Center for Whale Research

A ‘Godfather’ of whale watching and conservation has died. Ken Balcomb, founder of the Center for Whale Research was 82. Balcomb kept track of the population of southern resident orcas starting in 1976.

A new calf was born to J pod of the southern resident orcas, an endangered population of killer whales.

The Center for Whale Research has declared an orca in one of the Puget Sound’s endangered southern resident killer whale pods “missing and likely dead.” L47, a mother and grandmother, was missing from the center’s 2021 census, and she hasn’t been spotted since Feb. 27.

Last year was bleak for the critically endangered Southern Resident orca population, and 2019 is showing little reprieve so far. A regional expert on the…

Following the release of a federal report on the state of endangered orcas, one local researcher says there's one factor that matters more to the whales'…