An endangered orca that has been carrying her dead calf around the Pacific Ocean for 17 days has finally let her baby go.
The so called "tour of grief" ended this past weekend when the killer whale, known as J-35 was spotted off the northern coast of Washington state without her baby's carcass.
Researchers say it's common for mothers of a still-born whale or dolphin calves to keep pushing their babies to the surface to get air during a one or two day ``mourning period" but admitted the near 3 week event for the orca was causing concern for the mother whale's well being.