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J50 killer whale and its dam J16, resident of the south west coast of Vancouver Island, near Port Renfrew, BC. August 7, 2018 (Brian Gisborne / Fisheries and Oceans Canada via AP)
Since she was born, she had to fight to live.
The deep scratches on her back and her dorsal fin have not only earned her the nickname "Scarlet", but may also indicate that the orca woman, J50, entered the world in poignant ways: Out of his mother by other whales in the mouth.
Yet she survived and, for a while, found hope of being able to help her pod – part of a besieged population of southern resident killer whales known to frequent the waters near the river. State of Washington – to replenish itself.
But Thursday, the researchers announced bad news.
"J50 is missing and now presumed dead," according to a statement from the Whale Research Center, a San Juan Island-based group that has been studying resident killer whales for more than 40 years. The last known sighting of the 3 year old killer whale took place on September 7th, researchers said.
Without J50, the population has now been reduced to 74 – by 1995 the number was almost 100 – and many of its female members are at the age when they will not be able to reproduce, Ken Balcomb, founder and principal investigator Center for Whale Research, told the Washington Post in July. The pod has not produced viable offspring in three years.
"It's a sign of the whales that everything is not going well for the recovery of southern residents," Balcomb told the Seattle Times on Thursday.
The young orc, once known for its propensity to break up by throwing its body out of the water, has become sickly and emaciated in recent months. According to the Seattle Times, J50, who was still small for his age, was losing weight since 2017. Pictures of the sick whale showed signs of "peanut head" syndrome or "when fat stores are if body and head is visible – and looks like a peanut, "according to Whale and Dolphin Conservation, a Massachusetts-based non-profit organization.
J50 in July 2018 with a notable peanut head (Mark Malleson / Whale Research Center)
The announcement of the misdiagnosis of J50 came as the population suffered another tragedy: the sudden death of a newborn woman who lived only half an hour. The mother in mourning, an orca called Tahlequah made international headlines during the summer when she wore her baby's body for at least 17 days, drawing global attention to the fate of her group.
[An orca calf died shortly after being born. Her grieving mother has carried her body for days.]
Given the death of Tahlequah's baby, who was also a woman capable of breeding, biologists and government officials began to work earnestly to find ways to cure J50 or risk losing another potential mother. Attempts were going to throw him antibiotic darts to try to make her eat medicated Chinook salmon, the main source of food for orcas, the Seattle Times reported.
Nothing seemed to work.
On September 8, the Fisheries Department of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that the J50 had been seen the day before "at half a mile to a mile from the rest of his family" ". thin, "said the service.
On Wednesday, the experts stepped up their efforts, announcing a last-ditch attempt to save J50: capture her and treat her in temporary captivity until she can be rehabilitated, the Associated Press reported.
"It's a very sick whale," said AP Joe Gaydos, a veterinarian from the SeaDoc company involved in efforts to save J50. "We do not think it's a long time."
A multi-agency search to find J50 was launched Thursday and people spent all day traveling the waters near the state of Washington and Canada for her.
"The teams started looking for water yesterday and are intensifying cross-border research today with our water partners and counterparts in Canada," said NOAA Fisheries. The marine mammal stranding network on the west coast was also activated, and the airlines serving the islands in the area were on the lookout.
Other participants in the research included the Coast Guard, NOAA researchers, whale watching vessels and non-profit organizations, the Seattle Times reported.
Although J50 was declared dead, federal officials said the search would continue Friday, the agency said.
"We want to take this opportunity to make sure that if J50 is there, we do not miss it," NOAA Fisheries spokesperson Michael Milstein told TIME. "We have not lost hope."
Milstein told the Seattle Times that those involved in the research "do not set a timetable" for how long it can last.
The probable death of J50 is only another sign of the perilous situation facing the southern killer whale population. According to the Whale Research Center, whales are threatened by toxins, shipping and lack of food, especially chinook salmon.
"Watching J50 in the last three months is what extinction looks like when survival is threatened by food deprivation and lack of reproduction," the center's statement said.
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