Dr.Jack
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SEATTLE, Washington (AP) -- Seven Puget Sound killer whales are missing and feared dead in what could be the biggest decline among the sound's orcas in nearly a decade, say scientists who carefully track the endangered animals.
This is a disaster," Ken Balcomb, a senior scientist at the Center for Whale Research on San Juan Island, said Friday. "The population drop is worse than the stock market."
While the official census won't be completed until December, the number of live "southern resident" orcas now stands at 83.
Among those missing since last year's count are the nearly century-old leader of one of the three southern resident pods, and two young females who recently bore calves.
The loss of the seven whales, Balcomb said, would be the biggest decline among the Puget Sound orcas since 1999, when the center also tracked a decline of seven whales.
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