Call of the Orcas

Throughout the exhibition Points of Return we held outreach events. On June 10th 2023, we screened Into the Oceanic for the first time in the USA, during a day dedicated to underwater ecosystems. We marked the closing of Points of Return (June 25th) with an exclusive preview of the short documentary film Call of the Orcas, written and directed by Jessica Plumb; and a discussion with Earthwatch founder Brian Rosborough on the seminal role of artists in framing and stimulating debate around climate change.

Call of the Orcas explores the urgent effort 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 late 2022.

Balcomb’s determined 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. The story encompasses many perspectives on the unique orca culture of the Pacific Northwest, from an indigenous experience of orcas as family, to the lifelong commitment of Canadian researcher Dr. John Ford, who dedicated his career to documenting orca calls. 

Southern Resident orcas are distinctive for many reasons, among them their long, close proximity to human populations. They continue to visit the Seattle waterfront, following their preferred prey, Chinook salmon. 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 73 remaining whales depend on our action for survival. 

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Jessica Plumb
An award-winning filmmaker and writer based in the Pacific Northwest

“Southern Resident Killer Whales, known for their intelligence and agility, are also canaries in the coal mine of Pacific Northwest waters. The preferred prey of this orca society is salmon, which means that their fate is intertwined with the health of fresh and saltwater ecosystems that define a region. My feature film, Return of the River, chronicled the largest dam removal on the planet to date, an unprecedented salmon restoration project on the Elwha River. That story led directly to Call of the Orcas, and a researcher who championed the plight of these unique killer whales. Ken Balcomb, the scientist at the heart of this film, passed away in December 2022. He understood that he was running out of time, as were the orcas he loved and studied for close to five decades. This project began with a final interview with Balcomb, at a ranch on the Elwha River, where he spent his last days advocating for salmon restoration. This short film weaves the story of orcas, and people who know them best, in a region where people and killer whales have fished side by side for millennia.”

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Brian A. Rosborough
Founding Chairman of Earthwatch Institute

Rosborough has been a pioneer in the environmental field. During his 25-year tenure as CEO, Rosborough supported innovative research in the rainforest canopy. Since its founding in 1971, Earthwatch has supported over 3000 scientific expeditions in 120 countries to investigate and monitor environmental change. More than 80,000 volunteers have contributed about $60 million and over 10 million hours time and talent to essential fieldwork. Among them have been 10,000 teachers and students sponsored on scholarship. Today, Earthwatch Institute continues to be a major sponsor of scientific inquiry, currently supporting 130 projects annually to document changing world conditions. These explorations search for solutions to sustainability, delving into problems such as global warming, habitat destruction, loss of biodiversity, and public health issues such as access to clean water, and the preservation of our cultural and biological heritage.