Ken balcomb biography death

Environmental reporter Christopher Dunagan remembers the life and influence of pioneering orca researcher Ken Balcomb.

Ken Balcomb, whose meticulous decades-long effort to track a population of killer whales in the Pacific Northwest did much to transform the marine mammals' image from soulless predators to compassionate creatures worth protecting.

I am still adjusting to the world of killer whales without Ken Balcomb. Ken, who died Dec. Ken, who I called the dean of killer whale research, founded the Center for Whale Research and established an amazing year record of every birth and death among the Southern Resident orcas. This demographic record, which lists the sex, age and individual characteristics of every single whale, is essential to our understanding of how close to extinction these whales have become.

Few, if any, wildlife populations throughout the world have been studied so thoroughly, thanks to Ken and his dedicated teams of researchers. They and a growing cadre of other experts have studied the Southern Residents month after month, year after year, in all kinds of weather. But when I say that Ken has been a constant presence, I am talking about his knowledge, his intuition and — shall I say?

In my work, I talk to all kinds of scientists about various subjects.

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While preparing to write about a topic, I talk to the best experts and read their published reports. When I think I understand enough, I am ready to write. Whether he agreed or disagreed with a line of thinking, or even if he had no opinion, he would almost always add some new idea or broaden my perspective, doing so in the kindest way.

I suspect that many others have had their own unique connections with him, based on the wide diversity of scientific papers that include his name in the list of authors. Through the years, I wrote a lot about the births and deaths of many individual killer whales. Ken, in his low-key way, was always excited about newborn calves, and we both enjoyed talking about the prospects that young females might eventually increase the overall population.