Southern Resident orca J35/Tahlequah has finished her second tour of grief, carrying another dead female calf for all to see. She has again focused the world’s attention on these orcas and the race to save them. Tahlequah captured the world’s attention in 2018 with her first tour of grief and unfortunately has done so again. Let’s make sure she and the Southern Residents get our help to avoid a third tour of grief and Southern Resident orca extinction.  

This sad photo shows Tahlequah carrying her latest dead calf.  Credit—NOAA Fisheries, Candice Emmons, Permit #27052

Tahlequah is one of the most productive females of the Southern Resident orcas. Yet her two female calves—so necessary to prevent the orcas’ extinction—have not survived. Yet there is hope! J41/Eclipse, Tahlequah’s cousin, has a new female calf, J62, that was born about a week after Tahlequah’s calf. She appears to be thriving so far.

Like Tahlequah, female Southern Residents of reproductive age become pregnant frequently. But because they don’t have enough food, about 70% of their pregnancies fail. At least 50% of the calves born alive die before they are two years old. The primary culprit is lack of chinook salmon.

The President can fix this. Starvation is resolved with adequate food, which will allow Southern Resident orcas to recover and thrive. Without more food, they are dying one by one. Only 72 individuals remain. They are going extinct as we watch.

Where is their food?

The four lower Snake River Dams are driving the Pacific Northwest’s wild salmon runs to extinction and as a result also the iconic endangered Southern Resident orcas. Each year the dams kill tens of millions of juvenile chinook salmon as they migrate downriver. Several years later, chinook that have reached the ocean mature and then return to their natal river to spawn. The dams finish the killing cycle by impeding or blocking their return.

Chinook salmon runs originating in the Northwest’s Columbia/Snake River watershed are the single most important food source for the Southern Residents’ survival. Because chinook salmon are endangered species themselves, there are no longer enough to sustain the declining population of Southern Residents alive today. To grow, thrive and increase their clan, Southern Resident Orcas must have access to abundant salmon runs. Healthy Snake River salmon runs are possible only with dam breaching and a recovered Snake River ecosystem. 

According to hundreds of scientists, including federal scientists at NOAA, breaching the Lower Snake River dams is essential to recovering wild salmon in the Columbia and Snake River Basins, the salmon that Southern Residents need for their own survival and recovery.

For more information, go to DamTRUTH, Center for Whale Research, and DamSense.

We are nearing the 940,000 signatures mark and hope to push past ONE MILLION very soon.  Can you help by sharing this petition with everyone you know?