By Heather Spaulding

Journal Reporter

The baby orca that was found dead on the west side of Vancouver Island on Dec. 29 is not a member of the J-pod or L-pod, Michael Harris, executive director of the Pacific Whale Watch Association, confirmed Monday, Jan. 4.

The whale was a female transient whale, not a member of the Southern resident population of orcas that frequent Puget Sound waters.

“Nothing is absolute until we get the results of the DNA tests back,” Harris said. “And that will take months. But we are pretty confident that this calf was a transient.”

He said they made comparisons of a photo of the dead calf to the group’s catalogue and found no shot that matched. He added that there are as many as 500 transient whales that swim up and down the coast.

Although a determination of how the whale died won’t come until the DNA results do, Harris said there was no trauma to the whale.

“Right now the Department of Fisheries and Oceans in Canada believe it died due to an infection,” he said. “There was no trauma. It was not attacked and we can safely say it had nothing to do with any military activity in the area or ship strike.”

Whale advocates worried that the dead calf might have been one of the eight new babies born over the last year to the J-Pod or L-pod group of killer whales in the Puget Sound waters.

“Baby whales often die,” he said. “Their mortality rate is about 50 percent. Sometimes it’s just not a viable calf.”