It appears Father Time may finally have caught up to the elder statesman of the Southern Resident killer whales.

Biologists with the San Juan-based Center for Whale Research have accounted for each and every member of J-pod over the past several months —26 in all — with notable exception of J-1, also known as “Ruffles”.

The Center’s Dave Ellifrit added the killer whales that typically accompany J-1, including J-2, aka Granny, have been seen 3-4 times in the several month, but that Ruffles was nowhere in sight.

“Right now, we’re mindlessly optimistic but I think most of us feel deep down that he’s gone,” Ellifrit said. “If he’s gone, we’ve lost an icon. He’s the last of the ‘1s’ .”

Ruffles, believed to be 60-plus years of age, was last seen Nov. 21.

Named for the wavy-edge ruffle of his dorsal fin, J-1 was a full-grown bull when Ken Balcomb and crew at the center first began capturing the Southern residents on film more than three decades ago.

The Center first began tracking the comings and goings of the killer whales that make the San Juans their seasonal home in 1976, largely through the use of photo-idenification. Those photos are the foundation of the center’s “Orca Survey”, an annual census which accounts for each member of the population’s three clans, J, K and L.

Without J-1, the Southern population would total 86 animals.

Jenny Atkinson, director of Friday Harbor’s Whale Museum, noted that Ruffles, at 60-plus years, is one the Southern residents longest-lived males, which often disappear somewhere around their mid-20’s. Ruffles also has contributed to the health of the population by siring numerous offspring, she said.

“He definitely has done his part to grow the population,” she said. “And he’s beaten the odds for life-expectancy of these animals.”

Still, she sympathizes with the many callers who’ve contacted the museum in recent weeks hoping to hear that Ruffles has returned.

“We’ve had a lot of calls from people saying, ‘say it isn’t so’,” she said. “But when Granny (J-2) shows up that many times without Ruffles it’s not looking good.”

For info about Ruffles:

Center for Whale Research at www.whaleresearch.com/index.html/

The Whale Museum Web site at www.whale-museum.org/

To view Ruffles Facebook page see: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ruffles-J1-Celebration-PAGE/154328891292008