Killer Whale as old as the Titanic feared dead after vanishing from hunting grounds
A LEGENDARY killer whale called Granny is feared dead at the grand age of 105.
After thousands of sightings over the last 40 years leading her pod of endangered orca, the majestic marine mammal born the year before the Titanic sunk has suddenly vanished from her favourite hunting grounds.
Conservationists who tracked her movements in the Pacific inlet of Puget Sound off the Washington coastline paid tribute to Granny in a moving “in memoriam”.
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“We knew this day would come, and each year that she returned with the rest of J pod brought us closer to this inevitable moment,” said the Center for Whale Research on Facebook.
"With heavy hearts we have to say goodbye to yet another southern resident, perhaps the most loved and known to all and the oldest orca to date: J2 also known as Granny."
Kenneth C Balcom from the Center for Whale Research told how J2 had been sighted thousands of times over the past few decades, invariably leading her pod.
Killer whale 'Granny' born the year before the TITANIC
“In 1987 we estimated that she was at least 45 years old and was more likely to have been 76 years old… And, she kept on going, like the energizer bunny,” he wrote.
With regret we now consider her deceased
“I last saw her on October 12, 2016, as she swam north in Haro Strait far ahead of the others. Perhaps other dedicated whale-watchers have seen her since then, but by year’s end she is officially missing from the southern resident killer whale population, and with regret we now consider her deceased.”
Southern resident killer whales are a unique group of fish-eating orca that live close to shore and have become some of the best studied marine mammals anywhere.
At one time, there were more than 140 southern resident killer whales, or “Salish Sea Orca as they are also known, but numbers began to decline in the 1970s when they were captured for marine parks and aquariums.
New threats contiunue, with pollution, marine noise and the depletion of fish stocks all taking a heavy toll.
In 2005, the population became of the only group of killer whales listed as endangered by the US authorities.
Seven of the whales are feared to have died during 2016, leaving only 78 individuals.
