ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A federal fisheries official says an aerial survey has failed to find a juvenile killer whale last seen swimming in a river in southwest Alaska. NOAA Fisheries spokeswoman Julie Speegle says the latest search by air took place Monday afternoon.
There’s been no sign of the young whale in two days. It was last spotted swimming downriver in the Nushagak River on Saturday, the same day the carcasses of two other adult orcas, believed to be females, were discovered in the river.
Four veterinarians are scheduled to fly to Dillingham on Tuesday to perform necropsies on the two adult whales. Leading the effort will be a killer whale specialist from SeaWorld in San Diego.
____
Contact The Daily Reveille’s news staff at [email protected]
No sign of young killer whale in Alaska river
October 9, 2011
A photo provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows the remains of a killer whale in the Nushagak river near Portage Creek, Alaska Saturday Oct. 8, 2011. Federal biologists have confirmed that two of the three killer whales that swam far up the river in southwestern Alaska have died.
More to Discover
