On Saturday she let go. A dead baby daughter which she had been clinging to and carrying for at least 17 days.
Mother’s Day 1993 was our first visit to San Juan Island, the main island in the stunningly beautiful San Juan Island archipelago located between Seattle and Vancouver in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Have you watched the Free Willy movies? They are shot in this area. And for a good reason.
The Southern Resident Killer Whales (SRKW), or Orcas, are a large extended family, or clan, comprised of three pods: J, K, and L pods. They live in the protected inshore waters of the Salish Sea which stretches from Puget Sound in the south to the Gulf Islands in British Columbia at the Pacific Northwest. As by June 2018 the population total was at an all time low of 75 whales.
I wonder how many they were in May 1993 when we saw them? Yes we did see them! We really did.
The population is closely followed and looked after by the Center for Whale Research, a non profit organisation with expertise such as marin biologists and alike. For 43 years now they have been committed to the assignment of saving the orcas and improve the conditions for their lives and future. In late 2005, the Southern Resident Killer Whales were placed on the U.S. Endangered Species list.
So, that Mother’s Day. San Juan Island and the little town Friday Harbour is such a picturesque place and we had come there the day before with the ferry, I actually think it was our first ferry experience in The Beautiful Northwest. We stayed at a lovely B&B (which by the way marketed themselves as providing Scandinavian cleanness…) and were in the morning accompanied by our benefactors Annie and Harold (who came to be Trouble & Trouble’s American grandparents) and who I am sure led us on to that field trip in the first place.
The Center for Whale Research provides Killer Whale Safaris, and as they follow the pods closely the odds for actually spotting orcas are pretty good. They are quiet costly though and didn’t fit into our budget. So, we did our best to not reveal to our then just-turned 5 and 7 year old sons the safaris even existed.
We drove around the island looking at amazing architecture (yes, it’s one of those places) and finding exiting beaches. At one point we stopped at a high up view point facing north. It was partly overcast and quiet windy. Suddenly Annie yelled: look! Look there!
Far out in the waters we could see them! The killer whales! Their characteristic movement, the black, the white, the back fin, yes, it was orcas!
Annie was the first one to spot them, but as they were so far away and the water rough it wasn’t that easy to find them. Nevertheless we did, one by one! Except for Trouble 2…
We tried to point them out but the sea is big with few fix points. Look! There they are! Where? I can’t see them! There, right there!
The situation turned more and more desperate. The barely 5 year old Trouble 2 cried as being the only one not able to bring the memory of having seen wild orcas into his future. Until finally… Yes!
Until this day I am not quite sure if Trouble 2 actually saw the orcas or wanted it so badly they turned up before his eye. At that far distance it was quite difficult to tell the orcas from the rough waves.
July 24 2018 Tahlequah, or J35 as the female orca belongs to the J pod, gave birth to a calf. The newborn whale was reported alive and swimming with its mother and other members of J pod near Clover Point on the Victoria shoreline in mid-morning. A short time after, the baby died. Tahlequah probably has lost two other offspring since giving birth to a male calf in 2010.
Tahlequah’s grieving has caught a whole world. Since the baby died her mother has been carrying her. Emphatically she has clung to her calf, diving deeply to retrieve her baby each time it slid from her head. For at least 17 days. And 1000 miles.
The Center for Whale Research is today expressing a relief that Tahlequah has let go. That that part of the grieving is over. They are reporting how she is swimming with the pod, looking healthy. In the midst of everything she must have been eating.
The 20 year old orca is very important to the pod. Offspring is of course crucial for the future of the southern residents. But the reason to why calfs are dying is lack of food. Salmon is the primary provender for this population, and there isn’t enough. The shortage of salmon in the Northwest today is troublesome in general, but to orcas it’s crucial.
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