This is her second calf, her first is 8 now. She carried this baby girl for 18 months and they remain with their mothers for their entire lives. Orca are one of 10 self-aware species and live to be up to 100 years old if they have enough food/clean environment. I mourn with her.
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Our PNW Resident Orca (salmon eaters) are experiencing an extinaction level crisis due to pollution, excess commercial marine traffic, and declining wild salmon stocks. It’s unbelievable sad to watch them slowly disappear one by one.
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I heard on CBC radio that in this population, there hasn't been a calf that lived for 3 years now. Some live births, but the calves die. Wonder how
@JustinTrudeau's tarsands pipeline will impact fertility and calf survival rates.#StopKM#cdnpoli#bcpoli -
His government approved the Kinder Morgan pipeline, which will increase tanker traffic in the Straits by around 600 ships per year. The salmon farms are also contributing to the decline of wild runs. Ocean temps rising as well, killing millions of smolt. Then there are the dams.
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Yep; in the coverage I heard on the radio about the recent calf death & 3yr absence of calf survivals, nothing was mentioned about the probable effect of the increased tanker traffic, but it's abundantly clear that it won't be *good* for whales who are clearly already struggling.
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We lost a fully grown bull after he was struck by a boat last year. There’s already of ton of tanker traffic along with ferries, charters, pleasure boats. I’m also concerned about spills, the currents can be treacherous through there.
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Yeah, the pipeline is a terrible idea, start to finish, so to speak... I'm out at the eastern edge of the prairies, and I attend every protest, write letters, make sure those around me understand why I'm so opposed, have become a single issue (climate change) voter, etc
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I’ve gone whale watching many times. It is always thrilling to see them in the wild. It’s heartbreaking that their numbers are dwindling and their calves are dying.
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The whale watching is an infringement on the their territory. Please consider this..pic.twitter.com/Mlx8uZ3uco
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It’s more than whale watching. It’s a loss of their food source. The waters of been overfished. It’s pollution. It’s plastic in the water. It’s humans invading their space.
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Absolutely, whale watching is just one of the contributors.
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Let the lady go whale watching guilt free lol
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Thank you! It’s an incredible experience that I will never forget. It’s not like the boat gets close the whales. They’re a long way away.
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Those of us who live in the San Juan Islands, where this pod is located, want you to know this


pic.twitter.com/tesAAPyP97
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Call me naive, but I think she is asking humans to help her. Or, stop hurting them by hurting the environment.
#itsonus
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-Wow. That's very sad.
My guess (right or wrong) is there's some facet of "hope" in this mother; hoping that her child will begin swimming on its own.
I don't think she's swimming her infant around so much out of grief, as it is disbelief; unwilling to accept that it's dead. -
I thought the same thing - that she wants to will the baby to live.
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Well, to "will the baby to life" would mean that she KNOWS that her baby is dead, (of course, I'm just speculating, but...), I'm more believing that she's acting as if her baby just isn't "catching on" in what she's trying to teach her/i.e., swimming unassisted.
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Nailed it. They hold them at the water surface so they can breathe if they are too weak to swim.
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Thanks. I've no knowledge of orcas and how they raise their young, but it just seemed logical that orca moms would assist their baby until it could swim on its own; hence THIS mother's continued actions. She may believe the baby just hasn't learned the lesson yet.
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Human Arrogance! There was a mother Elephant who lost 2 calves After the 2nd loss she wouldn't leave the gravesite for 3 yrs. She kept picking up the bones & caressing them. She cried subsonicly the whole time. When she returned the herd insisted she retake her role as matriarch
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As I said in the tweet you responded to... "I've no knowledge of orcas and how they raise their young"; which is why I used the words "it seems" and "she may be" in the tweet. Also, in other tweets, I even acknowledged that her actions may be of "hope," and motherly love.
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