SEATTLE (AP) – The endangered killer whales that frequent the inland waters of Washington state are having pregnancy problems because they can’t find enough to eat.
That’s according to a new study by researchers who analyzed hormones in excrement collected at sea and found more than two-thirds of orca pregnancies failed over a seven-year period.
They linked it to nutritional stress brought on by a low supply of Chinook salmon, the preferred diet of southern resident killer whales.
University of Washington professor Sam Wasser, the paper’s lead author, says whales are conceiving.
But when nutrition is low, they don’t sustain pregnancies.
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