Newborn orca spotted off San Juan Island excites researchers

For now, it's called L111. It'll have to live a year to earn a less cryptic name.

Just a few hours after the orca calf's birth, whale researchers discovered it off the west coast of San Juan Island on Tuesday afternoon.

"Every new addition to the population is always positive," said Erin Heydenreich, staffer at the Center for Whale Research in Friday Harbor. "It's fairly rare to find a calf so soon after it was born."

Typically during a summer, the center counts one or two new calves from the three resident pods around the San Juans. The orcas usually spend winters in the ocean and summers in inland waters.

L111's appearance is an especially welcome sight since two members of its pod, including its grandmother, have been missing several months, which could indicate they've died, Heydenreich said.

It's not easy being a fresh-finned orca in a big ocean. L111's 34-year-old mother, Marina, gave birth to her last calf in the summer of 2005, but it survived only a few months. Overall, about half of all orca calves don't make it through their first year.

"The first couple of years are usually the most precarious," Heydenreich said, but if L111 makes it back next summer, it will most likely live on, she said.

It's unclear what kills off the young whales, Heydenreich said. Mother whales may not produce enough milk at times, but that doesn't seem to be the case for Marina. She has two surviving daughters, originally dubbed L83 and L91 and now called Moonlight and Muncher, respectively.

If L111 returns to the San Juans next summer, it will officially be counted in L pod's population and receive a nickname from the Orca Adoption Program of the Whale Museum.

The research center counted 43 whales in the pod last year. An official count for this year won't be made until the end of 2008.

Sean Rose: 206-464-2292 or srose@seattletimes.com