It has happened again. Another grieving orca mother carrying her dead baby off the West Coast. We don’t know when, exactly, her baby died, or how long Tsuchi had been carrying her calf’s body, but it was mere days before the flurry of fossil fuel expansion projects announced for the coast last week.

Tsuchi is one of very few remaining mothers among the critically endangered southern resident orcas. And she is one of those we’ve seen carrying a dead calf before. Tsuchi has one daughter, now seven years old, but researchers say she has lost at least eight other babies before or shortly after birth.

It’s a tragic but common occurrence these days. Less than one-third of pregnancies result in a calf living to its first birthday among the southern resident orcas and there are just over 70 individuals left in the entire population, with perhaps as few as 10 or 12 reproductive females.

Another member of Tsuchi’s pod made headlines around the world a few years ago when Tahlequah swam with the body of her dead calf for 17 days over 1,600 kilometres. After the seventh day, other members of her pod started taking turns allowing Tahlequah to rest. She lost another baby and made another “tour of grief” through the southern Salish Sea for eleven days last year.

One researcher who witnessed that mournful procession explained that orcas are “highly intelligent and have........

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