Lover Of Orcas

It's a GIRL!

The newest member of the Southern Residents is confirmed as female by CWR and has been spotted with her mother, Tsuchi (J31)!

Researchers from DFO Pacific also reported seeing members from J-pod, K-pod, and L-pod.

J45 “Se-yi-chn” with a boisterous, full body breach.

Shit like that happens when an animal is struck by a boat or gets entangled in some shit (don’t turn that into “the ocean isn’t safe!!1″ nonsense either, that’s a whole ‘nother story)

relevant excerpt: “The injured orca was near a 12-year-old male named Trua when she was hurt, but since she was also interacting with several other members of the orca pod, veterinarians are not sure exactly how she was injured, SeaWorld said. SeaWorld officials said aggressive behavior is natural for their species of whale, so they would not be surprised if the whales had been interacting in that manner, but that it is not clear if they were at the time of Katina’s injury. “Killer whales are a social and hierarchal species, so interacting with other members of the pod, even in an aggressive or antagonistic manner, is a natural behavior we’d expect to see,” the post read. “However, it’s not clear if this was the result of an aggressive behavior or other interactions within the orca pod.” The post also emphasized that the aggressive behavior is not a result of the whales living in captivity and that it is not uncommon among wild killer whale orca pods.”

The Invaluable

My newest piece for the Orca-Zine - a charity book which is going to be available at Superpod 6 - www.orcasuperpod.com - All profits from the sale of this book will be split equally and donated to the Center for Whale Research and Orca Network. Since SRKWs run out of salmon quite fast, I thought of making an artwork that would speak about it. For the industries salmon is one of the ways to make money, but for the whales it’s a source of energy and life. For the orcas salmons are invaluable. To choose the whale for the main role of this drawing I hosted a public poll and people’ve choosen Blackberry J27. There are ways to help SRKWs: - Adopt a Southern Resident killer whale - Contact Politicians - Tell the Columbia river System Operations to breach the lower Snake River dams - What can you personally do?

Breaking Stillness

Finally finished! My submission for the orca charity book (organized by @derangedhyena-delphinidae) featuring one of my favorite southern residents - J27 Blackberry!

The SRKW are dying. They desperately need our help. They’ve been gone for long and returned and now it’s not looking good for at least one of them. Where is the outcry?

If J52 dies, I want the same outcry as when Tilikum, Kyara or Kasatka passed. I want people to be thoroughly upset and realise we need to take action because no one else will. Questions need to be asked and pressure needs to be put on the appropriate people to remove dams and allow for more food. It’s essential if we want to keep the SRKW around.

But as people who all collectively love cetaceans, I don’t think it’s wrong to care about more than one thing at the same time. I think you can fight for the SRKW, while ALSO fighting for better welfare for captive animals, while ALSO fighting for reducing ship strikes, while ALSO fighting for the Vaquita population. You can shuffle your priority of issues around without giving up on any one of them, especially if there are multiple issues happening simultaneously.