Oldest Puget Sound Orca, 'Granny,' Missing and Presumed Dead

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Oldest Puget Sound Orca, 'Granny,' Missing and Presumed Dead
By The Associated Press/ News/ NBC News/ nbcnews.com

"FRIDAY HARBOR, Wash. — The oldest member of the small population of endangered Puget Sound orcas has been missing for months and is now likely dead, bringing the toll of dead or missing whales to seven in 2016, researchers in Washington state reported.

The orca labeled J2 and nicknamed "Granny" had been spotted thousands of times over 40 years of orca surveys but has not been seen since October, according to the Center for Whale Research on San Juan Island, a nonprofit group that keeps the federal government's annual census of the whales.

"With regret we now consider her deceased," researcher Ken Balcomb wrote in a post on the center's website Saturday..."

An orca whale designated J2, and nicknamed Granny, pokes her head upward while swimming in the Salish Sea near the San Juan Islands, Wash. on July 3, 2016. Mark Malleson / The Center for Whale Research via AP, file


Richard

 

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Orca Moms Might Go Into Menopause Because of Their Daughters
By Erin Blakemore/ SmartNews: Keeping You Current/ SmithsonianMag.com
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart...1&spJobID=962752193&spReportId=OTYyNzUyMTkzS0
"Competition could explain this evolutionary mystery.

Why do animals go into menopause? The phenomenon, though familiar to humans, only occurs in two other species—and it’s long vexed evolutionary biologists who can’t figure out why a species would stop reproducing long before it dies. But a long-term study of one of those species might just help scientists figure out what’s up with the evolutionary anomaly. As The New York Times’ Steph Yin reports, a new study suggests that competition between older and younger female orcas can trigger menopause.

The study, which was recently published in the journal Current Biology, teases out how mother-daughter relationships might affect menopause. Using 43 years’ worth of observations of orcas, they created a new model for how kinship dynamics—the family relationships orcas share—affect breeding in older females...."

Scarce resources could push killer whales into menopause. (cliffwass/iStock)


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Killer Whales Could Have Quiet Space Off Washington Coast
From Associated Press (AP)/ News/ San Francisco Chronicle/ sfchronicle.com

"SEATTLE (AP) — The federal government is considering whether it should set up an area off Washington's San Juan Island where endangered killer whales would be protected from motorboats and other disturbances.

Most motorized vessels would be banned under a proposed whale protection zone sought by three conservation groups.

Puget Sound orcas face multiple threats, including pollution, lack of prey and impacts from boats. The zone is a common-sense approach that can be implemented immediately, Orca Relief Citizens' Alliance, Center for Biological Diversity and Project Seawolf said in a petition filed with NOAA Fisheries...."

Photo: Elaine Thompson, AP


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