Built atop solid rock, the lighthouse towered twenty feet above high tide, its lantern room encircled by a concrete observation deck. The only other buildings in the area were two original keeper’s dwellings located at the edge of a wood behind the lighthouse, now used by park personnel. The lighthouse overlooked waters that had been designated a whale sanctuary. Under the direction of the Whale Museum in Friday Harbor, scientists had equipped the lighthouse with webcams and hydrophones designed to track the movements and behaviors of the resident orca pods. Jonas Taylor stood on the lookout deck of the lighthouse, staring at a tranquil sea. The remains of an early morning fog obscured the view of the Olympic Mountain range and the shores of Vancouver Island. There were no boats visible on the horizon. Below, a team of marine biologists continued the Herculean task of photographing, measuring, and tagging each killer whale carcass. Park officials had already hauled four of the beached mammals onto flatbed trucks using a winch and chain, now they turned their attention to the bloated, bleeding corpses floating in the shallows of Dead Man’s Cove.
