Life cut short, but not in vain | Letters

Published 8:53 am Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Thank you to the Journal for covering the story of Sooke (L-112), printed in the Feb. 22 edition(“Tragic end; homeward bound”, page 1).

As stated in the article, The Whale Museum is honored and privileged to take possession of her skeleton.  We are still in the process of designing the exhibit and education program around her, but will definitely need to do raise funds to help make this happen.

As far as the necropsy on this orca calf, we wanted to clarify a couple of points.

As with most necropsies, it’s hard to make an immediate determination of the cause of death at the scene. Although a lot of subsurface hemorrhaging was noticed on L-112 (which is generally attributed to some type of blunt force trauma), it will take weeks or even months to get all the results back on the numerous tissue samples sent to the pathologist.

A CT-scan was also taken of L-112’s head in an effort to detect any bone fractures or abnormalities around the bullae (ear bones). Again, we’re waiting on the results of this scan from the radiologist.

Most importantly, it should be recognized that —with a stranding of this magnitude—many parties are involved. In this case, Portland State University, Cascadia Research Collective and Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife took the lead on the necropsy.

Their quick response and ability to gather all the necessary resources to perform a necropsy the day after the stranding was critical with regards to pathology samples, along with their combined years of expertise in this type of work.

In the end, it will be a combination of seasoned professionals who will be trying to make a determination as to what caused L-112’s death. Even if that isn’t completely possible, the information we will be able to extract (i.e., genetics and toxins) will be an invaluable resource in the continuing effort to bolster the population of our endangered Southern Resident orcas.

Jenny Atkinson/Amy Traxler, Whale Muesum

— Editor’s note: Amy Traxler is coordinator of the Marine Mammal  Stranding Network; Jenny Atkinson is executive director of the Whale Museum