Beasts of Seattle: Orcas

In The Moment podcast

The orca is an apex predator, and yet, without Chinook salmon to feed on and silent waters to hunt in, Seattle’s most famous animal cannot survive. There are only 73 Southern Resident killer whales remaining, and the population will have a hard time growing unless we change our behavior to accommodate them. As part of the Beasts of Seattle podcast series, Town Hall’s Podcast Artist-in-Residence Samantha Allen talks with The Seattle Times environmental reporter and Orca: Shared Waters, Shared Home author Lynda V. Mapes about what we need to do for the orca to come home.

Samantha Allen is the author of Patricia Wants to Cuddle and the Lambda Literary Award finalist, Real Queer America: LGBT Stories from Red States. A GLAAD Award-winning journalist, Samantha’s writing has been published by The New York Times, Rolling Stone, CNN, and more.

The music for this podcast was written and performed by John Gould. You can find more of John’s music at johngould.bandcamp.com. The art for this podcast was made by Sadie Collins. “The Great Salish Sea” provided courtesy of Dana Lyons. You can hear more of Dana’s music at cowswithguns.com. Orca: Shared Waters, Shared Home by Lynda V. Mapes and published by Braided River is available from local booksellers. Orca: How We Came to Know and Love the Ocean’s Greatest Predator is available from Oxford University Press.

Sources: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/environment/the-orca-and-the-orca-catcher-how-a-generation-of-killer-whales-was-taken-from-puget-sound/ https://seaworld.com/san-diego/commitment/killer-whales/ https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-xpm-2010-03-07-os-seaworld-killer-whale-brains-20100302-story.html https://www.npr.org/2018/07/31/634314741/after-calfs-death-orca-mother-carries-it-for-days-in-tragic-tour-of-grief https://www.npr.org/2018/08/12/638047095/after-17-days-and-1-000-miles-a-mother-orcas-tour-of-grief-is-over https://orcaconservancy.networkforgood.com/projects/129224-hydrophone-project https://killerwhale.org/biggs-transient-killer-whales/ http://orcazine.com/granny-j2/ https://ptmsc.org/programs/investigate/citizen-science/completed-projects/orca-project/resident-and-transient-orcas https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/understanding-orca-culture-12494696/ https://e360.yale.edu/features/on-the-northwests-snake-river-the-case-for-dam-removal-grows https://www.salmonrecovery.gov/home/lower-snake-river-dams-power-benefits

Presented by Town Hall Seattle. Beasts of Seattle is part of Town Hall’s Artist-in-Residence program.