A pod of orcas is starving to death. A tribe has a radical plan to feed them

by Levi Pulkkinen
April 25, 2019

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This sea once teemed with the giant salmon, which in turn sustained thriving pods of orca. Today wild Chinook fisheries are in decline, and the orcas are starving. Julius is the chairman of the Lummi Nation, a tribe pushing an unorthodox policy. They are feeding salmon to the wild whales.

Numbering close to 100 two decades ago, the population of southern resident orca has dropped to just 75 as a result of pollution in their environment, ship noise that drowns out their sonic communication and hinders their hunting, and, most crucially, a paucity of wild Chinook. Older whales have been seen wasting away, miscarriages are on the rise, and infant orca born alive are not surviving to adulthood. Last year a mother whale, Tahlequah, carried her dead calf for two and a half weeks in a scene that sparked an international outcry.

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The deaths invigorated state and federal efforts, such as limiting fishing and restricting ship traffic, to improve salmon and whale habitats. But the tribe and its supporters want more, and faster. Lummi leaders have since begun feeding orcas ceremonially, while calling for a large-scale feeding effort that could include salmon stations scattered around Puget Sound.

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The proposal would mark an unprecedented step. It has not received support from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), the leading federal agency tasked with protecting the orca. In the past, feeding programs have sustained terrestrial endangered species such as the California condor, not migratory whales.

Noaa believes such efforts risk making the whales dependent on humans for their survival. Michael Milstein, a public affairs officer for the agency’s fisheries division, praised the Lummi’s work on habitat restoration but said direct feeding was not “a sustainable recovery strategy”.

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