Orca Even Pod Where Mother Lost Lifeline Calf Presumed Dead

According to wildlife officials, an endangered pod of an endangered pod in the Pacific Northwest is presumed dead, the second female in the group to die this year.

J50, a killer whale resident in the south and sick for months, has not been seen by scientists since last Friday, although all the other members of his family have been observed several times in recent days. The 3-year-old whale has struggled since 2017, continually losing weight to the point of having trouble swimming, according to the Seattle Times. The researchers had taken extreme measures to save her, including throwing drugs at her and putting live live chinook salmon in front of her, in the hope that she would eat them, but the effort did not work out.

"Watching J50 in the last three months is what extinction looks like when survival is threatened by food deprivation and lack of reproduction," the Whale Research Center said on Thursday. the health of the pod. "Not only are southern resident killer whales dying and unable to reproduce sufficiently, but their limited presence in the Salish Sea also indicates that they no longer have access to adequate food here or along the coast."

NOAA has not yet given up hope that the whale is still alive and has worked with various groups to watch a rally of more than 70 whales near the San Juan Islands, Washington State.

"It's really important that if it's there, we find it," said Michael Milstein, a spokesman for NOAA, at The Times. "We certainly have not determined at this point that we give up."

Another killer whale, known as the J35, caught the attention of the world in August after transporting his dead calf for 17 days around the waters of the Pacific Northwest. The whale, also known as Tahlequah, swam with the carcass for more than 1,000 miles in what was generally considered a mourning ritual. His calf was the first to be born alive since 2015, but survived only about 30 minutes.

With the presumed death of J50, there are now only 74 orcs resident in the south.

The Center for Whale Research noted Thursday that the whale pod has struggled in recent years due to lack of Chinook salmon, their main source of food.

"The message from J50, and from J35 and his dead calf a few weeks ago, is that the [the whales] are running out of breeding capacity and extinction of this population is imminent, "wrote the group.

Environmental groups also lamented the loss, urging drastic measures to protect besieged animals. Washington Governor Jay Inslee (D) convened a task force earlier this year to review declining animal numbers.

"It's a heartbreaking reminder that we can not save these whales on a case-by-case basis," said Robb Krehbiel, the North West representative of environmental group Defenders of Wildlife, in a statement. "What J50 needed, and what his family continues to need, is a healthy and abundant Chinook salmon, which these orcas depend on for their survival. If we are unable to restore the salmon that these killer whales need, more whales will starve. "