Above; Surge (A61), Nodales (A51), and Springer (A73) from the A11 and A25 matrilines, accompany Ripple, Fife and Midsummer from Issue 11 of the Blackfish Sounder.
The A23s started out as a family known only as traveling companions to Eve(A9)'s pod. Later, they would become known as a family hit by unusual and usually tragic circumstances.
The family originally traveled under the matriarch A7, who never had a name. A7 had three nicks on her fin and was therefore fairly easy to identify. She was born around 1927, and wasn't known to researchers for very long; she died four years after the study began in 1977.
We only started to really know the A23s when they were under the matriarch A23, known as Stripe because of a mark on her saddle patch, who might have been A7's daughter.
Stripe became a fairly well known whale. Her eldest daughter disappeared four years before the study began; it was later discovered that her daughter is almost certainly Corky2, who was captured and ended up living in captivity. Stripe's second known calf (A21) disappeared the year the study began, and it is suspected that the little whale was hit by a ferry and later died.
Stripe's third calf would be the first that we know of to grow up with her. Okisollo (A27) was born around 1971.
In 1977, Stripe gave birth to another calf that didn't make it, A29, who only lived for three years. Then in 1981, she gave birth to Ripple (A43), and in 1992, she had her last calf, Fife (A60).
But they weren't completely free of trouble yet. Three years after Fife's birth, Ripple had her first calf, A63, who died the same year.
Two years later, Ripple gave birth again, to Midsummer (A69). Only four years after that, the grand old matriarch herself passed away, leaving Ripple as the matriarch.
The year after, Okisollo also died. The matriline, which at one time had been made up of 5 whales, now contained only 3.
When Springer (A73), the famous orphan, was rereleased, she spent some time with Ripple, Fife and Midsummer. Then in 2003, Fife was hit by a boat propeller. Thanks to the close bond between whales, he survived, but when he healed, deep scars marred the right side of his fin and body.
Now, the matriline consists of Ripple, Fife and Midsummer, and is sometimes called the A43s.
Corky2 also has her own page for this family, because despite being captured, she is still alive, and unless her DNA has miraculously changed, she is still a Northern Resident.