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Orcas are one of the most familiar forms of sea life, but in the wild, they are increasingly rare.

Off the coast of Port Angeles in Washington state, a team has whale watching down to a science. For the past 45 years, Ken Balcomb has taken to the waters of the Pacific Northwest, leading the Orca Survey, a long-term photo identification project focusing on what is known as the southern resident killer whale population of Puget Sound.

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Last week, KNKX environment reporter Bellamy Pailthorp brought us the story of a baby orca named Springer, who was rescued near Vashon Island after turning up lost and alone. Her rescuers figured out to which pod she belonged by listening to her calls.

The rescue of Springer unfolded 20 years ago this month. And that effort – the community coming together to return a young killer whale to her family – remains the only successful example of orca rehabilitation on record. Why is that?

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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) removed an estimated 550 feet of fishing equipment from a humpback whale's mouth and head off the coast of West Maui, Hawaii

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In the deep blue ocean just off the coast of Alaska, killer whales communicate with one another with clicks and whistles. Scientists are hearing them.

Hannah Myers has listened to many hours of orca calls in the Gulf of Alaska. The University of Alaska Fairbanks graduate student often knows a killer whale’s family group after hearing just a few syllables of its call.

Observations from a partial humpback whale birth that occurred off Maui last year, are now documented in a scientific publication.

Underwater footage captured by author Deborah Patton’s GoPro on Feb. 3, 2020 reveal an in-process birth with two male escorts surrounding the mother in labor after approaching a whale watching boat operated by Captain Steve’s Rafting Adventures in Lahaina.

“I knew there was a chance I could easily be killed by this whale,” whale scientist Nan Hauser can be heard saying in an interview with BBC Earth. Hauser was recollecting an unusual and shocking encounter between herself, a humpback whale, and a tiger shark.

While it sounds like the cast of a “walks into a bar” joke, her extremely up-close-and-personal run-in with the overprotective whale was actually quite scary.