The southern resident killer whale known as Tahlequah captured global sympathy in 2018 when she pushed the body of her dead calf for more than two weeks in waters off British Columbia's south coast. Some scientists and advocates called the scene a display of public grief. But the impact of the loss went beyond Tahlequah.
It was a significant blow to the entire population that numbers just 74 individuals. A recent peer-reviewed paper suggests a baseline rate of population loss of roughly one per cent per year — based on modelling and 40 years of observations — putting the whales on a path toward a "period of accelerating decline that presages extinction." Even that rate of loss is "optimistic," the research says.
The study lends urgency to calls by a coalition of environmental groups for the Canadian government to reverse its decision not to issue an emergency protection order for the whales, in the face of what may otherwise be inexorable decline. The top ocean predators are classified as endangered under Canadian and U.S.
species-at-risk laws, which are meant to trigger protections. But the measures haven't yielded any signs of recovery, says the coalition that includes the David Suzuki Foundation and the Raincoast Conservation Foundation, among others. Misty MacDuffee, a conservation biologist with Raincoast, said the southern residents' long potential lifespans may obscure their journey towards extinction — Parks Canada says a whale known as Granny was estimated to b.