A pod of orcas is starving to death. A tribe has a radical plan to feed them

The Lummi Nation is dropping live salmon into the sea in a last-ditch rescue effort: ‘We don’t have much time’

Bobbing on the gray-green waters west of Washington state’s San Juan Island, Sle-lh’x elten Jeremiah Julius lifted a Chinook salmon from a 200-gallon blue plastic fish box. He carried the gulping fish to the boat’s rail and slid it into the sea, where it lingered a moment, then disappeared in a silver flash.

It was a quietly radical act.

Lummi tribal members wait for the hereditary chief, Bill James, to speak following a ceremonial feeding of the qwe ’lhol mechen, commonly known as orcas, early this month on Puget Sound, Washington. Photograph by Grant Hindsley/The Guardian

Top left: The Lummi Nation hereditary chief, Bill James. Top right: The Lummi tribal leader Al Johnnie. Bottom left: Tony Hillaire, chief of staff of the Lummi Nation business council. Bottom right: Lawrence Solomon, secretary of the Lummi business council. Photographs by Grant Hindsley/The Guardian

Lawrence Solomon; Bill James; Jeremiah Julius, Lummi tribal chairman; Tony Hillaire; and Al Johnnie finish the ceremonial feeding on the waters off Henry Island. Photograph by Grant Hindsley/The Guardian

Related: ‘Extinction is not an option’: the $1bn push to save orcas in Washington

A Lummi Nation police boat used to transport elders and tribal leaders to and from a spiritual ceremony heads back towards Bellingham. Photograph by Grant Hindsley/The Guardian

Jeremiah Julius walks the beach following a feeding.. Photograph by Grant Hindsley/The Guardian

The cold, gray waters of the Puget Sound. Photograph by Grant Hindsley/The Guardian

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