Locally Well-Known Killer Whale Goes Missing

A 31-year-old killer whale name Faith — a large male who was the most recognizable orca among the "Dyes Inlet whales" — has gone missing, portending the likelihood that another Puget Sound killer whale has died.

Ken Balcomb of the Center for Whale Research says he will hold out hope until spring for L-57, as he is known among researchers. But it's an ominous sign that the two females he generally travels with — L-7 or Canuck, and L-53 or Lulu — have been sighted several times in the U.S. and Canada since October, yet Faith is nowhere to be found.

"That's just terrible," said Judy Dicksion of Bremerton, a volunteer observer of marine mammals. "It's just awful. We have lost so many."

Last summer, seven of the Puget Sound killer whales went missing and were presumed dead. That lowered the number of animals in the three area pods to 83, a severe blow to the population, which is listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act.

Dicksion noted that L-57 was easily recognizable among the whales that visited Dyes Inlet during the fall of 1997. His towering dorsal fin would rise out of the water higher than any of the females he swam with. Once, when Dicksion and other kayakers were floating in the inlet, Faith and several female orcas approached rapidly, then dove under their boats, she recalled.

Amid the ominous signs for Faith, Balcomb offered some good news Sunday night. Two new calves have been born to the Puget Sound pods — one in J pod and one in L pod. Balcomb said he is conferring with killer whale researchers in Canada to determine who the mothers are.

Because orca families stay close to newborns and share in their care, it is hard to determine at first who is the mother, the sister or the grandmother, Balcomb said.

"Rather than making a mistake, we'll just wait," he said. "They look good. If they are there in August, they will be counted (in the census of whales)."

The first year of life is especially hard for orcas, which is why the Whale Museum in Friday Harbor waits a year before giving young killer whales a name and not just a number.

Faith's mother, Asterix, died in 1996, leaving Faith as the only member of his immediate subgroup. Killer whales live almost as long as humans. At 31, Faith is considered an active and reproductive male, so his loss would be especially bad news for the population.

"We'll wait until our summer encounters before counting him out," Balcomb said of Faith. "It would be bizarre, but maybe he is in California."

For a while, Faith hung out with J pod in Puget Sound, while the rest of his L pod clan was in California, Balcomb noted, but all of J pod has been accounted for recently, and Faith was not among those whales either.