Killer whales are one of the most familiar forms of marine life, but in the wild they are becoming increasingly rare.
On the coast of Port Angeles, Washington state, a team makes whale watching a science. For the past 45 years, Ken Balcomb has taken to the Pacific Northwest, leading the Orca Survey, a long-term photographic identification project focused on what is known as the resident killer whale population. south of Puget Sound.
When he was 35, Balcomb worked for the National Marine Fisheries Service and counted how many whales were left after the practice of catching killer whales for marine parks intensified in the 1960s and 1970s.
“A lot of people thought we couldn’t find them,” Balcomb told Michelle Miller of CBS News. “And then even my boss didn’t think that if we found them, we could differentiate them.”
The impossible work was made possible by photographic identification techniques initiated by a Canadian marine biologist. He turned hundreds of thousands of Balcomb photos into a scientific database.
“At the time, we had photographs, thirty-five millimeter images. That was a real key,” Balcomb said.
The results of the survey? Only about 70 killer whales remain in the sound, with a staggering 40% of the population being taken captive or killed during an attempted capture.
Balcomb’s findings would help end the killer whale trade in the Pacific Northwest. But the artificial problems of the killer whale did not stop there.
“In the late 1980s, whales stopped making their usual pattern and basically no longer came to Puget Sound twice a month, they fished,” Balcomb said.
Depletion of food supply is a continuing problem for whales today and greatly inhibits their ability to reproduce.
“This is our indicator, leading indicator, the type of canary in the coal mine,” Balcomb said. “If we lose the ball in the wild, humans will not last long after that.
In response to what he already witnessed, Balcomb founded the Nonprofit Whale Research Center to study whales and use their findings to promote conservation.
Balcomb said killer whales were weekly in the same waters decades ago. Killer whales have been around the area for thousands of years, but now it is difficult to find a single killer whale, as they do not appear.
This is a sad situation that Balcomb is working to change, not at sea, but about 8 miles upstream, on the edge of the Olympic National Park.
The Elwha River is an essential part of Balcomb’s operation and essential for killer whales.
“It’s going to take the salmon to a pristine state where there will be a lot of food for the whales,” he said.
“What happened to the salmon?” Miller asked.
“Well, in that river, it was dammed,” Balcomb said. “So we had a dam about two miles south of us, and no fish passed through that dam for 100 years.” The population of Chinook salmon went from about 30,000 a year to almost zero.
In an effort to restore the river’s ecosystem, Congress authorized the removal of the Elwha Dam in 1992. After two decades of planning, the removal of the largest dam in U.S. history began. United and completely removed in March 2012.
“So now that the dams have been removed, that’s starting to come back. And we want to celebrate and, you know, let the world know that you’re doing that, reclaiming the ecosystem,” Balcomb said.
He took it a step further. In October 2020, at age 80 and out of work, his Whale Research Center bought a 45-acre ranch that ran along both sides of the waterway, where most of the remaining Chinook salmon spawn. A private donor helped fund the $ 700,000 purchase.
The salmon have returned to the area. Last year, 7,000 Chinook salmon were counted in the area, but Balcomb believes it will take 20 to 25 years for the salmon to regain their original number. For now, the few fish detected are a sign of hope.
“Oh, that’s like they’re back. Nature is coming back,” Balcomb said. “It’s like. It’s worth it. Money doesn’t count, you know? That’s right,” he said.
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to correct the purchase price amount.
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