Long-dead Puget Sound Orcas May Be Exhumed

Sunday, August 13, 2006
WHIDBEY ISLAND, WASHINGTON - Several orcas that died during captures for marine parks more than three decades ago may provide a wealth of information about Puget Sound's remaining killer whales.

Three to five orcas are believed to be buried in various sites on Whidbey Island, about 48 miles northwest of Seattle. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the University of Washington and the Orca Network, working jointly, want to find and exhume the remains for DNA analysis.

Orcas, often called killer whales but actually a kind of dolphin, are found in all the world's oceans.

The remains in question are believed to be from a 1970 hunt at Penn Cove off Whidbey Island, where more than 80 orcas were rounded up and seven were captured and sent to marine parks. As many as five got tangled in nets and drowned.

Brad Hanson, a wildlife biologist involved in the effort, said ground penetrating radar was used at the end of June to mark two potential sites that are expected to yield three remains. Other sites are being sought. Excavation won't begin for several months, he said.

Last year, the federal government declared Washington state's three resident orca pods endangered under federal law. The three pods number 89 orcas, down from historical levels of 120 or more in the past century but up from a low of 79 in 2001.

Pollution and a decline in prey are believed to be the biggest threats to the orcas, although stress from whale-watching boats and underwater sonar tests by the Navy are also concerns.

Source: The Oregonian