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Aleksi-Ann — In Loving Memory
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#aleksi #calf #cetacean #draws #indigo #killer #life #lulu #mammal #marine #orca #resident #rhapsody #sea #southern #traditional #whale #corkyii #l100 #l120 #l53 #j32 #binkaminka #srkw #aleksidraws
Published: 2014-12-28 18:09:18 +0000 UTC; Views: 1173; Favourites: 20; Downloads: 1
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Description
Orcas: The Southern Residents who have been lost this year From Top to Bottom, L120 (unnamed calf of Surprise), L100 Indigo, J32 Rhapsody and her unborn calf, and L53 Lulu
Pod: J and L pod.
Born: Salish Sea
status: Deceased
Reference: multiple for markings (except Rhapsody's calf whose markings re made up)
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YIKES
The top four look okay but I really butchered the anatomy on Lulu! This is why I rarely draw without pose references.
SIP darlings, I hope your deaths can inspire change in humans, so that your population can recover. All of these whales died prematurely, and Rhapsody who washed ashore, was malnourished and likely starved to death.
Sorry about the scanner blind spot
Things YOU can do to help the Southern Residents:
-STOP EATING SALMON! Whales need it to live, you do not. These animals are starving and salmon stocks are low!
-sign petitions to help restore salmon runs such as this www.change.org/p/rick-larsen-s…
-abide by laws set in place to protect marine mammals. Do not harass them on boats, do not feed wild whales. This applies to all populations.
-seek out reputable whale watching tours. Even these do harass whales, the best whale watching is land based! The animals are safer this way.
-live your life as green as you can, this helps all animals and not just orcas!
-Symbolically adopt a whale from the Whale Museum and other sources. The money you spend to get some really neat stuff will be used for research and will help the population, even if only minor. In return you get awesome things and can learn a lot about an individual whale! whalemuseum.org/
-donate to other organizations who help wild whales! The Centre of Whale Research is another great organization, who are dedicated to learning more about these animals so that we can do more to help them.
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Comments: 12
Beautiful tribute to them all. So many sad deaths this year.
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thats so cool and very fitting to them as well
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We can only hope that the coming years sees an influx of calves and an increase in salmon population. I truly hope that people don't see what needs to be done to save these animals before its too late... They need the salmon more than we do.
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Really beautiful tribute 
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thanks
It's suspected the pregnancy isn't even what killed her (though it likely contributed) and that it was the starvation. If she was nourished properly, she had a better chance at expelling the stillborn. Salmon runs really need to be restored for the population to recover.
This was a really bad year, the SR's took a major hit. I hope past trends continue, and that 2015 is full of births.
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From the initial necropsy results, the COD was determined. www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/fm-gp/sp…
The calf died in utero and started decomposing in her body which led to septicemia that ultimately killed her. From the photos I have seen of the necropsy, I don't think calf was in the birth canal. I don't believe Rhapsody ever went into labor.
This is a common concern with all pregnancies, human and animal. Sometimes the mother randomly expels a dead fetus, sometimes it doesn't. I'm not sure how nutrition plays a part. When this happens to dogs, they must go to the vet and have the fetus surgically removed to save the life of the mother.
Technically starvation didn't kill Rhapsody, her calf did. But of course there is a chance that starvation is what caused her calf to die. Or, calf could have just died for no related reason, because that happens sometimes. I guess the full necropsy might reveal that information.
Either way. I'm sad this happened and I'm sad the poor whales are hungry
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Thanks for the link, I haven't read the necropsy yet, ive just been reading quotes and bits from other people, this sounds like a Samoa situation almost, such a sad way to go (not that any way would be happy with a young whale in a struggling population)
Rhapsody was quite a breacher too, who knows how the weight of all that effected her calf. Lots is contributing to their struggle, hopefully the recent deaths can inspire some change!
sad no matter the cause indeed, and painfully ironic that pregnancy complications killed her..
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In other news, just confirmed J-16 Slick has a new baby! Woohoo! Hopefully baby can last the year <3
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I was reading rumours! Glad that it's confirmed, slick is such a good mom!
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When the SR's are all fat and healthy, the water pollution where they live tends to get locked away in their body fat, where it doesn't cause them quite as much harm. As soon as they can't find food, they burn up their blubber and release ALL the poisons that are stored there. From what I read, that's believed to be the cause of Rhapsody's calf's death - when Rhapsody started metabolising her blubber in order to survive (which she had to do because pregnancy is a LOT of hard work even when there's plenty of food), all those accumulated pesticides, flame retardants and so on would have been released into her body, and also into the calf's body. Essentially the calf was poisoned to death.
Sadly, this likely means that any future calves are going to have the same problem, and it's probably why there's been so few births - most of the calves in recent years probably miscarried or were stillborn. The only one to actually be born, L120, likely also died for the same reason, she/he(?) just got 'lucky' in that it didn't happen quite so quickly.
Even so, if the salmon stocks are restored enough to keep the SR's really well-fed, the pollution problem will have less of an impact because most of it will be locked away in their blubber where it doesn't interact with their immune system and internal organs quite so much. Pregnancy is still going to be a dangerous time, though.
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I know about PCBs
The death of the calf could have been numerous factors, but we can make informed assumptions until there is official word. I previously said I know starvation could have led to the death of the calf (Either through malnourishment or through increased intake of toxins), but I'm assuming you're responding to me because I said, "I'm not sure how nutrition plays a part."
However what I was referring to in context, was I don't know how nutrition could have played a part in Rhapsody's ability to expel the dead calf or overcome septicemia. I just don't see how it would have helped her.
This same situation could have happened to a very well fed, fat whale, with her calf dying and decomposing in utero, and likely would have had the same outcome.
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