‘Extinction is not an option’: the $1bn push to save orcas in Washington
Category: Orca

From 2007 to 2014, two-thirds of Pacific Northwest orca pregnancies failed. Not a single calf has survived more than three years.
via A baby orca’s death, a mother’s grief and a state’s call to action — NBC News Top Stories
by Greg Rasmussen (via msn.com)
Ken Pearce throttles back on his outboard motor, his boat slowing as it cuts through the waters of the lower Fraser River near Steveston, B.C.
He’s spotted a half-dozen seals swimming in a side channel.
“They’ve fed on the rising tide and now they’re coming in to soak up the sun and snooze,” he says.
Pearce views the animals as a major threat to migrating salmon and the endangered killer whales that feed on them.
He wants tens of thousands of them killed in a commercial hunt.
His group, Pacific Balance Pinniped Society, has support from some First Nations, commercial fishing groups and elements of the sport fishing industry.
Read the full article here.
What began as a moment of joy ended in tragedy when the infant died last week. Since then its mother has refused to let go, holding her child tightly in what experts call a moving expression of grief.(Image credit: Michael Weiss/Center for Whale Research via AP)
via After Calf’s Death, Orca Mother Carries It For Days In ‘Tragic Tour Of Grief’ — News : NPR