The Center for Whale Research (CWR) announced in a social media post that endangered southern resident killer whale, J31, had been seen with a dead newborn calf by one of its researchers.

Researcher Mark Malleson was near Sombrio Point in the Strait of Juan de Fuca on Oct. 3 when he saw J31 and her immediate family.

CWR does not know if the newborn calf was male or female, if it had been a full term birth or if it had died after birth or was a stillborn. 

According to CWR, the loss is significant to the endangered killer whale population. J31 has been observed carrying a dead calf once before in 2016. 

J31 was born in 1995 and only has one surviving offspring, her daughter J56, who was born in 2019.

“For a population as small as the southern residents, the successful birth and survival of every calf matters. Many factors limit the population’s ability to reproduce and recover, but one of the most significant is the availability of the large, nutritionally rich Chinook salmon these whales depend on,” read CWR’s statement.