Scarlet, also named J50, was a juvenile female member of the endangered

Southern Resident Orca The southern resident orcas, also known as the southern resident killer whales (SRKW), are the smallest of four separate, non-interbreeding communities of the exclusively fish-eating ecotype of orca in the northeast portion of the North Pacific O ...

group in

Puget Sound Puget Sound ( ) is a sound of the Pacific Northwest, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. It is located along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected ma ...

, Washington. She was born near

South Pender Island Pender Island ( Saanich: ) is one of the Southern Gulf Islands located in the Gulf of Georgia, British Columbia, Canada. Pender Island is approximately in area and is home to about 2,250 permanent residents, as well as a large seasonal populati ...

, British Columbia around Christmas Day, 2014. In late June, 2018, Scarlet appeared emaciated and was feared near death. Another calf died in late July, 2018 leaving Scarlet "represent ngthe future" of the declining Southern Residents, thought to number 75, cut off from their food supply of Puget Sound

chinook salmon The Chinook salmon (''Oncorhynchus tshawytscha'') is the largest and most valuable species of Pacific salmon in North America, as well as the largest in the genus ''Oncorhynchus''. Its common name is derived from the Chinookan peoples. Other ve ...

, themselves listed as a threatened species. Scarlet's mother, known as J16, was born in 1972. In August 2018, the

Lummi Nation The Lummi ( ; Lummi: ''Xwlemi'' ; also known as Lhaq'temish (), or ''People of the Sea''), governed by the Lummi Nation, are a Native American tribe of the Coast Salish ethnolinguistic group. They are based in the coastal area of the Pacific No ...

, a federally recognized tribe with treaty rights to salmon, announced a plan to feed Scarlet from their own chinook catch. Beginning in early August, marine veterinarians delivered doses of antibiotics via a

dart gun A dart gun is an air rifle that fires a dart. The dart is tipped with a hypodermic needle and filled with a tranquilizer, vaccine, or antibiotic. A dart gun containing a tranquillizer is called a tranquillizer gun ( also spelled tranquilizer, tra ...

. The idea of feeding her medicated fish was also under consideration. On September 13, 2018, Ken Balcomb, the senior scientist and president of the Center for Whale Research on San Juan Island in Washington state, said Scarlet was probably dead, though her remains had yet to be discovered.

References

External links

{{Commons category, Scarlet (orca)
J50 and J35 updates
NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region 2014 animal births Individual orcas Individual wild animals Southern resident orcas 2018 in Washington (state) 2018 animal deaths

See also

References

Further reading

External links