I found some pictures taken by a person next to me at the beach yesterday that she posted on the Orca Network. It makes me so happy to see our resident orca population doing well after several years of hardship. Some of you may remember the heart breaking story of Tahlequah (J35) pushing her dead calf around Washington & BC for 16 days.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/killer-whale-carrying-dead-calf-16-days/story?id=57122848
We have had some bad years recently for the resident orcas but finally thanks to some habitat rehabilitation, luck, and hard work of the tribes and government, they are getting healthy. We have also had a large number of transient orcas coming into the area and taking out some of the seals and sea lions that compete with our residents for food.
The J pod have a few new babies and I was lucky enough to see them yesterday.
It is so amazing to see these creatures playing and fishing. They have at least 3 healthy calves and were proclaimed by scientists to now be in the best overall condition in a decade. Resident orcas only eat salmon and possibly only chinook salmon so this is great news for the fish population as well. I hope this trend continues and we continue to enjoy a resurgence of our resident population.
I’ve seen them off the ferry over to the San Juans. Really cool.
That is usually a good place to see them. I have been closest to them off Lime Kiln Point, that is a great place to whale watch and probably best odds if you are not on a boat.
Been to Lime Kiln once, but we did not see whales then. Would be a perfect spot, though. Picnic lunch and whale-watching — that’s the good stuff!
That’s pretty awesome. They’re basically as big as a herd of elephants.
They are so cool.
I remember that story. 😭I’m glad to hear things are improving for them. You’re so lucky to get to see them.
It is great to see them doing so much better. Everyone around here tries to follow where they are and where they are going but I just chanced into them yesterday.
Thank you for sharing such good news!