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Orca Network 

Whale Sighting Report  
In This Issue
Photo of the Day
Southern Residents.
Transients/Bigg's Killer Whales
Humpbacks
Orca Network recommends:
The Lost Whale, by Michael Parfit and Suzanne Chisolm  
An intensely personal story...but this person is a young orca.  

Lost Whale book...ver scaled  

 To learn more about orcas: 

Orcas in Our Midst, volume 3, by Howard Garrett

Orcas in Our Midst,

Vol. 3: Residents and Transients, How Did That Happen?

Click here  

to order YOUR copy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~

The bestseller about orcas in captivity.

Death at SeaWorld, by David Kirby 

DeathatSeaWorld


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August 21, 2014

We are watching and visiting the whales in their home~

Please observe, love and respect them from a distance.

Having trouble viewing this Sightings Report? Archived Reports can be found HERE.
We try to separate Residents from Transients/Bigg's whales into different articles in these reports, but when the two types of orcas found in the Salish Sea are found about five miles apart, that near-convergence is the main story. As the reports below show, and as Heather MacIntyre describes in great detail, a rare and fascinating combination of an unusually large number of Ts - at least 25 - were active and socializing north of Rosario Strait Wednesday evening, while about five miles away most of the So. Residents were foraging or socializing off Point Roberts. The Photo of the Day had to be two photos to portray the event.

A humpback or two  continue to be seen in Puget Sound, from Saratoga Passage to Edmonds to Vashon Island for the past week, including Wednesday off Discovery Park, north of Seattle, and south of San Juan Island.

Correction: The last report repeated a photo by Connie Bickerton, but with different IDs for the orcas in the photo. For the record, the correct caption for the photo is: K38 Comet and K20 Spock.

Tomorrow night - Friday at 6:30 - come enjoy an evening of dancing, beer, and Orca conservation at the Hales Ales Beer Garden, 4301 Leary Way NW in Freemont. Proceeds go to The Center for Whale Research on San Juan Island to help fund the essential Orca Survey demographic field study and conservation of the Southern Resident population. Music by the stomp-grass of Polecat with Eric Tollefson. Enjoy a meet and greet with former SeaWorld trainers Sam Berg, Jeff Ventre, and Carol Ray, featured in the documentary Blackfish, as well as Ken Balcomb of The Center for Whale Research and Howard Garrett and Susan Berta of Orca Network. Minimum donation of $25 Online, $28 at the door (as available). 

Photo(s) of the Day
August 20
Looking north - T037 heading north, surfacing in the Strait of Georgia.
Photo by Heather MacIntyre.

Also August 20
Looking west - L87, Onyx surfacing with his silhouette in the sunset.
Photo by Heather MacIntyre.
Southern Residents
August 21
9:54 - Mostly K's maybe some J's.
Spencer Domico

August 21
7:00am, went out scouting, saw a few whales at Hannah Heights milling, then went north to Land Bank to see if any were north or southbound, didn't see any...headed back to Hannah and got a text from Connie about 7:15 calls on LK (thank you) some loud so raced up there to see one off LK but didn't get handle on direction as I was driving. Down to LK no whales...saw blows and spy hops south at Land Bank....so they went south in the wind, fog and white cappy seas. Which whales I do not know but they are here and I met two more lovely women and a sweet dog name Uluru!
Alisa Lemire Brooks

August 21
Things started out spotting a close knit family of K-pod traveling together off shore of San Juan Island, the K13's; a family of 7 who often travel together in a very tight group. The family is made up of K13, her four children, and two grandchildren! The whales spent all day going up and down San Juan Island, accumulating whales as they went. As the day marched on the K14's showed up and then the K12's, until all of K pod was in attendance!
Jennifer Dickson

August 20-21
On August 20th, Js and Ks were up north by the Fraser River all day and Ls were westbound out the Strait of Juan de Fuca. By the end of the day, however, word was Js and Ks were southwest bound from East Point and at least some of the Ls had flipped and were coming back east.
Curious to see where everyone would end up in the morning, I went out to Lime Kiln early on August 21st. Sure enough, around 7:00 a few whales came up from the south, then flipped and went back. It turns out most of K-Pod (at least the K12s, K13s, K14s, though I think I saw K35 in there too) and maybe a few L-Pod whales were there. A friend told me she heard K-Pod on the hydrophones when they came down during the night, but Js must have turned back up north, as they were found off the Fraser River again. If Ls came back in, there were only a few of them, but I only saw them in poor lighting and wasn't able to confirm.
This group did the westside shuffle all day - I saw them as they headed south from Land Bank around 4:15 PM.
Is everyone keeping all this straight?! Sure is hard to keep track of who is where this year! It took me three attempts to right this report and I'm still not sure I got it all right.
Monika Wieland, San Juan Island

August 20
Best night ever watching Orcas. Hands down. Transient superpod and Residents coming down at East Point as well- in the sunset. I think I died and went to heaven!! Just pure magic.
(Later Heather posted the below rendition of the very rare experience of encountering large numbers of both Residents and Transient/Bigg's about five miles apart at the same time.)

Transient Super Pod, August 20, 2014 (and Residents)!
Wow, the orca sightings this summer have just been off the chart!! Killer whales are one of the world's most widely distributed mammalian species; there's actually ten different ecotypes (differing in their genetics, morphology, pigmentation, social structure, and vocalistic traditions entirely). The differences between each are entirely based on the different survival strategies they have, which are necessitated by their choice of prey. Biggs Killer whales, also known as Transients, are one of the ten ecotypes found throughout the Salish Sea. They feed on marine mammals, and are very good at exploiting that prey resource. Usually they are found in small numbers, in groups of four- six. When you have a smaller pod, it's easier to ambush intelligent prey! However, we saw 25+ transients in the same area, a phenomena known as a superpod. It's very rare to see a group of Transients this large. We also got to met up with the other ecotype found in these waters, the Southern Residents, coming south from Point Roberts in the sunset. These orcas feed on salmon. The two species are known as sympatric species, existing in the same geographic location, but not competing for food or resources. It was probably one of the best nights of my life. The serenity of it all was just magical. Enjoy the photos, and please share with your friends!
Heather MacIntyre

August 20
Transient breaching. Since these mammals rely on their stealth to ambush prey, usually this behavior is only seen during or after a kill.
Photo by Heather MacIntyre.

August 20
Sometimes Transients will breach on their prey to try to tire it out. Their epidermis is only 3/4 an inch thick, so they need to take care not to get hurt. Many people think they just go up and grab their prey, but making a kill could take hours. They need to be careful! I think this orca was just happy.
Photo by Heather MacIntyre.

August 20
T065A's with T065A being the 4th whales from left to right. Little T065A-5 is to the right of her. T037A is leading.
Photo by Heather MacIntyre.

August 20
Killer whales brains are 4x the size of ours. With large brains comes intelligence, curiosity, and compassion.
Photo by Heather MacIntyre.

August 20
Awesome saddle!! The infamous T102. We've seen him and the group he travels with in these waters since early this April. It's nice to see them sporadically throughout the summer as well.
Photo by Heather MacIntyre.

August 20
T101's and T102 (not in order).
Photo by Heather MacIntyre.

August 20-21
On August 20th, Js and Ks were up north by the Fraser River all day and Ls were westbound out the Strait of Juan de Fuca. By the end of the day, however, word was Js and Ks were southwest bound from East Point and at least some of the Ls had flipped and were coming back east.
Curious to see where everyone would end up in the morning, I went out to Lime Kiln early on August 21st. Sure enough, around 7:00 a few whales came up from the south, then flipped and went back. It turns out most of K-Pod (K12s, K13s, K14s) and maybe a few L-Pod whales were there. A friend told me she heard K-Pod on the hydrophones when they came down during the night, but Js must have turned back up north, as they were found off the Fraser River again. If Ls came back in, there were only a few of them, but I only saw them in poor lighting and wasn't able to confirm.
This group did the westside shuffle all day - I saw them as they headed south from Land Bank around 4:15 PM.
Is everyone keeping all this straight?! Sure is hard to keep track of who is where this year!
Monika Wieland, San Juan Island

August 20
We were happy to have great weather and 20+ Killer Whales from "L" Pod eating Chinook Salmon near Sooke, B.C. Canada. Thank you again Deanna Brett for some amazing photos!
Sooke Coastal Explorations

August 20
We were happy to have great weather and 20+ Killer Whales from "L" Pod eating Chinook Salmon near Sooke, B.C. Canada
-Thank you again Deanna Brett for some amazing photos!
Sooke Coastal Explorations

August 20
Killer Whales from "L" Pod eating Chinook Salmon near Sooke, B.C. Canada.
Photo by Deanna Brett.

August 20
L Pod near Sooke, B.C. Canada.
Photo by Deanna Brett.

August 20
L Pod near Sooke, B.C. Canada.
Photo by Deanna Brett.

August 20
L Pod near Sooke, B.C. Canada.
Photo by Deanna Brett.

August 20
L Pod near Sooke, B.C. Canada.
Photo by Deanna Brett.

August 19
At Lime Kiln Point State Park.
Photo by Bonnie Gretz.

August 19
At Lime Kiln Point State Park.
Photo by Bonnie Gretz. 

August 19
Breach.
Photo by Bonnie Gretz.

August 19
L-84 Nyssa
- at Lime Kiln Point State Park.
Photo by Bonnie Gretz. 

August 19
Racer with her beautiful and distinct saddle patch.
Photo by Bonnie Gretz.

August 19
Racer L-72 and maybe son Fluke? L-105 - at south of Lime Kiln.
Photo by Bonnie Gretz.

August 19
It's been lovely having L and K Pod back in the Salish Sea these past few days- and the vocalizations have been awesome! They've been doing lots of foraging along the west side of San Juan Island. Yesterday, there must have been over one hundred people at Lime Kiln Light to watch from land as 20+ L Pod whales swam by. Check out these pics from two of my favorite boys who were foraging together yesterday.
Heather MacIntyre

August 19
L92, Crewser.
Photo by Heather MacIntyre.

August 19
K26, Lobo, surfacing.
Photo by Heather MacIntyre.

August 18
I was at Lime Kiln State Park around 6:30pm when my son and I spotted several orcas and whale watching boats just off the shore at the overlook area. They were about 100 yards from shore and the whales were headed south around the island.
Wayne Wilhelm Greenfield

August 15
I thought maybe someone with knowledge would report the large strung-out group of orcas off Ediz Hook Port Angeles on Friday, August 15 at about 2pm.  We were returning from a fruitless fishing trip out of PA when we encountered the group of maybe 20 orcas.  The water was too rough to attempt a photo.  Based on this information, and the reported locations of other orcas that day, would you think these are residents of transients?
Sherry Anderson, Sequim
Note: The only other report near there that day was of "Group A" of J pod in Haro Strait, which could look like about 20 orcas.
Transients/Bigg's Whales
August 20
Watching a super pod of 30 Bigg's Killer Whales in the gulf thinking that J and K Pod should be around too. Pick up the binos and started scanning BAM there they are 5 miles to the west of us. Over 70 Killer Whales less than 5 miles apart... Stellar evening!!
Simon Pidcock

August 20
8:15am - we were camping at the Spencer Spit (east tide of Lopez Island) walk-in campground yesterday morning, and we saw four Orcas traveling SSE out in the Anacortes ferry channel beyond Frost Island. The group included 3 adults and one younger animal. All three adults had dorsal fins of a similar height, but we didn't we didn't get a good look to see if any of them was a mature male before they went behind Frost Island.
Mark Wilson

August 20
9:00 AM - We saw two groups of whales pass the south beach of Decatur Head in between James Island (where the San Juan Islands meet Georgia Strait). There were about 8 - 10 total. They headed north toward Thatcher Pass, and appeared to ge following a group of salmon.
Deb Wilson
Humpbacks
August 20
At least one humpback off of Point Colville near Davidson Rock (SE tip of Lopez Island). Heading North at 1pm Wednesday.
Elise Murphy

August 20
I think I saw two humpbacks off West Point at Discovery Park (north of Seattle) around 12:30pm.
Isobel Alexander

August 17
3:30 pm - A humpback maybe 50-75 feet off shore from Hannah Heights. Only private boats nearby...  all behaving very nicely, as far as I could tell.  A couple kayaks too. Doing the usual 3-4 shallow, breathing surfaces... then 4th or 5th time down, it would go deep, flukes straight up. Within sight, I counted 6 fluke dives total.  No breaches. My first  San Juan Humpback sighting...  Absolutely amazing!!  I was a silly-giddy child again...  "It's a HUMPBACK!  It's a HUMPBACK!"
Cher - Friday Harbor
ABOUT ORCA NETWORK  
Orca Network is a 501 c3 nonprofit organization, dedicated to raising awareness about the whales of the Pacific Northwest, and the importance of providing them healthy and safe habitats.
Orca Network's Whale Sighting Network involves citizens in helping researchers track the movement of whales, and encourages people to observe whales from their homes, businesses, ferries, and beaches.
Whale reports are sent in to our Sighting Network and emailed out to researchers, agencies, and citizens on our network, and posted on our website (MAP of sightings also on website). Whale reports and observations are sent in by a variety of sources, and Orca Network does not guarantee the accuracy of any report or whale identification.

 

TO REPORT WHALES, CALL: 1-866-ORCANET (1-866-672-2638), email info@orcanetwork.org, or post sightings on our Orca Network Facebook page.

 

*BE WHALE WISE! BOATERS - NEW FEDERAL REGULATIONS IN EFFECT AS OF MAY 16, 2011:

 "The new rules prohibit vessels from approaching any killer whale closer than 200 yards and forbid vessels from intercepting a whale or positioning the vessel in its path. This doubles the current approach distance of 100 yards. The rules go into effect May 16 and apply to all types of boats, including motor boats, sail boats and kayaks, in Washington"

 

For more information on the new Federal Regulations, visit the NOAA Fisheries website. 

 

 
To report harassment of whales in US waters, call NOAA Enforcement: 1-800-853-1964;

In Canadian waters, call DFO's Observe Record and Report (ORR) Violations Hotline: 1-800- 465-4336

Report the boat name &/or a description of the boat, & get photos if at all possible.