orca | KNKX Public Radio

New AI thermal-imaging system helps prevent ship strikes in Puget Sound

Bellamy Pailthorp

A people-powered whale alert app has been helping reduce the risk of vessel strikes on whales for more than a decade. Now, an AI powered thermal camera is taking the monitoring to the next level.

Laurie Rudock lays flowers at a makeshift memorial after the recent death of a captive orca, Sunday, Aug. 20, 2023, outside the Miami Seaquarium in Key Biscayne, Fla. Lolita, an orca whale held captive for more than a half-century, died Friday at the Miami Seaquarium as caregivers prepared to move her from the theme park in the near future.

Environment

Lolita the orca dies at Miami Seaquarium after half-century in captivity

The Associated Press

The Seaquarium posted on social media that Lolita — also known as Tokitae, or Toki — started exhibiting serious signs of discomfort over the past two days.

An orca known as L-95, right, swims with other whales from the L and K pods in the Pacific Ocean near the mouth of the Columbia River near Ilwaco on Feb. 27, 2016.

Baby orca unwell; rule issued to keep boaters away

The Associated Press

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has issued an emergency rule ordering commercial whale watch tours to stay farther away from an unwell baby orca to help her survive. J56, or Tofino, as the whale is also known, was born in May 2019 to an orca known as Tsuchi, or J31.

The final meeting of Governor Jay Inslee's Southern Resident Killer Whale Task Force took place at the Intellectural House on the campus of the University of Washington on October 7, 2019.

Environment

Orca task force adds 13 recommendations at final meeting as 'biological extinction' looms

Bellamy Pailthorp

Their goal is clear: to prevent Puget Sound’s iconic Southern Resident killer whales from going extinct. Solving that problem is anything but simple.The…