Balcomb first worked as a whale biologist for the U.S. government in 1963, after graduating from the University of California, Davis. He served in the Navy during the Vietnam War as a pilot and oceanographic specialist.
The whale-capture industry argued that there were many orcas in the sea, and that some could be sustainably caught. The Canadian and U.S. governments sought to conduct surveys to get a better sense of the animal populations. Balcomb continued the survey every year, following the orcas with his binoculars in a boat, photographing them and constructing family trees of the three pods of Southern Resident killer whales.
"I don't think we would have known if it hadn't been for Ken," Hanson said."He laid the foundation for and significantly contributed to the understanding of these animals we have today. We just wouldn't be where we are without Ken's research."An eccentric and sometimes gruff scientist with a gray beard and a weathered look, Balcomb had a single-minded devotion to the whales, with their bones displayed around his San Juan Island home in Washington state.
One of Balcomb's most public fights involved not orcas, but beaked whales. He was in the Bahamas in March 2000; when a beaked whale stranded itself in front of him it was one of, mostly whales, that were stranded in the Bahamas that day. After trying with others to save as many as they could, he cut the heads off two whales that died and had them frozen for study — he suspected that they had been driven from the water by military sonar exercises happening offshore.
In 2020, the Center for Whale Research purchased a 45-acre parcel on the Elwha River called"Big Salmon Ranch," where dams had been removed and Chinook salmon had returned to spawning grounds that had been inaccessible since the early 20th century.
He did great things for nature