Orca population bounces back in the Northwest

The southern orcas can range widely, from the north end of Canada's Vancouver Island to Northern California for K and L pods.

Depending on the river, he says, some salmon stocks are up, some down, some about average. And orcas face the same problem that bedevils all fishermen: hitting the right run at the right time under the right conditions.

"There's just so many different variables involved," Hanson says.

The three pods in the southern resident community — J Pod based in the San Juan Islands, K Pod in the Strait of Juan de Fuca and L Pod off the coast — are genetically and behaviorally distinct from other killer whales. Besides sticking to this region, their sounds are considered a unique dialect, they tend to mate only within their community and they usually gather each year to socialize in a "super pod" near the San Juans.

Orcas have a 17-month gestation period, so at least six of the whales were pregnant a year ago. From a distance it's hard to tell whether an orca is pregnant, so no one on land knew they were expecting when worries over the lost whales emerged.

Over the years the Center for Whale Research has tracked the southern population, their numbers have varied from a low of 71 in 1977 to a high of 97 in 1996, and the current total of 88 only matches the total in 2007.

It's also far below the 140 or so that lived here before dozens were captured for aquariums and parks in the 1960s and early '70s.

A 20 percent drop in their numbers in the late 1990s, blamed by many on pollution and dwindling salmon stocks, led to their listing as an endangered species.

Experts estimate a long-term steady population of about 200 would be needed to take them off the list.

Experts caution that young orcas have a rough life — commonly, about 50 percent die in their first year — and that one good year isn't a recovery. Critical to their long-term survival, they say, will be cleaning up the marine environment and eliminating the toxic chemicals that collect in the whales' bodies, and restoring the region's once-massive salmon runs.

Still, Balcomb says: "I'm just optimistic that this year's bumper crop of babies will prove to be their investment in the future. And we should invest in the food resources for them and for us.

"We like salmon, too."

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