K Pod orca may be dead even as Southern Residents hang out in Puget Sound

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SEATTLE — Members of the J Pod were spotted Tuesday afternoon off Blake Island as we learn that a member of the K Pod has likely died.

The news about the missing orca comes from the Center For Whale Research on San Juan Island.

Researchers say they last saw the missing killer whale in July. Still, orcas have been seen around the Puget Sound for nearly a month.

Whale watchers with a pair of good binoculars could see the endangered Southern Resident orcas. They were on the West Seattle side of Blake Island.

“I always carry my binoculars,” said Jeff Crow, “because it’s the only way you can see them when they are that far out.”

You could call the West Seattle man an orca chaser.

“I can see them now,” said Crow.

Whale chasers have spent the last 25 days monitoring the J Pod and its relatives in the K and L pods swimming all around Puget Sound. Then early Tuesday afternoon, the J Pod was spotted around Vashon Island, then rounding the south end of Blake Island, heading east.

That’s where Crow picked them up.

“They’re starting to ... there’s a breach on the north side of the sailboat,” said Crow, looking through his binoculars.

This is a bit of good news amid something more troubling.  The Center for Whale Research in the San Juans says it hasn’t seen orca K-26 since July. Researchers now believe the 31-year-old killer whale has likely died.

She was asked if that is young for a whale.

“I would say so, for males. It is within the, it is starting to be within the early life expectancy of males.”

Tamara Kelley of the Seattle-based Orca Conservancy says the death of K-26 and last year’s demise of K-34 indicate the whales likely aren’t getting enough to eat.

“So, whenever we have a new calf born into the Southern Residents, that’s great news,” Kelley said. “But it means that’s another mouth to feed. And so, that means the whales as a whole might be getting enough salmon to grow.”

But -- and this is some good news --  Kelley thinks the orcas have been hanging out in Puget Sound for so long means they may be getting enough salmon to survive.

She says it may be proof that all the work being done to restore the habitat may be paying off even as we mourn these orca deaths.