Editorial: It's a girl! An orca's birth shows why the fight for species must continue

The Seattle Times Editorial Board, The Seattle Times on Jan 7, 2025

Published in Op Eds

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Tahlequah is not giving up. And neither can we.

The southern resident orca, one of just 73 in existence, recently gave birth to a female calf in Puget Sound. Researchers confirmed the arrival of J61 on Christmas Eve.

Six years ago, the determined mother's grief-stricken 17-day voyage with her pod around the Salish Sea resonated around the world. Losing her calf a half an hour after birth, she carried her fallen offspring just over her nose for 1,000 miles.

Part of the sorrow locally was guilt — we humans bear responsibility when it comes to the plight of the three southern resident orca pods. Overfishing and development have depleted salmon populations, including the Chinook on which they depend; increasing traffic of noisy maritime vessels diminishes their ability to hunt.

But Tahlequah's resilience should give us hope. Since her painfully public mourning in 2018, Tahlequah has given birth to two new calves — a male in 2020, and a female this year, to go with another she birthed in 2010.

This happy news is tempered by whale researchers' reminder that mortality is a high risk in the orca's first year of life; they were already concerned with how slim the mother appears and the chance that the baby could be premature. Nonetheless, the birth within this magnificent but dwindling species is worth celebrating — and serves as a reminder of why restoration of the endangered population is still worth fighting for.

"There is still danger and peril and threats but also hope," Michael Weiss, research director of the Center for Whale Research, told Times reporter Lynda V. Mapes. "If you give them half a chance, they will take it. We need to give them that chance."

Here's how: Local and state government can continue to take out fish-blocking culverts to expand habitat to make the orcas' food supply more abundant. A banner year for chum this year kept the three pods within the Salish Sea, the inland marine waters of Washington and British Columbia, for longer than usual.

Federal efforts to create the Coast Guard's "Cetacean Desk" — a kind of air traffic control for vessel and whale traffic in local waters — should be supported indefinitely. Add in state protections, such as a law requiring boaters to stay back from southern residents within 1,000 yards, and the Salish Sea is becoming a safer habitat for them.

A new year brings hope for renewal, and Tahlequah's new calf should bolster human determination to help as much as we have hurt in years past. Let's honor Tahlequah's perseverance the best way we can: by matching it with our own efforts to save the species.

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