The BulleTin • Sunday, May 9, 2021 A3
STATE & REGION
Mother’s Day hope: Orca pod
in best condition in a decade
There is cause for
cautious optimism
for killer whales that
frequent Puget Sound
BY LYNDA V. MAPES
The Seattle Times
SEATTLE — She was a
mother who happened to be an
orca, whose plight resonated
around the world as she clung
to her dead calf, refusing to let
it go.
Mother orca Tahlequah, J35,
brought front and center the
extinction crisis threatening
the southern resident killer
whales that frequent Washing-
ton’s Puget Sound. There are
only 75 left.
She swam through the Salish
Sea for 17 days and more than
1,000 miles in the summer of
2018, in what many interpreted
as a journey of grief. It’s possible
she never let the calf go; when it
was last photographed by scien-
tists at the Center for Whale Re-
search, the calf was falling apart.
But on this Mother’s Day,
there is some cause for cau-
tious optimism for some of the
most famous mothers in our
region, on whom the future of
this fragile population of orcas
depends.
Since Tahlequah lost her
calf that lived only one half-
hour, she has birthed another,
J57, a male born in September
— and still going strong. Two
more calves also have been
born to J pod, J56, a female
born in 2019, and J58, a female
born in 2020.
“There are signs for opti-
mism; in general over the last
several years, J pod is in bet-
ter condition than in much of
the last decade,” John Durban,
professor at Oregon State Uni-
Center for Whale Research via AP, file
An orca whale calf known as J51 swims with J19, his grandmother, near
San Juan Island, Washington, in 2015. Several calves have been born
into the J pod in recent years, bolstering the southern resident killer
whales that frequent the Puget Sound.
versity told The Seattle Times.
He’s also a research associate
with an orca health monitoring
project led by Holly Fearnbach
of SR3, a science and research
and marine mammal rescue
nonprofit.
Using a drone flown more
than 100 feet above the whales,
they take photographs to doc-
ument the orcas’ body condi-
tion. And lately, what they are
seeing in J pod generally is im-
provement.
“There is hope in our images,”
Durban said. “But it is fragile.”
After all, the region was cele-
brating a baby boom of south-
ern residents in 2015 with five
births — but three of those
calves and two of the mothers
subsequently died.
By summer 2018, J50, not
even 4 years old, was wasting
away, spurring an attempt at
an international rescue effort,
even as mother orca Tahlequah
was clinging to her dead calf.
But since then a birth to L
pod, L124 born in May 2019,
and L125, born in February
2021, as well as the three J pod
calves, have given the region
something to root for: not only
the new orca babies, but also
their moms.
Matriarchal society
To a greater degree than in
many other animals, including
humans, the southern resident
orcas put family first. Their so-
ciety is matriarchal, with the
pods led by grandmothers and
mothers.
Every baby brings both hope
and risk for the population,
as the mother undergoes the
most costly and risky stage of
her life, carrying, birthing and
nursing her baby.
Published peer-reviewed
research led by Sam Wasser
at the Center for Conserva-
tion Biology at the University
of Washington has found two
thirds of southern resident
orca pregnancies are lost be-
cause of nutritional stress.
When adult male orcas lose
their mother their own chances
at survival are diminished. “He
has a higher chance of mortal-
ity, even in the prime of life,”
Durban said. “Some of that may
be emotional, but it is also direct
for support from their mothers
they are dependent on.”
TODAY
It’s Sunday, May 9, the 129th day of
2021. There are 236 days left in the
year. This is Mother’s Day.
Today’s Highlight in History:
In 1994, South Africa’s newly
elected parliament chose Nelson
Mandela to be the country’s first
Black president.
In 1712, the Carolina Colony was
officially divided into two entities:
North Carolina and South Carolina.
In 1914, President Woodrow Wil-
son, acting on a joint congressional
resolution, signed a proclamation
designating the second Sunday in
May as Mother’s Day.
In 1926, Americans Richard Byrd
and Floyd Bennett supposedly be-
came the first men to fly over the
North Pole. However, U.S. scholars
announced in 1996 that their
examination of Byrd’s flight diary
suggested he had turned back 150
miles short of his goal.
In 1945, with World War II in
Europe at an end, Soviet forces
liberated Czechoslovakia from
Nazi occupation. U.S. officials
announced that a midnight enter-
tainment curfew was being lifted
immediately.
In 1951, the U.S. conducted its
first thermonuclear experiment as
part of Operation Greenhouse by
detonating a 225-kiloton device on
Enewetak Atoll in the Pacific nick-
named “George.”
In 1962, scientists at the Massa-
chusetts Institute of Technology
succeeded in reflecting a laser
beam off the surface of the moon.
In 1970, President Richard Nixon
made a surprise and impromptu
pre-dawn visit to the Lincoln
Memorial, where he chatted with
a group of protesters who’d been
resting on the Memorial steps after
protests against the Vietnam War
and the Kent State shootings.
In 2012, President Barack Obama
declared his unequivocal support
for same-sex marriage in a historic
announcement that came three
days after Vice President Joe Biden
spoke in favor of such unions on
NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
In 2019, Pope Francis issued a
groundbreaking new church law
requiring all Catholic priests and
nuns to report clergy sexual abuse
and cover-ups by their superiors to
church authorities.
Ten years ago: Former House
Speaker Newt Gingrich announced
on social networking websites that
he was running for the Republican
presidential nomination.
Five years ago: Filipinos went to
the polls to elect Rodrigo Duterte,
the controversial, tough-talking
mayor of Davao city, to be their
country’s next president.
One year ago: Rock ‘n’ roll pio-
neer Little Richard, known for his
piercing wail, pounding piano
and towering pompadour, died in
Tennessee at 87 after battling bone
cancer; he had helped shatter the
color line on the music charts while
introducing Black R&B to white
America.
Today’s Birthdays: Actor-writer
Alan Bennett is 87. Actor and pol-
itician Glenda Jackson is 85. Pro-
ducer-director James L. Brooks is
84. Musician Sonny Curtis (Buddy
Holly and the Crickets) is 84. Singer
Tommy Roe is 79. Singer-musician
Richie Furay (Buffalo Springfield and
Poco) is 77. Actor Candice Bergen
is 75. Singer Billy Joel is 72. Blues
singer-musician Bob Margolin is 72.
Actor Amy Hill is 68. Actor Wendy
Crewson is 65. Actor John Corbett
is 60. Singer Dave Gahan (Depeche
Mode) is 59. Actor Sonja Sohn is 57.
Rapper Ghostface Killah is 51. Actor
Daniel Franzese is 43. Rock singer
Pierre Bouvier (Simple Plan) is 42.
Actor Rosario Dawson is 42. Rock
singer Andrew W.K. is 42. TV person-
ality Audrina Patridge is 36.
— Associated Press