Orca pod returns to San Juan Islands with baby

Whale researchers say a pod of killer whales has returned from the ocean to Puget Sound waters with a new baby orca.

The Center for Whale Research at Friday Harbor reports members of the K and L pods were sighted Tuesday at the south end of San Juan Island. Researchers also spotted the new calf.

The whales were last seen in February in the Strait of Juan de Fuca (FEW'-kuh) near Sekiu and in January off Monterey, Calif.

The new calf would make 88 whales in the "southern resident" population of orcas that summers in Puget Sound. It was listed in 2005 as an endangered species.

In January the National Marine Fisheries Service released a recovery plan that listed the major threats to orcas as the availability of Chinook salmon, the damage of pollution and the disturbance of vessel traffic and noise.

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