The effort to save a sick, starving orca named J50 is a personal mission for Aaron Hillaire and Malcolm Owings of the Lummi Tribe.

“Hundreds and hundreds of years we’ve been around the orcas and it’s family, really,” Hillaire said.

He skippered a boat that collected a couple of Chinook salmon from tribal nets on Monday, then carried them in the waters off Orcas Island to get the logistics right. The goal: Keep the fish alive until they can be fed to J50.

“We learned some stuff, you know, bringing them out there,” he said afterward at the dock near Bellingham. “If the water’s too rough the water sloshes around, just what kind of speed can we get, what can we do. And we’re learning.”

Both men are fisheries enforcement officers with the tribe. Owings helped out on deck while Hillaire drove.