orcas

A U.S. appeals court has halted a lower court ruling that would have shut down southeast Alaska’s Chinook salmon troll fishery for the summer to protect endangered orca whales that eat the fish.

The marine mammals have been "attacking" sailboats since 2020. But those encounters are becoming more frequent, and some say the orcas' tactics are evolving.

A ruling from a U.S. judge in Seattle could effectively shut down commercial king salmon trolling in Southeast Alaska after a conservation group challenged the harvest as a threat to protected fish and the endangered killer whales that eat them.

An plan announced last week to return Lolita, a killer whale held captive for more than a half-century, to her home waters in Washington’s Puget Sound thrilled those who have long advocated for her to be freed. But it also called to mind the release of Keiko — the star of the movie “Free Willy” — more than two decades ago.

More than 50 years after the orca known by her stage name ‘Lolita’ was captured for public display, plans are in place to return her from the Miami Seaquarium to her home waters in the Pacific Northwest.

A federal court ruling this week has thrown into doubt the future of a valuable commercial salmon fishery in Southeast Alaska. U.S. District Judge Richard Jones in Seattle sided with the nonprofit Wild Fish Conservancy in determining that the National Marine Fisheries Service improperly approved the troll fishery for king salmon, also known as Chinook, in 2019.

The new owners of the Miami Seaquarium will no longer stage shows with its aging orca Lolita under an agreement with federal regulators. The 56-year-old orca was initially named Tokitae when it was captured five decades ago in Puget Sound.

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

Underwater noise from vessel traffic is one of the key threats to Puget Sound’s endangered orca population. It interferes with the killer whales' ability to find increasingly scarce salmon. A new initiative is underway to alert ship operators when whales are near so they can slow down.

The rescue of Springer the baby orca unfolded 20 years ago this month. That effort – the community coming together to return a young killer whale to her family – remains the only successful example of orca rehabilitation on record. Why is that?