It was a happy ending for the whale, which returned to sea about six hours after it was spotted on the shore. The Canadian authorities confirmed the orca was a Bigg’s killer whale of the “West Coast transient” population. However, the quake, which was the country’s largest in 50 years, did not cause the whale to be stranded, NOAA said. Toa, an orphaned baby killer whale, suffered a different fate than T146D after it washed ashore in New Zealand this month. Five whales, including T146D, have been recorded as stranded on the West Coast in the past two decades, said Jared Towers, a researcher at Fisheries and Oceans Canada, a government department, and Bay Cetology, a killer whale research organization.

Source: New York Times July 31, 2021 14:34 UTC