Three of the 90 orcas that call Puget Sound home are missing and
presumed dead, researchers said Tuesday. At least two had shown
signs of starvation. Although it's fairly common for young orcas
to perish, the deaths of three adults in or near their
reproductive prime is worrisome, researchers said. It's also
much more common for whales to die in the winter, when food is
scarce, rather than in the usually abundant summer. One of the
dead, a 12-year-old female known as K-28 and as Raven, leaves
behind a still-nursing, 4- month-old calf that is now unlikely
to survive, researchers said. "When you're losing a breeding
female at the beginning of the reproductive years, that's very
significant," Balcomb-Bartok said. "She could have easily added
three to four more calves to the population." The three whale
pods that frequent Puget Sound and the waters around the San
Juan Islands have been slowly rebuilding since their numbers
were greatly reduced by captures for aquariums in the 1960s and
'70s. That practice was ban