Question

jamal studies orcas and wants to estimate the population in a certain region. jamal catches 60 orcas, marks them, and releases them. at a later point, jamal catches 330 orcas and observes that 33 of them are marked. to the nearest whole number, what is the best estimate for the orca population?

Explanation:

Step1: Set up proportion

$\frac{\text{Marked initially}}{\text{Total population}} = \frac{\text{Marked recaptured}}{\text{Recaptured total}}$
$\frac{60}{N} = \frac{33}{330}$

Step2: Simplify right-hand side

$\frac{33}{330} = \frac{1}{10}$

Step3: Solve for $N$

$N = 60 \times 10 = 600$

Answer:

600