Whale researcher Jared Towers said his sadness was profound as he witnessed an orca he had documented over the years die and slip into the depths last weekend.

Towers was called out to Johnstone Strait on Sunday to see a member of the threatened northern resident killer whales that was in poor health.

I76, a 28-year-old male well known to researchers and whale watchers around the North Island, died at the entrance to Blackney Pass.

Towers, executive director of Bay Cetology and an Alert Bay resident, watched as the big male took his last breath.

“I’ve had to change the official status of many northern resident orcas from alive to deceased over the years, but I have never watched one pass until this day,” Towers said in a social media post.

Towers said I76 was with his 45-year-old moth

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