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Orca Network 

Whale Sighting Report  

In This Issue
Southern Residents.
Transients/Bigg's Whales
Coastal orcas
Humpbacks
Pacific white-sided dolphin
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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orca Lolita/Tokitae,

captured in Penn Cove,

Whidbey Island, WA

in 1970, somehow surviving in a small tank at the Miami Seaquarium ever since.

Tokitae looking up at us from her tank in Miami, FL in the late 1990s 

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February 21, 2015

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.
The best news since the last report is that both new J pod babies, J50 and J51, were last seen February 19 and seem to be doing well. They were headed north into Georgia Strait along with all 26 J pod members and of course 25-year old male L87 Onyx, who's been traveling with J pod since 2010.

The satellite tag on J27 Blackberry detached in Georgia Strait on Feb. 15, so NOAA's Northwest Fisheries Science Center found K and L pods outside the entrance of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and put a tag on 25-year old orphan male L84 Nyssa. His track so far shows travels to the mouth of the Columbia River and points south along the Oregon coastline.

A small group of probable Transients/Bigg's Killer Whales ventured deep inside Penn Cove again today, then departed in early afternoon, only to return by sunset.

Three unidentified whales with no dorsal fins were reported in Saratoga Passage not far from the previous report of the Transients. If these are gray whales they would be the first of the season in Saratoga Passage. Hopefully there will be more reports tomorrow to confirm the sighting.

A humpback seems to have camped out between Edmonds and Kingston for much of the past few weeks, and Pacific white-sided dolphin have often been seen in the Strait of Juan de Fuca

Orca Network 

Photo of the Day
February 19
J19 and the newest calf in J Pod J51 traveling with J19's daughter J41 born in 2005 - at Porlier Pass (between Galiano and Valdes islands, the first outlet into the strait of Georgia north of Active pass).
Photo by Simon Pidcock
Southern Residents
February 20
K and L pods under observation as they travel south in ocean.
Christopher Dunagan reports: While J pod continues to hang out in the Salish Sea, NOAA's research cruise has shifted its focus to K and L pods, which have worked their way south along the Washington Coast to beyond the Columbia River.

February 20
More news from the orca cruise and location of tagged L84:
The last map up through February 18 showed the whales just south of Grays Harbor. They continued south until early morning on the 19th when they reached the Columbia River. They remained tightly grouped in that same general vicinity all day on the 19th with no apparent foraging - no fish chases, calls, or echolocation clicks all day. They had been trending north in the afternoon and evening but the early morning satellite tag location revealed they had reversed direction an started traveling south. By this afternoon we caught up with them just south of Cape Lookout, Oregon.
Map courtesy of Northwest Fisheries Science Center 2015 Southern Resident Killer Whale Satellite Tagging

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February 19
J50 the second newest calf in J Pod, J16's new daughter. Born in late December 2014. It's thought that this little one had a hard birth due to the rake marks (scratches cause from killer whale teeth) on her body. It's speculated that she was helped and pulled from the womb.
Photo by Simon Pidcock

February 19
J16 mom traveling with her new daughter J50 and her eldest son J26. - at Porlier Pass.
Photo by Simon Pidcock

February 19
J41 with J51 in Trincomali Channel (between Saltspring Island (W) and Galiano Island (E) approaching Porlier Pass).
Photo by Mark Malleson, taken under permit #MML-001

February 19
J Pod came down the West Side yesterday evening (2/18), then came back up early this morning. We caught up with them at Porlier Pass, BC as they entered the Strait of Georgia. Both J50 and J51 were there looking good.
James Mead Maya

February 19
J Pod, exiting Porlier Pass, BC into Georgia Strait. Both J50 and J51 present and looking good.
Photo by Capt. Jim Maya

February 19
J Pod, exiting Porlier Pass, BC.
Photo by Capt. Jim Maya.

February 19
J Pod, exiting Porlier Pass, BC.
Photo by Capt. Jim Maya.

February 19
J Pod, exiting Porlier Pass, BC.
Photo by Capt. Jim Maya.


February 19
J Pod, exiting Porlier Pass, BC.
Photo by Capt. Jim Maya.


February 19
Dave Ellifrit, Center for Whale Research, was with all of J pod and L87 up Swanson Channel and into Trincomali Inlet, between Salt Spring Island and Galiano Island in the Canadian Gulf Islands, until about 2 pm this afternoon.

February 19
Just got off the water with Js, even saw both babies!! About ten miles north of Active Pass now. What a great day!!!
Photo by Heather MacIntyre


February 19
11:00 AM - East Point, Saturna Sighting. 15 or 20 orcas sighted off of East Point, Saturna Island. Seemed to be fishing. Some were traveling on (saw very small calf with mother) and about 5-8 younger ones stayed back and seemed to be fishing.
Syd Stonier

February 19
6:12 a.m. - Hearing some faint calls on Orcasound hydrophone.
Jill Clogston

February 19
Been on and off calls since 4am!
Traci Walter

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February 18
February 18 - As mentioned in our February 17 entry, we were able to intercept Ks and Ls at the western end of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and deploy a tag on L84.

You may recall that our SRKW satellite tagging project began in 2012 with the tagging of J26. In addition, we now have data from a second J pod member (L87 who travels with J pod) in January 2014 and most recently, the 6 week deployment in January and February 2015 on J27. Collectively, these data indicate only limited use of the outer coastal waters by J pod. In 2014 NMFS was petitioned to designate Critical Habitat on the outer coastal waters of Washington, Oregon, and California. The data used for this petition was derived from only one sample - the range of K25 during the January to March 2013 satellite tag deployment. Consequently, potential variability between pods and between years has led to making tagging a whale from L pod a high priority.

By being able to deploy a tag on L pod while on our cruise on the Bell M. Shimada we have the unique opportunity to now to be able to follow the whales each day (and potentially at night) and collect prey and fecal samples as well as other data about their environment this time of the year. While we know that K and L pods sometimes co-occur in the winter, this will potentially be an opportunity to see the degree to which they remain together. We are off to an exciting start - four prey samples yesterday and four fecal samples today while the whales transited from near Cape Ozette yesterday morning to near Willipa Bay this afternoon.
Map courtesy of Northwest Fisheries Science Center 2015 Southern Resident Killer Whale Satellite Tagging

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February 17
Feb 17--On Sunday weather cooperated for small boat operations and despite whales again being extremely spread out in the northern St. of Georgia, we were finally able to get a look the newest calf J51 and mother J19. We also documented that as of 1600 the tag on J27 had detached, despite having gotten an Argos location as recently as 1200, so this was a fascinating opportunity to see progression tag detachment over the last couple of days. I will send a final map soon.
Because there had been a sighting of Ks and Ls off Sooke on Sat. afternoon we headed down to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and were very fortunate to intercept Ks and Ls about 1600 yesterday (2/16) at the west entrance - we managed to stay with them sporadically through the night tracking acoustically.
We were able to do small boat ops today and deploy a tag on L84. We had great weather conditions all afternoon and were able to collect 3 scale samples and two biopsy samples - however, no one seems to be pooping.
We are continuing south with Ks and Ls - we are about half way between LaPush and Westport.
Photo by Candace Emmons, NOAA NWFSC.

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February 16
Orcas near Fulford Harbor, Salt Spring Island BC.
Mark Weir

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February 15
Final update - On afternoon of 13 February J pod was at the north end of Texada Island. They spent the 14th moving around in the northern Strait of Georgia. That evening they headed down Malaspina Strait and then headed north between Texada Island and Vancouver Island on the morning of the 15th. The last Argos location we received was at 1100 that morning and we later saw J27 without the tag, completing over 6 weeks of movement monitoring of J pod in the winter. This beats the average duration of tag attachment (30 days).
Map courtesy of Northwest Fisheries Science Center 2015 Southern Resident Killer Whale Satellite Tagging

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February 14
Residents headed west past Sooke.
Photo by Sooke Coastal Explorations

February 14
Residents headed west past Sooke.
Photo by Sooke Coastal Explorations

February 14
Residents headed west past Sooke.
Photo by Sooke Coastal Explorations

February 14
Residents headed west past Sooke.
Photo by Sooke Coastal Explorations

February 14
Dave Ellifrit found K26, K20, K22, K33, L86, L92, L103, and L118 in the photos from near Sooke.

February 14
I love these days! Leave the harbor and down comes the word! Lots of Orcas west of Victoria, headed west! Can we make there in time to see them? Ks and Ls! And Pacific White-sided Dolphins (Lags) playing with them! Eagles celebrating Valentine's Day! I love these kind of days.
Photo by Capt. Jim Maya

February 14
Strait of Juan de Fuca.
Photo by Capt. Jim Maya

February 14
Strait of Juan de Fuca.
Photo by Capt. Jim Maya

February 14
L109 westbound with a Pacific white-sided dolphin off of Sooke on February 14th
Thanks to Paul from Sooke Explorations for relaying a report of killer whales westbound at Race Rocks late morning.  We caught up with what looked like all of Kpod and most of L's off of Sooke in the afternoon.
They were spread out across the Juan de Fuca heading west with the ebb current.  They were starting to group up near Sheringham when we left them at 1530.
Photo by Mark Malleson, Prince of Whales

******************

February 12
Meeting J50 and J51!
Orcawatcher blog from Monika Wieland
Transients/Bigg's Whales
February 21
5:57 - Looks like they've headed to Penn Cove - most likely the same 4 that were there this morning. A male, possibly 2 females, and one youngster. Just now lost sight of them.
Jill Hein

February 21
5:10 - Saw spouts again. I think they are slightly south of Onamac (NW side of Camano Island) but still on Whidbey side.
4:51 - I see dorsals. Looks like orca, but we're farther away and looking into sun.
4:48 - At Sandy Beach on Camano. See spouts over toward Whidbey side.
Krista Paulino

February 21
10:50 - Sandra Pollard called to report 4 orcas heading east out of Penn Cove near Long Point.

February 21
10:26 - Orcas spotted in Penn Cove near the mussel farm. Heading away from the docks, possibly towards the Coupeville Wharf.
Ellen Nicole Schwarz

February 21
10:30 - One came RIGHT by Coupeville wharf. Quickly moving east.
10:17 - Starting to slowly trend east now.
10:04 - They've been by the mussel rafts for 30 minutes now. Still here.
9:13 - There's at least 4. Northwest of mussel rafts now.
8:58 - At least 3, maybe more. A pair towards the south side and one on the north side. At least one adult male.
8:49 - Now on Coupeville side nearing the wharf.
Rachel Haight

February 21
7:36am -Two orcas headed north north west. Mid channel off Polnell point. (Whidbey Island)
Erik Anderson

*************

February 17
8:45 AM - Orca sighting Dodd Narrows (just south of Nanaimo). Two bulls and two females heading north through Dodd Narrows.
David Hill-Turner

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February 16
We saw three orcas today as we were on the 10:20am ferry from Anacortes to Friday Harbor. I don't know the exact coordinates of the sighting but it was before the ferry docked at Lopez landing.
Claudia Wohlfeil

********************

February 15
Jeanne Hyde and I had a twenty minute encounter near sunset with the T60's and T2B. Jeanne had heard them on the hydrophones late afternoon and Tom and Jane Cogan eventually found them heading north near D'Arcy Island (west side of Haro Strait opposite San Juan Island) while scanning from their porch and kept them in sight until we could get on them near Halibut Island.   We left the whales heading west on the north side of Mandarte Island at about 1730.
Dave Ellifrit, Center for Whale Research
Coastal orcas
February 16
My neighbors here in Irish Beach (50 miles north of San Francisco CA) were walking on the beach a few mornings ago. They were down on the beach not on a bluff. They reported to me seeing a gray about 200 yds out going south. That part fits perfectly with what we see daily with slow poke juveniles. However they report 2-3 animals with dorsal fins with it. I could not get a def on dorsal size or the size of the escorts in relation to the gray.
Scott Mercer

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February 7
Correction: The photos in the last whale sightings report by Howie Tom were the T109s not the T85s.
Josh McInnes
Humpbacks
February 21
4:07pm - Whale blow north of Edmonds Kingston ferry run. West of Edmonds a couple miles out.. Maybe heading northerly.
Photo by Stu Davidson

February 20
3:25pm - whale blows off of north Edmonds.. Seems to be moving very slow southerly .. Getting some shots (hopefully). Type ? But likely my humpback friend.
Stu Davidson

February 17
8:40am - Whales blows! North west of north Edmonds out about a mile. Looking towards west of Possession Point Whidbey island. Mulling around (feeding?). Seen heading both west and east (back and forth). Probably same one I saw last night (gray or humpback).
Stu Davidson

February 16
5:30pm tonite: For a while it seemed to be heading south... then it did a longer dive. then resurfaced and appeared to be heading northerly towards south Whidbey -- east of Point no Point.
Photo by Stu Davidson
Pacific white-sided dolphin
February 19
  Pacific White-sided Dolphins (Lags) west of Victoria, headed west, playing with Ks and Ls!
Capt. Jim Maya
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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.

 

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*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.