Starving orca not seen since last weekend; task force meets Tuesday

SEATTLE – It’s a race to save an emaciated Southern Resident Killer Whale. The health of young J-50 is gravely uncertain as biologists try to locate the whale in the Salish Sea.

“We are still looking for the J Pod,” said Lynne Barre, Recovery Coordinator for the Southern Resident Killer Whale Program at NOAA. “We haven’t seen them since Saturday and Sunday.”

J-50, a 4-year-old South Resident Killer Whale, is part of the J-Pod family. She was last spotted Thursday off Vancouver Island. NOAA has put a plan in place that they hope will save her life.

“So we are taking our emergency response for J-50 step by step,” said Barre.

But first, they must find the staving Orca. The whale may also have an infection.

If and when she is located, biologists with NOAA and other experts plan to assess her condition, take breath and feces samples and complete a health assessment.

“That will help inform what we do next, whether that’s medication or providing medication through a live Chinook salmon, which is a new idea for us,” said Barre.

That details of the plan and authorization is still coming from NOAA headquarters in Washington, D.C. But experts plan to move fast once J-50 is located.

The sick whale is part of the same family as J-35, the whale that has pushed her dead calf around for more than 10 days.

“The region, the nation, the people around the world are focused on this tragic story,” said Joseph Bogaard who is with Save our Wild Salmon Coalition.

Bogaard said the time to act is now to save endangered whales who aren’t getting what they need to thrive: Chinook Salmon and clean water that’s free of disturbance and sound.

“Will we have the political courage, leadership and will to make the kind of changes we are going to need,” said Bogaard.

Some of those big changes would include Salmon restoration across the region.

On Tuesday, Governor Jay Inslee’s Orca Task Force will gather in Wenatchee to share ideas in an effort to save the Southern Resident Killer Whales.