New 3-week-old orca calf with L Pod spotted off coast of Vancouver Island

The Center for Whale Research (CWR) is reporting that there could be a new orca calf in the L Pod.

According to an update from the CWR last week, a Facebook post of the L Pod from June 19 showed what appeared to be a three-week-old calf swimming with the group off the coast of Vancouver Island. That said, researchers still have work to do to determine its condition and figure out the identity of the calf’s mother before it get assigned an official designation.

An orca calf was last born into the L Pod in early 2021. The most recent new calf among all of the Puget Sound’s orca pods arrived in May of 2022 into the K Pod.

Southern Resident orcas have struggled for years with a long list of issues, including starvation brought on by the endangered status of their primary food source, Chinook salmon.

©2023 Cox Media Group