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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.

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