Pacific Coast Orca declared dead, but federal government continues to search

By PHUONG LE and GENE JOHNSON | The Associated Press

SEATTLE – Efforts were made on Thursday to find a young orca sick from a critically endangered population of killer whales in the Pacific Northwest.

The bad news means that scientists believe that only 74 whales remain in a group that has failed to reproduce in the last three years. Orcas fought against pollution, boat noise and, more importantly, the shortage of their favorite prey, chinook salmon, because of dams, habitat loss and overfishing.

"We're watching an endangered population," said Ken Balcomb of the Whale Research Center. "Unless we do something for salmon recovery, we're just not going to have these whales in the future."

The whales are in such a state that experts have made last-minute efforts to save the nearly four-year-old emaciated known as the J50. A veterinarian responsible for handling the objects fired a dart filled with antibiotics, teams dropped live salmon in front of her to try to make her eat, and scientists even thought about capturing her to diagnose her and treatment.

J50 has not been seen since last Friday. As the teams scrambled to meet her on Thursday, she was unable to appear with her pod, despite favorable observation conditions. Balcomb, who tracks whales for the US government, declared her dead Thursday afternoon.

Michael Milstein, a spokesman for NOAA Fisheries, said the agency attaches great importance to Balcomb's assessment of whales, given its long experience in monitoring them. However, he said the US and Canadian governments plan to continue looking for a chance to live on Friday.

"We want to take the opportunity to make sure that if J50 is there, we do not miss it," said Milstein. "We have not lost hope."

Crews from a US Coast Guard helicopter, 10 ships, whale watching crews and other resources on both sides of the border participated in the search. The authorities have also alerted a network of people who react when marine mammals wash themselves on the ground.

The whale experts feared that the killer whale died earlier this month when J50 was lagging behind his family and was missing. But she came later and was seen with her family.

The distinctive black and white orcas, known as Southern Resident Killer Whales, have experienced difficulties since their listing on the endangered species list in the United States and Canada, there are more than ten years.

The number of killer whales is now at its lowest for more than three decades.

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.