this is terrrible. no births in this population, and i think they have had at least two deaths in the existing population this past year. in may of this year, the southern residents were not seen by researchers, at all, which is unheard of. they are really spread out trying to find salmon. that specific population has been heading towards exinction for some time now. :(

this is all due to the horrific captures that happened in the late mid-century for captivity, the ecosystem damage, dammed rivers blocking salmon from reproducing, salmon farms, toxicity levels in the prey ladder, and more, all due to selfish human behavior. we are more concerned with bleeding as much money from “ai” and going to visit a dead rock than we are with protecting the most vital source of life on our planet (the ocean), the likely origin of life, and one of the shining examples of intelligence in the animal kingdom.

orcas are truly an amazing species. they are far more intelligent than generally recognized, even surpassing primates (including us) in certain areas. and they are damn emotional. it is really a travesty how humans interact with other intelligence on the planet.

https://msu.edu/~marablek/whal-int.htm#sect7-1

https://pugetsoundblogs.com/waterways/2018/06/29/two-deaths-...

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/southern-resident-...

This is heartbreaking, there's not much more to say about that situation. Poor Orca.

On a sidenote, for those who got paywalled like me: https://outline.com/7fPjUN