A newborn orca discovered east of Victoria near the San Juan Islands has been identified as a descendant of one of the last killer whales captured in Washington state for SeaWorld.
The young Bigg’s orca, which has been designated T046B3A, was photographed on Thursday alongside its mother, Sedna, a 14-year-old and part of a well-known line of transient killer whales in the Salish Sea.
In March 1976, Sedna’s grandmother, T046, known as Wake, was one of six whales captured and temporarily held by SeaWorld in Washington’s Puget Sound.
The Pacific Whale Watch Association said the family story might have been “cut short” had it not been for a public outcry and a lawsuit.
Wake and the other orcas were released after Ralph Munro, assistant to then Washington governor Dan Evans, witnessed the captures while sailing with friends and was appalled, said association spokesperson Erin Gless.
She said Munro helped to file a lawsuit against SeaWorld, which led to the whales’ release and a ban on any further orca captures.
The orcas were the last to be captured in North America, but the operators of marine parks soon turned their attention to orcas around Iceland, where captures continued until the end of the 1980s.
Wake went on to produce eight calves, 16 grand-calves and six great-grand-calves, said Gless.
“Without the direct efforts of Ralph Munro, at least 30 Bigg’s killer whales would have never been born,” she said.
Coincidentally, Munro’s passing at the age of 81 was announced last Thursday, the same day the new orca calf was spotted.
Bay Cetology estimates there are about 380 Bigg’s orcas in the coastal waters of British Columbia and Washington, feeding mainly on seals, sea lions and porpoises.
Meanwhile, the population of endangered southern resident killer whales languishes at about 73 animals because the supply of their main food source, salmon, has been dwindling.
Local whale watch tour companies focus on Bigg’s killer whales and not the endangered southern residents.
The whale watch association said because of the abundance of food, about 140 new Bigg’s calves have been born over the past decade.
The new calf has been spotted multiple times since the original report on Thursday.
Gless said the images show fetal folds and a distinctive orange coloration. “These factors are normal and indicate the calf is quite young, likely a week or two at most,” she said.
