Famous orca mom carries another dead calf around Puget Sound

Fans of the Northwest’s endangered orcas have been on an emotional rollercoaster.

Two newborn calves were seen swimming with the region’s southern resident orcas in late December, a welcome boost to the sagging population of 74.

By New Year’s Eve, one of the calves was dead – and being carried around on its mother’s nose.

That same orca mom, dubbed J35 by scientists and Tahlequah by the Whale Museum in Friday Harbor, made global headlines in 2018 when she carried her baby on her nose for 17 days and 1,000 miles.

RELATED: Mama orca drops her dead calf after 17 days, ending 'tour of grief'

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration orca researcher Brad Hanson saw J35 carrying her newborn’s carcass on New Year’s Eve between Seattle and Vashon Island.

“Obviously, it's a heartbreaking, tragic situation for not just her, but also for the population,” Hanson said. “This particular calf was a female, and we need young viable females that recruit into the population in order to be able to recover it.”

“The death of any calf in the [southern resident killer whale] population is a tremendous loss, but the death of J61 is particularly devastating,” the Center for Whale Research said in a Facebook post.

The center noted that J35 lost two out of four of her documented newborns – both of which were female.

Hanson said it’s not uncommon for a whale or dolphin to carry a carcass around for a day or two, but doing so for weeks was apparently unprecedented.

J35’s apparent 1,000-mile funeral procession of sorts in 2018 became known as a “tour of grief,” though why she carried the carcass for so long is unclear.

“I don't pretend to know what sort of emotional attachment the animals have to these dead calves,” Hanson said. “Obviously, there's some sort of very strong commitment that J35 expresses.”

RELATED: Endangered orcas’ circle of life: one baby dies, another is born

On Dec. 31, researchers and shore-based whale watchers also saw another new calf, designated J62 by the Center for Whale Research, amid the southern residents’ J Pod. “What we saw yesterday and today is very encouraging,” Hanson said on Sunday. “The calf appears to be more robust than J61 was last week.”

Researchers got an inkling that J61 was unhealthy when they saw it on Dec. 24.

“The calf was surfacing and breathing on its own, but there were just a number of things that didn't look quite right to us at the time,” Hanson said.

RELATED: Newborn orca brings holiday cheer — and fear — to Seattle whale watchers

The endangered orcas eat Chinook and other salmon year-round.

Autumn runs of chum and coho salmon in much of Puget Sound were abundant in the fall of 2024.

Hanson said salmon runs that orcas depend on, including Chinook salmon in Canada’s Fraser River, were poor earlier in the year.

An orca pregnancy typically lasts 17 months.

Orca researchers say there’s no shortage of southern resident orcas getting pregnant, yet most young orcas die in the womb or shortly after birth. At least five southern resident orcas’ pregnancies appeared to end in miscarriages in 2023, according to orca researcher Deborah Giles with the nonprofit Wild Orca.

Giles and other orca advocates say a dearth of Chinook salmon is the biggest single threat to the whales’ survival, though they are also threatened by water pollution, ship noise, and inbreeding.

With J61’s death and J62’s arrival, the endangered orcas’ population stands at 75, down from 88 in 2005, when they were granted protection under the federal Endangered Species Act.