Submitted by the Center for Whale Research

The Center for Whale Research has received photos showing what appears to be a new calf in L pod. Our colleague Monika Wieland-Shields at the Orca Behavior Institute alerted us to a Facebook post by Howie Tom showing a calf with members of the L77 matriline on June 19 off Tofino, British Columbia. This new calf appears to be over three weeks old and would be the first new calf in L pod since L125 was born in 2021. CWR researchers will need to conduct on-the-water encounters with this group to determine who the calf’s mother is, assess its health, and assign it an alpha-numeric designation. We hope to see this calf in our study area very soon!