Three adult harbor seals in Puget Sound have tested positive for the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza H5N1 strain, marking the first incidence of HPAI in marine mammals on the West Coast, and officials are urging beachgoers to avoid contact with wildlife.
It would be an obscure sighting of the species. The closest beluga population, which lives at least 1,400 miles away in Alaska’s Cook Inlet, is endangered and covered under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
Nearly 30 transient orcas were spotted in the Salish Sea around British Columbia and Washington state over the Labor Day weekend, a positive sign for the species, according to local whale watchers and researchers.
The population of endangered killer whales has hit a 30-year-low, numbering only 75 this year.
The biggest challenges for whales is the buildup of toxic chemicals in their bodies and the shrinking runs of Chinook salmon, their primary prey.
Washington state officials have proposed a new tack to save the Pacific Northwest's critically endangered orca population. Their idea is to boost salmon
Multiple groups of transient killer whales were spotted in the waters off Vashon Island Friday, according to the Vashon Hydrophone Project’s Ann Stateler (“Orca Annie”).
The death this week of another Puget Sound killer whale makes 2016 one of the worst in recent history for the endangered marine mammals. At least five orcas in the family group J-pod have died in the past year.
The peer-reviewed research published this week in the Public Library of Science suggests that 99% of the orcas studied had photographic evidence of skin lesions. Researchers evaluated photos from nearly 20,000 orca sightings from 2004 to 2016, finding that lesions — often gray patches and gray targets on the orcas' skin — generally became more prevalent over time.
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