Orcas

With Chinook salmon numbers dwindling along the Oregon Coast, the southern resident orcas who live in the Pacific Northwest increasingly face the risk of starvation. Oregon has listed the salmon as an endangered species, and now a state commission is petitioning to add the orcas to the same list.

New research suggests that inbreeding may be a key reason that the Pacific Northwest’s endangered population of killer whales has failed to recover despite decades of conservation efforts.

Charles Nye, a graduate fellow with OSU’s Marine Mammals Institute, said he was able to examine some organic material from the whale to help identify it.

A dead orca has been sighted again, after being adrift at sea for 11 days. The fisherman who spotted the body removed fishing or crabbing gear entangling it, and described it as sport rather than commercial.

Scientists are hoping to locate the carcass of an orca spotted off the Oregon Coast. This may be the first instance of a dead killer whale seen in the state.

A trio of hydrophones rests on the sea bottom, recording the sounds of Washington's Puget Sound, including endangered southern resident orcas.

The Bellingham Herald reports mother and grandmother L47, or Marina as she was also known, was missing from the center's 2021 census, and she hasn't been spotted since Feb. 27.

Endangered killer whales have received new habitat protections from the U.S. government.

A small barrel roll gave Washington whale watchers a gender reveal over the weekend and reason to be hopeful about a pod of endangered southern resident orcas that frequent Puget Sound.

Environmental groups are vowing to continue their fight to remove four dams on the Snake River in Washington they say are killing salmon that are a key food source for endangered killer whales.