Agency: Dead orca calf found on Wash. beach was part of endangered population of killer whales
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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Fisheries Service says a dead newborn orca calf found on Washington's Olympic Peninsula last week belongs to a population of endangered killer whales.
The agency said Tuesday that scientists are trying to determine what killed the 7 ½-foot-long male calf. He was found on a Dungeness Spit beach.
An initial DNA analysis showed the calf was a member of the southern resident killer whales that spend summer months in Puget Sound.
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NOAA spokesman Brian Gorman says the death is not unusual and that mortality rates among killer whales tends to be high.