New baby orca spotted with endangered group off Vancouver Island

A baby killer whale was apparently born to an endangered killer whale population in the Pacific Northwest, scientists reported.

The Center for Whale Research announced the baby killer whale on Facebook Friday, saying the organization had received photos of what appears to be a new calf in L pod, part of the population known as southern killer whales, near Tofino on Vancouver Island.

The baby appears to be more than three weeks old and would be the first new calf in the group since L125’s birth in 2021.

Researchers at the center will need to conduct meetings with the group on the water to determine the calf’s mother, assess the baby’s health and assign it an alphanumeric designation.

“We hope to see this calf in our study area very soon!” the group said.

“We’re always cautiously optimistic about these new babies because the first-year mortality rate is quite high,” Michael Weiss, research director for the Center for Whale Research, told The Seattle Times. “But we’re hopeful – it’s good to have another L-pod child.”

WATCH: Why are southern killer whales so important?

The southern residents struggle to survive multiple threats, including a lack of sufficient Chinook salmon in their foraging area, pollution and underwater noise that make it more difficult for them to hunt.

If confirmed, the new calf would bring the total number of southern residents to 74.

That’s one of the lowest population numbers since 1974, when 71 killer whales were counted after a live-capture fishery in the 1960s, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The population peaked at 98 in 1995, but declined to 80 whales in 2001.

The southern residents live in matriarchal families split into three pods, referred to as J, K, and L. They mostly reside along the western coastal islands of Canada and Washington in the Salish Sea and along the Oregon coast.

As apex predators, they play an important role in the ecosystem at the top of the food chain.

The southern residents were listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act in 2005 and a recovery plan was completed in 2008.

In 2015, they were one of NOAA’s “Species in the Spotlight,” an effort to raise awareness and save “the most at-risk marine species.”

The National Marine Fisheries Service expanded the southern resident’s critical habitat from the Canadian border to Point Sur, California, in 2021, adding about 16,000 square miles (41,000 square km) of foraging areas, estuaries, and migration routes.