whale Research Center in the San Juan Islands.
“The lost was found,” said Ken Balcomb, veteran orca researcher at the Friday Harbor center. “It wasn’t with its mom that day,” he added of reports last week that the calf was missing and perhaps dead.
The state’s three resident orca pods – dubbed J, K and L – were declared an endangered species last year, and the disappearance of the newborn that had boosted the population to 90 for the first time this century was painful news.
The calf – whose orange newborn coat made it stand out among its black-and-white family – was first spotted Aug. 13 in Haro Strait, on the west side of the San Juans, where the orcas congregate over the summer to chase salmon.
But then it was not seen for days.
“J, K and L pods have been pretty much together this (past) week when they’ve been seen,” Balcomb said. “He didn’t show up with any other pod.”
There were a couple possible sightings, but no documentation until Sunday.
“We have to go by a picture to be sure,” he noted.
“He’s an adventurous little guy,” an exuberant Balcomb said. “But he was there today, nice and tight” with the other orcas.
“He’s moving around,” the researcher added. “He’ll surface way ahead of Mom. Very unusual for that small of a baby.”
He said K-41 was likely born shortly before the Aug. 13 sighting, making it “probably just a little over a week old.”
It was clear Aug. 13 that the calf belonged to K-22, a 19-year-old female named Sekiu, said Kelley Balcomb-Bartok of the research center. They were swimming with Sekiu’s first calf, 5-year-old K-33, or Tika, while the rest of the pod was a few miles ahead.
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