Thursday, February 16, 2012

February 16, 2012: A Death in the Family: Southern Resident Orca Pod Loses Female

The death of an orca off the coast this week and recent use of high frequency sonar by the Canadian Navy has whale advocates on high alert. The National Resource Defense Council plans to appeal the action to the Canadian and US governments. The burning question: why was sonar, known to cause internal stress and sometimes death, allowed in coastal waters designated as critical habitat for endangered orcas? Martha Baskin has our report.

Listen here:




3 comments:

Scott Veirs said...

Great job, Martha!

One minor correction: it would be more accurate to say --

Eighteen hours after the sonar event K and L pods were heard on orcasound.net on the same hydrophones that sensed the sonar. The next afternoon, an odd combination of K and L pods whales were sighted deep inside Discovery Bay, a place they have very rarely -- if ever -- visited.

Jeanne said...

Thank you Martha,wonderful reporting! One clarification point:
Sooke L-112, the whale who washed up to shore, was not yet in her reproductive stage. The average age for a female in the Southern Resident Community to have her fist calf is 14, with the gestation period being about 17 months. At the age of 3 years, Sooke was a juvenile who had lots of growing and learning yet to do.

songsofhappy said...

Thank you all for the work you do to protect the Southern Residents. It doesn't go unnoticed by the rest of us.