southern resident orcas

two elder women in woven cedar hats lean on the railing as they admire the whale they consider their lost daughter swimming in a tank full of bright blue chlorinated water. The whale's body is halfway out of the water as she shows off with a jump called a spy hop. She is mostly black with white eye patches and white chin and chest.

‘Resident Orca’ film shows Lummi elders’ quest to bring captured whale home to the Salish Sea

Bellamy Pailthorp

The documentary tells the story of the last southern resident killer whale held in captivity, and the efforts of two Lummi women to bring the orca home to a net pen sanctuary.

A whale fin peaks up from the water with a boat in the background.

Environment

Expanded buffer zone for southern resident orcas takes effect

Bellamy Pailthorp

A new state law is now in effect that provides a 1,000 yard vessel buffer around endangered southern resident orcas in Washington waters.

A southern resident orca, known as Tahlequah or J35, carries the body of her deceased female calf on Jan. 1, 2025.

Environment

Orca’s second 'tour of grief' emphasizes pivotal role of females in critically endangered species

Bellamy Pailthorp

A southern resident orca is once again carrying her deceased baby's body through the water. Researchers are concerned about the future of this orca mother and her species.

Kersti Muul, right, and Brittany Philbin pose for a portrait at Alki beach in Seattle, on August 4, 2023. Muul created "Salish Wildlife Watch" – a WhatsApp group chat that alerts people in the Seattle area when whales are close to the city. Philbin, an emergency hospital nurse, helps run the group chat as a volunteer.

Environment

In Seattle, phones ding. Orcas could be close

The Associated Press

Salish Wildlife Watch, a WhatsApp group chat, is making it easier for residents to spot endangered resident orcas and, organizers hope, get motivated to learn about and protect the animals.

A pod of orcas swim past a row of waterfront houses with trees and the Olympic mountains behind them.

Environment

Alaska salmon season back on after court halts closure that sought to protect orcas

The Associated Press

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.

Environment

Ruling might cancel Alaska commercial king salmon season

The Associated Press

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.

Keiko, the star of the movie “Free Willy,” swims in his new sea pen at Heimaey, Iceland, on Sept. 11, 1998. An ambitious plan announced last week to return 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 from her tank at the Miami Seaquarium. But it also called to mind the release of Keiko, who failed to adapt to the wild after being returned to his native Iceland and died five years later.

Environment

Caregivers: Returning orca Lolita to Northwest is risky

The Associated Press

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.

In this 1970 photo by Wallie Funk, orca whales are held captive near Whidbey Island. Seven of the dozens of whales captured, including Lolita, who has been performing stunts for Miami Seaquarium for the past four decades, were sold to marine parks.

Environment

52 years after capture, orca Lolita may return to Puget Sound waters

The Associated Press

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.

Ken Balcomb, senior scientist at the Center for Whale Research (CWR), talks about the declining population of endangered orcas that frequent Washington state waters during a news conference on Oct. 28, 2016, in Seattle. Balcomb, a pioneering whale researcher who devoted the past five decades to studying the Pacific Northwest's charismatic and endangered orcas, died Thursday, Dec. 15, 2022, according to the organization he founded. He was 82.

Environment

Pioneering whale researcher and advocate Ken Balcomb has died

Bellamy Pailthorp

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.

New aquarium owner supports allowing the last captive southern resident orca to return home

Bellamy Pailthorp

The last southern resident orca in captivity could soon retire to a sea pen in the Salish Sea. KNKX environment reporter Bellamy Pailthorp has more about the fate of Toki, as her trainers in Florida call her.