7:07 pm - Orca sighting! Pod of (maybe) 4 just splashed their way heading south under the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. Day Made!
Sarah Whalen

Peter Woodward

2:30 pm - They just passed me heading south fast down Colvos passage.
Noreen Ferris

1:44 pm - Port Orchard side of Blake Island kind of by the new pier, headed towards Vashon Island.
Jana Freeman

10:45 am - saw three or 4 dorsals briefly before losing them. West side of yellow buoy between Rolling Bay, Bainbridge and West Point. Traveling south west at a good clip.
Susan Marie Andersson

11:10 am - from Magnolia Blvd bluff see them powering southbound into the wind and waves still mid channel north of Eagle Harbor, Bainbridge Island.
10:30 am - picked them up...mid channel southbound good clip heading towards yellow buoy out from West Point Lighthouse. Nearly impossible to discern from waves, dorsals are barely visible and blows dissipate quickly in the wind.
Alisa Lemire Brooks

9:43 am - Definitely heading south, finally picked them up again between Meadow Point and Fay Bainbridge.
9:20 am - Pod of orcas spotted 2 miles off shore between Meadow Point (north Seattle) and Jefferson Head (Kitsap). Lots of splashing. Direction unclear.
Ben Blankenship

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I listened until 10:45 pm which is when the calls seemed to fade away.
10:30 pm - Transient orca calls on Port Townsend Hyrophone now!
Justine Buckmaster

3:35 pm - We circled them briefly in the new Wild Orca plane, still in the same spot.
Sandra Prow

3:05 pm - They're back at the rocks now and the direction is uncertain.
2:52 pm - They are off of Snake Rock right now near the cluster of boats headed back towards the rock.
Kelly Lauricella

2:25 pm - Joe Langjahr called reporting the orcas off Port Ludlow are still in the same location, south of Snake Rock and north of Port Ludlow, close to the shore. He says at one point several of them were hanging vertically upside down, heads down and flukes up. No direction of travel.

12:40 pm - Jim Ferrara called in about the same pod around Snake Rock. He counted six orcas.

12:30 pm - A pod of about 5 orcas is circling Snake Rock, just outside Port Ludlow in Admiralty Inlet. They seem to be checking out the seals and sea lions hauled out on the rock at low tide.
Lori Hanson.

We saw a pack of 3-4 smaller orcas in Port Ludlow this morning. They swam all the way into the bay and very close to shore.  It was pretty cool to see!
Jackson

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3:30 pm - Hubby spotted 5 or 6 Orcas  in the Georgia Strait off Cape Lazo (Comox, BC) Photo courtesy of Shellie Yates Smyrichinsky, May 2, 2015 T124's (T124, T124D, and T124E) plus at least one other, ID'd from many photos by Dave Ellifrit of the Center of Whale Research

Georgia Strait off Cape Lazo (Comox, BC) Photo courtesy of Shellie Yates Smyrichinsky, May 2, 2015 T124's (T124, T124D, and T124E) plus at least one other, ID'd from many photos by Dave Ellifrit of the Center of Whale Research

WOW. Our encounter today with the T65A's and T65B's was incredible!! The weather was also stunning. Lots of sun and calm water. We made our way to Hein Bank off the south end of San Juan Island. Thought they had been celebrating a kill, however when we looked closer we realized that they were playing with Common Murres! (They are a black and white seabird that we have here). While not unusual to see younger orcas essentially using these birds as target practice and honing their ambush skills, it was unusual that it lasted so long! We even got to hear their vocals with our hydrophone in the water. We also got to see our other wonderful wildlife including a couple mature Bald eagles, Steller sea lions, Harbor seals, and the powerful tidal currents of Cattle Pass.
Traci Walter, Western Prince

Transients spent some time honing their hunting skills on Common Murres Photo by Traci Walter, May 2, 2015 (image shot with a 400mm lens and cropped)

Breaching orca and the Olympic mountain range Photo by Traci Walter, May 2, 2015

We found the TO65A's & TO65B's west of Hein Bank in the morning and we were treated to one of the best Transient Orca encounters ever! The T's were finishing off a kill when we first encountered them and then began to celebrate their kill, it was an amazing spectacle. In the afternoon we encountered the group between Hein Bank & Salmon Bank and they were still playing. We witnessed so many breaches, tail slaps, cartwheels, spy hops and pectoral waves, it was unbelievable! In 10 years of Whale Watching this was one of the best Transient Orca encounters of my career
Andrew Lees

Beautiul eye patch of Bigg's/Transient whale Photo by Andrew Lees, May 2, 2015

Photo by Andrew Lees, May 2, 2015

Photo by Andrew Lees, May 2, 2015

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So there we were, getting a look at Windy (the humpback) for the first time this year when all of a sudden the T65As and T65Bs came speeding (make that racing! high speed porpoising!) from the distance straight toward Boiling Reef and the Steller sea lions that haul out there.
T65A2 and T65B were over half a mile in the lead and got to the unsuspecting raft of sea lions first, and the rest of the whales were porpoising out of the water at high speed, apparently swimming as fast as they could to catch up with T65A2 and 65B and join in their hunt.
They successfully managed to separate a sea lion and proceeded to take turns ramming it and fatiguing it to the point where after 45 minutes the sea lion bobbed at the surface one last time and all the whales disappeared underwater. They milled around, presumably consuming their kill, for over an hour. The gulls moved in, along with hundreds of Bonaparte's Gulls which made for this overwhelming scene of whales breaching and tail slapping with hundreds of birds swirling and dipping around...it was chilling to see that sea lion fight for its life but fascinating to watch the calculated way the whales handled it. T65A, 65A2, and 65B did most of the work, taking turns rushing the sea lion, while the younger animals waited on the sidelines. The younger whales almost seemed restless at times, vocalizing at the surface and rolling over each other and at times circling in close to the sea lion with the adults.
I've never seen a kill on a large mammal take place from start to finish. It was a privilege.
Tasli Shaw

T65A2 lunging after the kill with Bonaparte's gull Photo by Tasli Shaw, May 1, 2015

T65A2 rainblow Photo by Tasli Shaw, May 2, 2015

Mom and her kids ... T65A4, T65A3, T65A, T65A5 Photo by Tasli Shaw, May 1, 2015

T65A4 Photo by Tasli Shaw, May 1, 2015

T65A4 came right over for an inspection after the kill! Photo by Gary Sutton, May 1, 2015

T65A2 celebrating, and clouds perfectly covering Mount Baker. Photo by Gary Sutton, May 1, 2015

10:24 am - 5-6 orcas off of South Finger Island and Johnson Point on Sucia Island. They were either playing or hunting as they were tail slapping and porpoising frequently. They didn't seem to be traveling in any specific direction. Saw them when we were leaving Sucia Islamd, it was certainly an amazing way to end our 5 day camping trip!
Jennifer Smith