Orcas have been shown to have complex social circles, use vocal communication, and exhibit emotions like grief. The whales do sometimes carry the bodies of their dead calves on the water’s surface — another whale was seen doing so in the Pacific Northwest for a few hours in 2010. But J35’s sad journey, which began near Victoria and has taken her some 150 miles around the San Juan Islands and Vancouver, has continued for an unusually long time, researchers said. It has become a devastating symbol, and an uncannily pointed one, for the whales’ plight. “We know it happens, but this one is kind of on tour almost, like she’s just not letting go,” Mr. Balcomb said. J35 was spotted again Friday morning near the southern end of the San Juan Islands, he said. She has largely been balancing the dead calf on her nose. “Sometimes she bites the flipper and pulls it up,” he said. “The calf sinks because it doesn’t have enough of a blubber layer, and it goes down. She dives down and picks it back up and brings it to the surface.”<doc-sep>The southern resident killer whale population is facing an “imminent threat of extinction,” according to a statement from the Center for Whale Research, which has studied the population for more than 40 years. Currently, the clan has 75 whales, down from 98 in 1995, and many of its females will soon be too old to reproduce, Balcomb said. Orcas have a gestation period of 15 to 18 months, which means mothers can give birth only every three to five years.<doc-sep>A grieving mother orca near Vancouver Island has been carrying her dead calf for four days, after refusing to leave her baby behind when the rest of her pod left. The mother killer whale, named J35 by researchers, gave birth Tuesday in what was initially a hopeful moment. Mother and female calf were seen swimming together that morning near Victoria, British Columbia, according to the Washington state-based Center for Whale Research. Within hours, though, the calf had died and J35’s pod had moved out of the area. “The baby’s carcass was sinking and being repeatedly retrieved by the mother, who was supporting it on her forehead and pushing it in choppy seas,” said the Center for Whale Research in a statement. “The mother continued supporting and pushing the dead baby whale throughout the day until at least sunset.” J35 was still holding up her calf as of Friday morning, Lisa Moorby, a Center for Whale Research spokesperson, said. Orcas and dolphins have been known to swim their dead calves for as long as a week. The calf’s death highlights the larger tragedy facing orcas and the ecosystem they rely on in the Salish Sea, a waterway stretching from south of Seattle to north of Vancouver. J35 swims with her calf’s body. Photograph: Ken Balcomb The Center for Whale Research, which monitors the whale population for the American and Canadian governments, reports that three years have passed since an orca residing in the area has birthed a surviving calf. The survival rate in the past two decades has been 75%. Only 75 killer whales in the endangered group, known as southern resident orcas, remain. The orcas’ decline is linked to the failure of another iconic Pacific north-west species, the Chinook salmon. Like the southern resident orcas, several Chinook stocks are listed under the US Endangered Species Act. Orcas have struggled to feed as stocks have declined. This month, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists and Washington state fisheries officials announced they had reoriented salmon recovery efforts to save the orcas. “The goal is to apply what we’ve learned to protect and recover the whales, but we’re always learning more,” Michael Ford of Noaa Fisheries’ Northwest Fisheries Science Center said recently. Ken Balcomb, founder of the Center for Whale Research, said orcas required wild salmon, not hatchery-raised fish grown to prop up the commercial and recreational fisheries. “The larger environmental question reflected in the J35 story is that both the USA and Canada must redouble efforts to restore wild salmon … for a food supply for the [southern resident killer whales] in this region,” Balcomb said Friday. “Hatchery fish are inferior and non-sustainable, and farm fish of course are not available for whale consumption.” Killer whales are long-lived – one Seattle-area orca known as Granny is believed to have lived 106 years before her death in 2016 – but the remaining southern resident orcas must start reproducing again before they grow too old to calve. If they don’t, the ageing pods will dwindle for decades before the last orca finally slips beneath the waves.<doc-sep>
An endangered orca whale died shortly after its birth on Tuesday, and the calf's mother has been tending to the body for three days. The calf was born near near Victoria, British Columbia, located about 75 miles northwest of Seattle. Researchers working to track Southern Resident killer whales responded to the scene, the Center for Whale Research said in a release. The organization observed the baby's corpse sinking and the mother repeatedly bringing it back to the surface on Tuesday. The mother supported her offspring's body on her forehead as she pushed it toward an island, the organization said. On Thursday, the mother – labeled J35 – entered her third day of mourning with her calf, Ken Balcomb, founder and principal investigator of the Center for Whale Research, told USA TODAY. "It's still happening," he said Thursday evening. He said that he has observed the behavior before, but not for this length of time. The organization says killer whales and dolphins show strong mother-offspring bonds and sometimes transport dead calves for up to a week. Southern Resident killer whales are a clan of 76 orcas in imminent danger of extinction, the organization says. Deborah Giles, science and research director for the nonprofit Wild Orca, told the Seattle Times that she's observed similar behavior from orca whales for lesser amounts of time. July 25:Hundreds of sea turtles washing up dead on Florida beaches; red tide likely killer July 2017:Last orca calf born in captivity at SeaWorld park dies “It is horrible. This is an animal that is a sentient being. It understands the social bonds that it has with the rest of its family members," she told the publication. "(The mother) is bonded to (the calf) and she doesn’t want to let it go. It is that simple. She is grieving," she said of the case she observed. The Center for Whale Research says the situation for Southern Resident killer whales is dire. Three quarters of newborns in the past two decades have died, and no successful pregnancies have been observed in the past three years, the organization says. The whales face three major challenges: toxins, ship traffic and a lack of food, especially chinook salmon. That food source is itself largely endangered, the Center for Whale Research says. Contributing: The Associated Press