By Kenneth C. Balcomb, Founder /Principal Investigator – Center for Whale Research

No southern resident killer whales from any of the pods have been born alive and survived thus far in 2017 – the baby boom is over…and the adults are alarmingly thin.

As of 19 September, another Southern Resident Killer Whale, J52 – a two and a half year old male born during the so-called Baby Boom of 2015/2016 – is deceased, presumably from malnutrition.

His obligatory nursing ended more than a year ago, and his life was dependent upon salmon that have become in short supply this summer.

He was last seen alive near the west entrance of the Strait of Juan de Fuca on 15 September 2017, and photographs taken at the time reveal severe “peanut-head” syndrome associated with impending death.

This population cannot survive without food year-round – individuals metabolize their toxic blubber and body fats when they do not get enough to eat to sustain their bodies and their babies.

All indications (population number, foraging spread, days of occurrence in the Salish Sea, body condition, and live birth rate/neonate survival) are pointing toward a predator population that is prey limited and non-viable.

We know that the SRKW population-sustaining prey species is Chinook salmon, but resource managers hope that they find something else to eat for survival.

Our government systems, steeped in short-term competing financial motives, are processing these whales and the salmon on which they depend to extinction.

If something isn’t done to enhance the SRKW prey availability almost immediately (it takes a few years for a Chinook salmon to mature and reproduce, and it takes about twelve years for a female SRKW to mature and reproduce), extinction of this charismatic resident population of killer whales is inevitable in the calculable future.

Most PVA’s (population viability analyses) with current predator/prey trajectories show functional extinction as a result of no viable reproduction within decades to a century.