Orca Calf Born to Famed Killer Whale Sedna, a Sea World Survivor, Spotted in the Salish Sea

Last week conservationists in the Pacific Whale Watch Association spotted an orca calf with its mom and more than a dozen other killer whales in the Salish Sea, the waters between Seattle and Vancouver. The mother, known to the whale watchers as “Sedna,” comes from a historic line of orcas rescued from SeaWorld.

This species of orca is known as the Bigg’s killer whale, which feeds on mammals – dolphins, seals, sea lions. Newborns have a distinctive orange spot of color, a remnant of being scrunched inside its mother’s belly; the spot will soon turn white. Sedna – Inuit for “Mother of the Sea” – is 14 years old and, until now, childless.

Sedna’s grandmother, “Wake,” was one of six whales captured in 1976 by SeaWorld and held in Budd Inlet, Washington. An assistant to then-governor Dan Evans, Ralph Munro, happened to witness the capture while sailing and was appalled. Munro helped file the lawsuit that led to the orcas’ release; they were the last killer whales captured in US waters.

“Wake is responsible for eight assumed calves, 16 grand-calves, and six great grand-calves,” according to PWWA, which has been spying on these creatures for decades. “Without the direct efforts of Ralph Munro, at least 30 Bigg’s killer whales would have never been born.”

(Munro had a pretty good career, serving five terms as Washington’s Secretary of State. He died last week at the age of 81, the very same day the newborn calf was spotted.)

The PWWA says the Bigg’s killer whale population is doing okay, as their food supply has been abundant in the area. At least 140 calves have been born here in the last decade. 

As for SeaWorld, it stopped capturing wild orcas nearly fifty years ago, and is now phasing out its in-house orca breeding program. It will eventually end the theatrical orca shows altogether.

Photo credit: Tom Filipovic, Eagle Wing Tours (PWWA)