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Dead orca identified as member of L pod
Saturday, May 18, 2002
FRIDAY HARBOR -- The dead orca discovered near Long Beach last month was a member of a whale family that frequents Puget Sound -- not a so-called offshore killer whale as originally thought, orca experts said yesterday.
The female orca, known as L-60 and by its nickname, "Rascal," showed no obvious cause of death. Results of tests on the corpse to help determine what killed it have not been completed.
The whale was only 30. Orcas usually enjoy life spans similar to those of humans.
She appeared to have recently given birth. Previously, she bore two calves, one in 1990 that died in 1997 and a second in 1995 that appears to still be alive.
Researchers say the death is one of a number of mysterious fatalities in the whale family known as L pod, one of three Puget Sound pods and the one that has seen the most mortality in recent years.
Ken Balcomb of the Center for Whale Research in Friday Harbor, who has studied the orcas since the 1970s, said scientists are eagerly awaiting the results of tests on the corpse.
The buildup of industrial chemicals in the whales, a lack of food because of dwindling salmon runs and other not-yet-understood factors appear to be behind a sharp decline in the whales' population since the mid-1990s. The most recent count showed 78 Puget Sound orcas.
"In the first 20 years of our study, we would never have seen one that young dying," Balcomb said. "There's something happening."
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