Scientists look for cause of death of orca – Orca found on northern Olympic Peninsula; probably a transient

Scientists look for cause of death of orca – Orca found on northern Olympic Peninsula; probably a transient

One female orca was found dead on a beach in Clallam County Wednesday and another possibly related male was stranded in a bay, sending whale experts from San Juan County to the area to find out what caused the orca’s death.

Though the identity of the dead orca has yet to be confirmed, it appears it is probably a northern transient, according to the Whale Museum.

Rich Osborne, research director of the Whale Museum, and museum curator Albert Shepherd, headed to the Olympic Peninsula Wednesday to participate in a necropsy (an animal autopsy) on the orca. Also on hand at the scene near Dungeness Spit are Kelley Balcomb-Bartok with the Center for Whale Research, and officials from the National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said Rowann Tallmon with the Whale Museum.

Officials from the federal Environmental Protection Agency also went to the scene, said Tallmon. Orca whales are known to be poisoned with PCBs, and northern transients are particularly polluted with PCBs. The whales get so much of these chemical compounds in their blubber that their carcasses can actually be considered toxic waste. That’s why the EPA is responding to the scene.

Tallmon said researchers will be checking the dead orca’s saddle patch markings to confirm whether or not she’s a northern transient. She said there are several reasons why Osborne suspects the dead orca probably is a transient.

First, the local resident orcas are accounted for, and they have not been in the Dungeness Spit area, said Tallmon. Also, that area is a known transient hunting ground.

Tallmon said the Whale Museum’s hydrophone in Haro Strait also picked up transient calls Dec. 31, two days before the whale strandings. It’s not known whether those calls were made by the same whales at Dungeness Spit.

The necropsy may be critical in determining what caused the orca’s death. A necropsy on a resident whale, J-18 (Everett), which washed up onshore near Tsawwassen a few years ago was found to have extremely high levels of PCBs. That whale was also found to have died from a massive infection, which scientists believed was caused by a collapse of his immune system, due possibly to PCB poisoning.

Tallmon said it’s possible the female orca merely stranded herself chasing after seals. The necropsy may help answer that question.

The male orca became stranded on a sandbar in the same area as the female. Federal officials roped the male orca and pulled him out to deeper water. Some witnesses believe they may have spotted a juvenile or baby orca calf in the area, but the presence of a juvenile hasn’t been confirmed yet.

Tallmon said it took roughly four weeks for final results to come back from the J-18 necropsy.

— Pierre LaBossiére reports on sports, environment and law enforcement for sanjuanjournal.com and The Journal of the San Juan Islands, sister publications of islandsweekly.net and The Islands’ Weekly. He can be reached at (360) 378-4191 ext. 20 or email.

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