Southern Resident orcas may be Canada’s most endangered marine mammals—only 74 individuals remained at the end of 2020. While other types of orcas hunt various marine mammals, birds, squid and even sharks, the diet of Southern Residents is exclusively fish. Chinook salmon is the preferred item on their menu.
Declining Chinook populations over the past several decades are the primary cause of the dwindling Southern Resident population. Though they eat salmon year-round, the whales spend May to October feasting on Chinook in the Salish Sea. In recent years, Southern Resident pods have been returning to these summer hunting grounds later, likely due to a decrease in foraging success. More of the orcas are also malnourished and fewer newborns have survived.
In addition to a lack of sufficient food, habitat disturbance, pollution and noise are also major threats. Orcas rely on echolocation to find and capture their prey. This specialized hunting strategy is impeded by increasing noise from marine activities and vessel traffic. Pollution impacts every level of the marine food web but for top predators like orcas, which can eat large volumes of contaminated prey, these toxins can accumulate in their bodies over time and be especially harmful.
This particular population of orcas has also been directly exploited by humans. In the 1960s and 1970s, a total of 47 individuals that are known or likely to have been Southern Residents were captured and shipped to aquariums, dramatically reducing the population.
- 30 Limited Edition prints created in each size
- Created with pigment-based archival inks on 235 gsm paper
- Hand-signed and numbered
