New calf born to descendant of last orca captured in Salish Sea

A killer whale pod in B.C. has welcomed a new addition to a family whose line was almost cut short 50 years ago.

The Pacific Whale Watch Association (PWWA) says a new Bigg’s, or mammal-hunting, orca calf was spotted in the Salish Sea last week — and again throughout the weekend.

PWWA Executive Director Erin Gless says the calf is likely only a week old.

“From the pictures, we can see fetal folds. When a calf is all scrunched up in mom’s belly, it’s all folded, it gets wrinkles in skin. We can still see this in the first few weeks of life,” Gless explained.

She says the baby comes from well-documented lineage. It’s the first-born of 14-year-old ‘Sedna,’ a descendant of ‘Wake,’ one of the last orcas to be captured in U.S. waters by SeaWorld and released in the Salish Sea in the 1970s.

The PWWA explains that an assistant to Washington Governor Dan Evans witnessed the Wake and others captured while sailing with friends and was appalled. He helped file a lawsuit against SeaWorld, leading to the whales’ release.

“If Wake had not been released back in 1976, this new little calf wouldn’t exist, and about 30 other whales in that family also wouldn’t be here,” Gless said.

The birth is exciting news for whale-watching enthusiasts, looking forward to catching a glimpse of the newest member of the pod.

On Vancouver’s Granville Island, the Prince of Whales company is gearing up for a busy start to their season this Friday.

Naturalist Petra Catsi with the company says once you see orca calves, you gain an appreciation for them that’s hard to describe.

“It’s amazing to see other people make those connections…It’s a special experience to see them in the wild, thriving next to their mothers,” she told CityNews.

While southern resident killer whales are endangered, the Bigg’s orca population has boomed in the last decade, with more than 400 in the Pacific Northwest currently.

“It used to be more common around here to see the Southern resident killer whales, but these days, we see more of the Biggs killer whales since they feed on marine mammals and we’ve had our seals and sea lion populations start to rebound a bit,” said Catsi.

In the coming months, researchers will be able to determine the sex of the baby and give it a nickname. The whale watching season in Vancouver typically runs from April to October.

Private boaters are reminded to stay at least 400 metres away from killer whales.