The black and slightly orange Bigg’s killer whale was spotted swimming with its mother, Sedna, in the Salish Sea
Sarah Kuta
Sarah Kuta - Daily Correspondent
April 3, 2025 1:16 p.m.
Baby orca next to mother orca
The black and peachy-orange orca calf was seen swimming with, Sedna, a descendant of one of the Budd Inlet Six. Tom Filipovic / Eagle Wing Whale & Wildlife Tours / Pacific Whale Watch Association
On a Sunday afternoon in March 1976, SeaWorld contractors herded a family of orcas into Budd Inlet at the southern tip of Puget Sound. Using underwater explosives, planes and power boats, they corralled the killer whales into a net, in hopes of taking them into captivity to entertain guests at marine parks.
The men had a federal permit that allowed them to capture the whales. But Ralph Munro, then an aide to Washington’s Governor Dan Evans, didn’t like what he saw. Munro was out sailing in Budd Inlet as the situation unfolded.
“It was terrible to watch, to hear the whales scream as they tried to escape,” he told the New York Times’ Wallace Turner in 1987. “We were horrified at the cruelty, at the bombs in the water, the nets, the fright of the whales.”
The scene still haunted him more than three decades later, when he told the Seattle Times’ Lynda V. Mapes that it “just didn’t seem right.”
“Like going down the street, and seeing someone kicking a dog,” he told the publication in 2018.
The orcas, which belonged to the Bigg’s killer whale population, became known as the “Budd Inlet Six.” Their capture triggered public outcry and a media frenzy, as well as a successful legal challenge spearheaded by Munro. Eventually, the orcas were released—SeaWorld agreed to stop capturing orcas in Washington waters, and orca hunts in the United States ceased.
Munro, who later served as Washington’s Secretary of State, died March 20 at the age of 81. But his legacy lives on: The same day Munro died, people spotted a newborn calf swimming in the Salish Sea that is a descendant of one of the “Budd Inlet Six.”
The calf, identified as T046B3A, was seen swimming alongside its mother, 14-year-old Sedna (T046B3). Sedna’s grandmother, Wake (T046), was one of the six orcas captured in March 1976 in Puget Sound—which means she belongs to a family whose story was “nearly cut short” almost 50 years ago, according to a statement from the Pacific Whale Watch Association.
Wake gave birth to at least eight calves, which led to 16 grand-calves and six great-grand-calves so far, according to the association.
“Without the direct efforts of Ralph Munro, at least 30 Bigg’s killer whales would have never been born,” according to the statement. “Today, Bigg’s killer whales are thriving in Salish Sea waters.”
Bigg’s killer whales live in the North Pacific Ocean. They are genetically and culturally distinct from the region’s other orca population, known as the resident killer whales, which swim in tight-knit family pods and primarily feast on salmon. Bigg’s killer whales, meanwhile, travel in smaller groups and hunt other marine mammals like porpoises, seals and sea lions. The two populations often share the same coastal waters, but they do not interbreed.
An estimated 380 Bigg’s killer whales and more than 300 northern resident killer whales live in the Salish Sea. By contrast, just 73 endangered southern resident killer whales remain in existence. Researchers say the differences in population size are likely due to varying food availability, threats to survival and different hunting styles.
Small orca next to larger orca
The calf's skin folds and orange coloring suggested it was just a week or two old at the time of the sighting. Tom Filipovic / Eagle Wing Whale & Wildlife Tours / Pacific Whale Watch Association
The new Bigg’s calf was spotted in the eastern Strait of Juan de Fuca with more than a dozen other orcas. Since the initial sighting, the calf has been glimpsed several other times.
“It was pretty exciting, there [were] a lot of whales,” Tomis Filipovic, a wildlife photographer with Eagle Wing Whale & Wildlife Tours in Canada who spotted the calf, says to CHEK News’ Liz Brown. “Three different matrilines in there, two of which were related and between those groups there are a lot of babies.”
Based on the calf’s fetal folds and distinctive orange coloring, experts suggest the creature was around one to two weeks old at the time of the initial sightings. Baby orcas appear black and orange, rather than white, because they are born with a thinner layer of blubber, which allows their blood vessels to get closer to their skin.
“When a calf is all scrunched up in mom’s belly, it’s all folded, it gets wrinkles in skin,” says Erin Gless, executive director of the Pacific Whale Watch Association, to CityNews Vancouver’s Cecilia Hua. “We can still see this in the first few weeks of life.”
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