The Jessica Rekos Foundation

The Jessica Rekos Fellowship for Orca Conservation was made possible by the generosity of The Jessica Rekos Foundation in honor of Jessica, who devoted her short time on this planet to "researching" whales and learning as much as she could about them. Although The Jessica Rekos Foundation sunset in 2022, WDC continues protecting orcas on behalf of Jessica and the Rekos family.

Jessica was only six years old when her life was tragically taken during the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut on December 14, 2012. WDC is honored to be entrusted with Jessica's legacy ensuring that wild orcas are protected for generations to come.

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The Project

Through the The Jessica Rekos Fellowship for Orca Conservation we examined the past, present, and emerging threats to orcas, and identified focus-areas where more knowledge and research was needed to help conserve and protect orcas and their habitats. We used the information gathered to assist us in the recovery of the Northwest populations. The more we can discover about their ecology, distribution, abundance, and unique populations, the better prepared we will be to mitigate current threats and prevent more conflict with human interests from occurring, protecting these charismatic and unique killer whales for years to come.

What is WDC doing to protect Southern Residents?

Find out more about our work, supported by the Jessica Rekos Foundation

Save Southern Resident Orcas

Find out more about orcas

Visit our species guide to learn more about this species.

Orca species guide

More about these orcas

The process of using photo ID to identify individual orcas developed in this region, and has allowed researchers to follow pods and track their status for more than 40 years. From our knowledge of the orcas living in these waters, we have come from viewing these top ocean predators as voracious killing machines to being drawn to them as complex, charismatic individuals that are much closer to us than originally thought. Not only do they share the
traits that make us mammals, but they are also intelligent, long-lived, incredibly social, and care for their young for their entire lives. Perhaps it’s these subtle, shared traits that draw us so much to orcas, and have made them icons of marine biodiversity and protecting the ocean.

The Southern Residents are a specific population of the Resident ecotype of orcas. At least three ecotypes live off the West Coast of the U.S. and Canada, divided by their different lifestyles – each has specific prey types, appearances, behavior, foraging techniques, communication, and culture. While they may inhabit or visit the same areas, these orcas do not often interact and apparently do not interbreed, making each group unique and genetically distinct. (Learn more about the different ecotypes of orcas). Orcas in the Pacific Ocean face many of the same threats as orcas in other parts of the world – habitat degradation and marine pollution, overfishing and bycatch, climate change, ship strikes and harassment, and acoustic disturbance. Resident orcas in particular face serious problems in the declining stocks of Chinook salmon, their fatty and high-energy food of choice. Lack of available prey means that more time and effort is put into finding food, and less into reproducing, resting, or caring for young – things important to grow and sustain a population. For the Southern Residents, whose population was severely reduced by the live-capture industry in the 60s and 70s, food is a key aspect of their recovery and future survival.