She was my first wild orca. I will never forget that moment as I sat on the bow of the M/V Sea Lion, mere hours after stepping off the ferry, and I was looking at her family. I watched her glossy back break the surface and heard that powerful "kwoof" that instantly became my favorite sound. I took in every detail of her closed saddlepatch and petite dorsal fin with a scallop out of the trailing edge before she dove below the surface. With a wandering tear rolling over my cheek, and all of J Pod around the boat, my decision to move three thousand miles across the country, to a place I had only read about and did not know soul, was reaffirmed by that whale. She immediately made me feel at home, and I was immediately even further in love.
J2 Granny embodied thousands of years of culture, and was the keeper of her family’s greatest secrets. She would have known their best fishing grounds, the intricacies of their language; she would have been the keeper of their complex social codes and traditions. As the oldest female within this population she was in charge of their day-to-day wanderings as well as passing along her knowledge base to her family members. She was a true matriarch and teacher. I cannot count the number of times that I watched her swim around Turn Point, deciding which way to lead her family with a spy hop and a tail-slap. Some of my favorite days spent with J2 were when you could point to her fin surrounded by the youngsters of her family and explain that she was babysitting and teaching. J2 was the quintessential female of her species.
She lived a long life, so in a way her passing is easier to process than that of her supposed granddaughter J14 Samish or her relatives J34 Doublestuf, J28 Polaris and her calf J54 Dipper, or, outside of her immediate family, the passing of L95 Nigel. That does not discount the grief that I, our community of whale watchers, and, I am sure, her family, feel. I am interested to see who within their ranks becomes their dependable leader. Who will fill the void that Granny left?
Today, I don't feel like I've lost hope for the continued survival of the Southern Residents, but I am teetering close to that critical point. With this last, horrible year of whale deaths, culminating with the losses of J2 and J34, we must decide where we stand as a society on the issues that these iconic whales face. These whales need cleaner waters, they need safer waters, and they need more food. Are we as a society going to sit idly by while we watch these incredible animals slip through our fingers to extinction? How are we going to solve the problems that we as a society have created? Let us be led by Granny’s legacy towards a new future in conservation for her family. I want to be able to bring my children and my grandchildren to these waters and be able to share Granny’s family with my future family firsthand.
Today I can’t say that we as a society are doing enough to secure a reality where there are still Southern Resident Killer Whales to be shared with our future kin. We must decide to make a difference now. We must start to actually care now. Share information on social media platforms, but also get out, roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty with local conservation projects; give money to, and volunteer with conservation organizations. We only have 78 of these precious whales left. Seventy-eight.
Every summer whale watchers eagerly wait for all of the Southern Residents to arrive here in the Salish Sea after a winter of fishing and fattening up offshore in open water. When all three Southern Resident pods, J, K & L, are here the situation is fondly referred to as a “superpod.” Early on in the summer season, when the whales haven’t seen each other for months, this is usually accompanied by a set of behaviors known as a, “Greeting Ceremony.” Greeting Ceremonies are joyful occurrences, full of breaches, complex vocalizations, and many other social behaviors. The other night we had heavy gusts and whistling winds here in the San Juan Islands. Listening to the gale outside, and reading the news of her passing, part of me wanted to believe that we were privy to just a taste of J2’s Greeting Ceremony on the other side.
Rest in Peace, my dear friend.
If you would like to make a difference for Granny’s family in her memory, please consider donating to one of the many organizations supporting conservation here in the Salish Sea. Our favorite organizations are:
J2 Granny at Sunset Sarah McCullagh