Loving the Southern Residents is not for the faint of heart

Loving the Southern Residents is not for the faint of heart. For all the moments of joy - and there are a lot of them - there are also moments of significant grief. One of the lessons I have learned from the whales is how to hold onto both at the same time.

J36 Alki has had a particularly difficult time of it. Her first documented calf, J52 Sonic, born in 2015 when Alki was 16 years old, lived less than two years. Since then, thanks to research done by SR3 and Wild Orca, we know she has lost late-stage pregnancies in 2019, 2021, and 2023. Then yesterday, we learned that she's lost yet another calf in 2025. You can find the details of this sad update from the Center for Whale Research.

While we grieve alongside J36, our hearts are buoyed a little bit by the presence and antics of calves J62 and J63. Both are growing and active and have been the source of a lot of smiles over the last week. Personality wise they seem like they might be a little different, too. J62 has always been tucked in close to mom, often surrounded by family. J63 is a little more of a wild child, in the general vicinity of mom but not right by her, more often than not working on perfecting the back breach, the side breach, and the bellyflop. She's gotten higher air than I think I've ever seen from a killer whale calf!

And so as another season passes, we celebrate the whales that are here, mourn the ones we have lost, and continue to fight for the future of those yet to be.