Call of the Orcas explores urgent efforts to recover endangered Southern Resident Killer Whales of the Pacific Northwest, through the eyes of one of their human champions, researcher Ken Balcomb, who passed away in 2022. Balcomb’s survey work over nearly fifty years helped people see these orcas as individuals, in family groups, and led to a subspecies listing under the US Endangered Species Act.

Southern Resident orcas are distinctive for many reasons. They prey exclusively on salmon, and live in close proximity to people, including indigenous communities who see them as family. Despite an aggressive capture program five decades ago, mutual curiosity between the people of Puget Sound and Southern Resident Killer Whales continues, raising an urgent question for human residents of the Salish Sea. Can we learn to live in a way that sustains the orcas among us? This story profiles a researcher running out of time, while 75 remaining whales depend our action for survival.