{"id":269171,"date":"2025-11-03T16:57:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T16:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/269171\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T16:57:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T16:57:07","slug":"orca-calf-j-64-likely-dead-center-for-whale-research-to-monitor-future-encounters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/269171\/","title":{"rendered":"Orca calf J-64 likely dead, Center for Whale Research to monitor future encounters"},"content":{"rendered":"

SEATTLE \u2014 The Center for Whale Research<\/a> is closely monitoring future orca encounters after determining that the new calf, J-64<\/a>, is most likely dead. <\/p>\n

The research team went out to document the whales on Oct. 23 after hearing they were heading north at the south end of Swanson Channel. During the trip, J-64 did not surface after its mother, despite her surfacing several times. <\/p>\n

Researchers said that while adult whales may travel significant distances from other whales for extended periods, a newborn would not be on its own for any length of time. The researchers monitored the calf’s mother, J-42, surfacing several times, and they never saw her newborn calf. <\/p>\n

The center stated it will continue to monitor future encounters before making a final determination. <\/p>\n

Their standard practice is to consider a whale deceased after observing three consecutive encounters without the whale present.<\/p>\n

J-64 was J-42’s first confirmed calf, according to researchers, and mortality rates for young calves especially those born to first-time mothers, are incredibly high in the Southern Resident orca population. <\/p>\n

“Poor nutritional status and the transfer of toxins from mother to calf during gestation and lactation are key factors,” the Center for Whale Research said. “Southern Residents need healthy, abundant Chinook Salmon populations to sustain themselves and the calves they raise if this population is to survive.” <\/p>\n

According to the Orca Network<\/a>, as of Sept. 18, 2025, the Southern Resident orca population was comprised of 74 individuals. J-pod has 27 members; K-pod has 14; and L-pod has 33. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEATTLE \u2014 The Center for Whale Research is closely monitoring future orca encounters after determining that the new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269172,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-269171","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}