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Killer whales have returned to a cove in Washington's Puget Sound

A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:

For the first time in more than 50 years, a pod of killer whales has been spotted swimming in a notorious part of Washington's Puget Sound.

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

It's called Penn Cove, and it's known for a roundup that took place in the 1970s. Hunters used boats, nets and even explosives to herd and capture orcas.

TAMARA KELLEY: Orcas are cultural. They pass down information from generation to generation, including, you know, don't go there. That's a dangerous place. So that was monumental, to see them go back in there.

MARTÍNEZ: That's Tamara Kelley with the nonprofit Orca Conservancy. She says the whales that returned to the cove are known as the L Pod. They belong to a killer whale ecotype called Southern Residents.

KELLEY: The Southern Residents are the critically endangered ones. There's 73 left and that population is expected to drop.

MARTIN: That's because it wasn't just the Penn Cove captures that drove the population down. Julie Watson is the killer whale policy lead at Washington's Department of Fish and Wildlife.

JULIE WATSON: A lot of the things we're still doing today can have a negative impact on the population.

MARTÍNEZ: Watson says whales' three main threats are lack of prey, underwater noise from passing vessels and toxins that pollute both the water and their food.

MARTIN: The state collaborates with groups like Ocean Conservancy, NOAA and the Canadian department of Fisheries and Oceans to restore prey populations, monitor boat traffic and help eliminate pollution.

WATSON: As long as we're continuing to all together and work on all of these threats cumulatively as much as we can, we're giving the population the best chance to survive.

MARTÍNEZ: It's a mystery why the L Pod returned to Penn Cove after more than 50 years. But Tamara Kelley with the Orca Conservancy says the community is celebrating their return.

KELLEY: They show us that they are capable of healing and recovering. And so I hope that this offers people some hope and people can keep fighting for them.

(SOUNDBITE OF SKYWAY MAN'S "DINNER WITH THE NEIGHBOR'S KIDS") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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