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SEATTLE | Federal biologists said this week that they are preparing a plan to catch and treat an orca that is critically endangered if there is no other way to save it in the wild.
Officials said they would only intervene and save the killer whale if she was trapped or separated from the rest of her whale group.
They want the 4-year-old killer whale known as J50 to survive in the wild and help rebuild southern resident killer whales without endangering the rest of the killer whales.
"We do not intend to intervene while she is with her family, so if we are faced with a situation where a rescue is the only viable alternative, we will save her." said Chris Yates, Assistant Regional Assistant, Protected Resources Division, NOAA. during a call.
Veterinarians believe they have exhausted treatment options in the field, including injecting whales with antibiotics twice in the Pacific Northwest. Despite the treatment, J50 is thinner than ever due to indefinite health issues.
"It's a very sick whale," said Joe Gaydos, wildlife veterinarian and scientific director of SeaDoc Society. "We do not think it's a long time."
Another whale in the same group, known as the J35, sparked international sympathy this summer when she kept her dead calf's body afloat for more than two weeks.
The two whales are among the 75 orcas that eat fish in the waters of the Pacific Northwest.
Southern resident killer whales do not have enough chinook salmon, the staple of their diet. They also face threats of toxic contamination, as well as noises and vessel disturbances that disrupt their ability to communicate and feed.
There has been no successful birth in the population since 2015. Losing J50 would also mean losing its reproductive potential.
NOAA Fisheries said the next steps could include a hands-on physical examination, which could lead to prompt medical treatment and release. Another option at this stage would be to keep her in a marine net pen in Puget Sound for a short time for rehabilitation and medical care before bringing her back to nature to find her family.
J50 fell behind her group in the ocean, sometimes dragging miles, raising questions about the criteria to be used to determine if she was separated enough for the scientists to try to capture her.
Yates said that J50 should show more extreme behavior than what it has exposed so far, and scientists will act if they do not believe that it will reconnect with its pod.
An international team of Canadian and US whale experts has made intensive efforts to assist the killer whale since concerns were raised in mid-July.
They took samples of breath and stool, but still do not know for sure what's wrong with J50.
Intervention teams have tried to give him medication to fight against parasitic worms, which they think they have obtained from stool samples taken from his mother.
The teams also dropped live salmon on a boat while J50 and its pod swam behind.
The drone images taken on Monday showed that J50 was much thinner than last year. His mother, J16, also declined in the past month, perhaps because of the burden of helping to catch and share food with the J50s, according to experts.
"We do not want to take her from her mother where we have a J35 situation," said Gaydos. "These are very difficult questions to answer and I think the good thing is we are talking about all the options."
NOAA Fisheries has announced two meetings in Washington this weekend – Friday Harbor and Seattle – for public participation.
What to do to help J50 has generated intense emotional reactions on social media and other forums. Some have called on federal officials to do their utmost to save her, including by feeding or capturing her. Others worry that more interventions would stress her and her loved ones. They think that nature should be able to take its course.
"We would like J50 to survive," said Susan Berta, co-founder of the Orca Network, a rights group. "How much more do we do harm than good?"
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