The Case of the Pickled Orca

Long before an industry was built around capturing orcas, a tragic encounter between a wayward whale and humanity foretold decades of exploitation.

There are few animals that capture the imagination of human beings the way that orcas have. For decades people have paid money to see them, scientists have studied them intently and, in the Seattle area, concerned news consumers have tracked their every move.

At the start of the 1930s, though, there wasn’t yet a market for whale watching. Enter Ethelbert, a young 11-foot-long female orca who appeared in a place she was not expected: The Columbia River, 100 miles upstream from the Pacific Ocean near Portland, Oregon.

In a recent episode of the Mossback’s Northwest video series, Knute Berger tells the story of Ethelbert, from the carnival-like atmosphere that grew up around her unlikely appearance to her tragic end, pickled in a steel tank on the side of a Washington mountain.

But there is more to the story. For this episode of the Mossback podcast, Berger joins co-host Stephen Hegg to discuss Ethelbert’s brief fame and how her fate foreshadowed the curiosity and industrial-level exploitation that humanity would inflict on her species.

Before listening, we suggest you watch the Mossback's Northwest episode about Ethelbert here.

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Credits

Hosts: Stephen Hegg, Knute Berger

Producer: Seth Halleran

Executive producer: Mark Baumgarten