{"id":210419,"date":"2025-10-13T18:16:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T18:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/210419\/"},"modified":"2025-10-13T18:16:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T18:16:08","slug":"southern-resident-killer-whales-show-signs-of-slow-decline-toward-disappearance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/210419\/","title":{"rendered":"Southern resident killer whales show signs of slow decline toward disappearance"},"content":{"rendered":"

The latest survey\u00a0of\u00a0endangered\u00a0southern\u00a0resident\u00a0killer\u00a0whales\u00a0confirms their plateau and gradual slide\u00a0toward\u00a0disappearance\u00a0in the absence\u00a0of\u00a0stronger measures to protect them, a director with the Center for Whale Research says.<\/p>\n

Michael Weiss says declining chinook salmon, pollutants and noise from cruise ships, tankers and freighters in the orcas’ habitat off the coast\u00a0of\u00a0Washington state and\u00a0southern\u00a0British Columbia are among the factors driving the\u00a0decline.<\/p>\n

“We’re not talking about\u00a0southern\u00a0residents going extinct in the next five years, but we are talking about a fairly good chance\u00a0of\u00a0at least one\u00a0of\u00a0the [three] pods being gone within the next 50 years,” Weiss told The Canadian Press.<\/p>\n

The long-term work\u00a0of\u00a0restoring chinook habitat, particularly freshwater spawning grounds, along with adjusting fisheries, would be key to the orcas’ recovery, says Weiss.<\/p>\n

His remarks come with the release on Monday\u00a0of\u00a0an annual survey by the organization based in Washington state, offering a snapshot\u00a0of\u00a0the population\u00a0of\u00a0southern\u00a0residents as\u00a0of\u00a0July 1.<\/p>\n

\"TwoOrcas named J45 and L116 swim in this Jan. 23, 2025 handout photo. ( Center for Whale Research\/Canadian Press)<\/p>\n

This year’s survey found the overall population was 74, up by one from last year.<\/p>\n

During the census period, researchers documented four births among all three distinct pods\u00a0of\u00a0southern\u00a0residents, but only two calves survived, it says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

An adult male from K pod, known as K26, also went missing in late summer 2024.<\/p>\n

Weiss calls it a “huge loss” for the\u00a0southern\u00a0residents, which are suffering from a lack\u00a0of\u00a0genetic diversity as their numbers plateau and shrink.<\/p>\n

“The population is very inbred, very low genetic diversity, which is probably causing some issues for survival and resilience towards disease,” Weiss says.<\/p>\n

\"AAn orca named L125 breaches in this Sept. 8, 2025 handout photo. (Center for Whale Research\/Canadian Press)<\/p>\n

There is a strong correlation between age and reproduction in males, with greater success among older members\u00a0of\u00a0the population, he says.<\/p>\n

The survey found 27 males\u00a0of\u00a0reproductive age, meaning older than 10. But Weiss says fewer males are actually breeding at any given time and the youngest male confirmed to have reproduced among the\u00a0southern\u00a0residents was 15.<\/p>\n

Weiss says he considers the prime reproductive age for\u00a0southern\u00a0resident\u00a0males to be in the early 20s and just 12 males are currently at least 20 years old.<\/p>\n

The male that is presumed dead, K26, was the oldest\u00a0of\u00a0its pod and was one\u00a0of\u00a0the few adult males confirmed to have successfully reproduced at some point.<\/p>\n

At the same time, females are reproducing at a rate that’s roughly half that\u00a0of\u00a0their neighbours, the northern\u00a0resident\u00a0killer\u00a0whales, and mortality among calves is high \u2014 about 50 per cent in the first year\u00a0of\u00a0life among\u00a0southern\u00a0residents, Weiss says.<\/p>\n

If those trends continue, the population will slowly\u00a0decline, he says.<\/p>\n

‘They’re just not reproducing’<\/p>\n

Weiss says K pod is in a particularly bad state, numbering just 14 members and tied for the lowest number across the survey’s 50-year history.<\/p>\n

“What’s really concerning about K pod is they’re just not reproducing,” Weiss says.<\/p>\n

A female member\u00a0of\u00a0K pod last gave birth in 2022, and prior to that it had been about a decade since the last successful birth in the pod, he says.<\/p>\n

“The only pod that’s growing is J pod,” he says. “They’ve had a low mortality rate for adults in the last few years, but that could change very quickly.”<\/p>\n

\"TwoOrcas J41 and J42 swim in this Jan. 23, 2025 handout photo. (Center for Whale Research\/Canadian Press)<\/p>\n

The survey also revealed just 11 immature\u00a0whales\u00a0younger than 10, representing just 15 per cent\u00a0of\u00a0the\u00a0southern\u00a0residents’ population.\u00a0<\/p>\n

By comparison, immature orcas make up 47 per cent\u00a0of\u00a0the northern\u00a0resident\u00a0population, which is growing and faring far better, Weiss says.<\/p>\n

While the two populations bear similarities, he says the\u00a0southern\u00a0residents rely on a specific salmon species, chinook, which has itself been declining.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0southern\u00a0residents often get the “last crack” at chinook that largely migrate from northern waters to rivers along the Pacific coast, Weiss adds.<\/p>\n

“These salmon are going through, you know, fishing fleets and … other\u00a0killer\u00a0whale populations and it’s the\u00a0southern\u00a0residents that are kind\u00a0of\u00a0getting the last bit\u00a0of\u00a0it.”<\/p>\n

Restoring salmon habitat and moving chinook fisheries away from ocean waters and estuaries are two levers governments could pull to help the orcas, Weiss says.<\/p>\n

“If you’re fishing out in the ocean where everything’s mixed up, it’s really hard … to avoid taking fish from these declining populations,” he says.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0southern\u00a0residents’ urbanized habitat is another factor in their struggle.<\/p>\n

“They’re trying to hunt in these areas where cruise ships and freighters are coming through every day,” Weiss says. “It’s trying to find food on a highway.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The latest survey\u00a0of\u00a0endangered\u00a0southern\u00a0resident\u00a0killer\u00a0whales\u00a0confirms their plateau and gradual slide\u00a0toward\u00a0disappearance\u00a0in the absence\u00a0of\u00a0stronger measures to protect them, a director with the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":210420,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":{"0":"post-210419","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}