Climate Lab is a Seattle Times initiative that explores the effects of climate change in the Pacific Northwest and beyond. The project is funded in part by The Bullitt Foundation, CO2 Foundation, Jim and Birte Falconer, Mike and Becky Hughes, Henry M. Jackson Foundation, Martin-Fabert Foundation, Craig McKibben and Sarah Merner, University of Washington and Walker Family Foundation, and its fiscal sponsor is the Seattle Foundation.
Just 74 southern resident orcas remain, as of the latest count by the Center for Whale Research. The count has hovered around this low point for several years.
The 2024 census tallied 73 orcas in the southern resident J, K and L pods. In the next census period, which ran from July 1, 2024, to July 1, 2025, four births were documented. Two of the calves and one