SEATTLE — This week, mother orca Tahlequah may have surpassed her 2018 tour of grief, when she carried her dead calf for 17 days and more than 1,000 miles.
Tahlequah was last seen still carrying her latest calf — dead since at least New Year’s Eve — on Jan. 10 off San Juan Island. That evening the southern resident family, part of J pod, headed west in the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
Tagging data and the acoustic records of the southern resident orcas’ vocalizations have revealed typical patterns for their seasonal foraging, said Brad Hanson, biologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center…