Expert gives up hope that ailing whale will be found alive as search continues
SEATTLE — A scientist says there is “no chance” a sick killer whale at the centre of an international effort to provide the orca with medical treatment will be found alive.
Ken Balcomb of the Center for Whale Research in Washington state said the southern resident killer whale known as J50 hasn’t been seen for several days and he believes she died between last Friday and Monday.
“I know that she is gone for a week and deceased,” he said Thursday. “There is no chance that she will still be alive, so we’re writing her off.”
He said the last sighting was by a biologist on Friday evening and her pod, including her mother, has been seen off the coast of British Columbia and Washington state since then without the three-year-old whale.