The Tenakee Orca
by Sophia Strong
Photo Credit Laura Strong
NOAA Permit #1878604
***This essay won Honorable Mention in UAA/Anchorage Daily News Creative Writing Contest for the Grades 6-8 Nonfiction Category.
On Friday, November 13, 2020, my grandpa found a dead middle-aged female Orca (Orcinus orca, from the family Delphinidae), floating not far from his house in Tenakee Springs. Tenakee is a rural town in Southeast Alaska with an approximate 70 person population year round, a dirt road and no cars.
Grandpa called the main marine authorities in Tenakee-Steve, Rachel, Nick, and Molly-and they excitedly came to drag the whale up the beach and secure it. The next day my family and I went to see it, floating with its right side up in the waters of a high tide. In multiple places, it was scarred with little indentions, likely from birds pecking at it. Steve had already taken two blubber samples, one on either side of the dorsal fin, and tried to get out a tooth. However, he accidentally cut through the root, which is the part needed for counting growth rings to determine the age of the orca.
Just as we were leaving Steve and Rachel came in, and so we went back to the orca with them and pulled it to shore. Soon Molly and Nick arrived with Megan and her dog Odie.
Once the tide had gone out some, we began taking measurements. Steve would call them out for me to write down, while my sisters Bella and Kirsten played in the woods. Due to a Seaplanes delay, the tools needed for the necropsy that NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) was going to send out would not be coming until the next day. Due to the Corona Virus pandemic, NOAA would not be sending out specialized scientists to cut open the whale like they otherwise would have. Instead, Steve and Molly would head the necropsy, because of their experience. So, once all the measurements were taken, people began to depart.
At some point during the measurements, Grandma and Grandpa also showed up, so after we were finished, we decided to stop off at their place. Bella, Kirsten and I ended up staying the night with them, while our parents went back to town. The next morning, we saw Steve and Rachel headed to the orca’s cove around 7, and around 7:30 we saw Molly and Nick headed in the same direction.
At around 8 we got to the necropsy site, where Steve and Molly had blubber peeled away. They were just taking the last of the needed rib samples out, and were about to the point where they could start really cutting into it.
When a necropsy is done on an animal, the main purpose is to find out how it died. It is similar to an autopsy, only for animals. In the case of endangered and/or protected animals, the people doing the necropsy try to identify it, as well.
Rachel, who was writing down information, taking notes and putting samples away, had assigned jobs to the volunteers; Megan had the sheet of what samples needed to be taken, Nick was sharpening knives and taking photos, Grandma and Grandpa drug away the blubber and other unneeded parts, and I labeled the sample bags. Bella and Kirsten watched until the smell of the dead orca started getting to them.
My parents had said they’d try and get back out to see the inside of the whale, so when no one else had shown up, Megan tried radioing them a couple times. Once they responded Megan was on her way to town to pick up my mom in Nick and Molly’s skiff. After a while, we saw the skiff come around the bend and into the cove. Megan pulled up onto the beach. She and my mom got out, then Megan re-anchored it.
Soon, the whale’s intestines were being pulled out onto a tarp that had been set down to keep the organs clean. Rachel and Steve tied off, cut, and then tied again a portion of the intestines, which we put in a bag. If the intestines weren’t tied off, the contents would all come spilling out. The leftover intestines were dragged to the pile with the blubber. This was the pile for everything that we didn’t need and it would either be washed away by the incoming tide or eaten by birds. A few other samples we took were liver, lung, right eye, trachea, and stomach and intestine fluid.
Once most of the organs had been taken out and the tide was just over the orca’s tail, the uterus, bladder, kidneys, and stomach, which had been put on the tarp, were dragged up to a mossy spot where they’d be safe from the tide.
Molly and Steve noticed that the stomach had some sort of bones or something else hard in it, so they cut it open. There were multiple bones inside, including either seal or sea lion claws, and multiple smaller marine mammal bones.
The stomach and its contents were put in a tote for NOAA and the uterus was put in a bucket. (The poor pilot who had to fly that into Juneau! His plane probably smelled like a rotten whale for the rest of the day.) By then, the tide was high enough that the whale was just about surrounded by water again, and there wasn’t any beach left to walk on.
Since the necropsy was basically done and there wasn’t really any part of the mammal left on dry land, we headed back to town. After we left the whale was rolled over so a picture of the left side could be taken for identification.
NOAA worked with partners to identify the orca as T124A3, and gave her the number of 20200246. She had her first calf, a male, the year before, and that calf was named T124A3A. T124A3 was 15 years old, and has been unofficially nicknamed ‘Whilhemina’ by my mom and the others who took part in the necropsy. Her and her calf are from the T124A group, or pod, of orcas, which are commonly seen from Southeast Alaska to Northern Washington. The T124A pod is so well known in Southwestern British Columbia that there was a press release mentioning T124A3 (‘Whilhemina’)’s death
So far the orca has been the main food source for a now very healthy, happy bear, (who is FAT), along with multiple ravens, crows, and eagles. Now all that’s left of it is a skeleton.
While Orcas are also known as Killer Whales and are well known for their impressive vertical dorsal fin, they are actually classified as dolphins. The large fin is only seen on males, while the dorsal fin on females is smaller and more curved.
I am happy I was able to be part of the necropsy and glad I was able to help.
Editor’s Note: This Orca’s year-old calf, T124A3A, was adopted by his grandmother, T124A. Scientists did not identify the cause of death for this orca, T124A3.