A 400-pound, 7-foot-long, orange-and-black newborn may have already set the record for Kitsap’s largest baby of the year, but its arrival has coincided with a tragic loss.

Whale watchers Hongming Zheng and Amy Fowler captured sightings of a new orca calf off the coast of Point No Point in Hansville Dec. 30, marking the third baby born to the J-pod of Southern Resident Killer Whales in 2024. Orca calves are orange or pink when they’re born and turn white.

The new calf, dubbed J62, appeared to be in good health, reported whale scientists Maya Sears, Mark Sears, Candice Emmons and Brad Hanson with the Center for Whale Research, though they initially mistook it for another calf born earlier last year who had been showing signs of lethargy less than a week before. Initial celebrations became tinged with grief when marine mammal researchers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration confirmed that the older calf, J61, had likely died.

“The death of any calf in the SRKW population is a tremendous loss, but the death of J61 is particularly devastating — not just because she was a female, who could have one day potentially led her own matriline — but also given the history of her mother J35 who has now lost two out of four documented calves, both of which were female,” wrote CWR officials in a press release.

The sex of the new orca calf, J62, is not yet known.

Of the three orca family groups that make up the subspecies, J-Pod spends the most time in the Salish Sea, traveling as far north as Texada Island in British Columbia and as far south as central Puget Sound. Both Southern and Northern Resident killer whales are characterized by matrilineal social groups and their diet.

Unlike the transient and offshore subspecies, they eat mostly fish. Chinook salmon are a favorite, though any will do, and J-Pod is frequently spotted in the interior Sound while chasing winter chum salmon runs.

Declining salmon populations and bioaccumulation of toxic chemicals have contributed to orca calf mortality, researchers say. Flame retardants and forever chemicals affect orca fertility rates and can be transferred from mother to offspring.

Orca calves have a low survival rate, typically 50%, and two of the three babies born to J-Pod in 2024 died. J61 belonged to J35 Tahlequah, who became globally famous in 2018 for her prolonged mourning ritual. Tahlequah was seen carrying her dead baby on her head for 17 days and over 1,000 miles. NOAA scientists saw her performing the same behavior with the body of J61 as of Jan. 6, marking at least five days of her grieving period.