Resident Orcas

82 Resident Orcas make for a great summer!

This season for viewing wildlife in the Salish Sea has been one for the records. As of the summer of 2015, our Southern Resident Orca population has increased to 82 Orcas! During the past year we have had the birth of five healthy Resident calves. Three in Jpod, baby J50 (female) with mom J16 Slick, J51 (male) with mom J41 Eclipse, J52 (male) with mom J36 Alki, and two in L pod, baby L121 (male) with mom L94 Calypso and L122 (male) with mom L91 Muncher.

We have also been very lucky this season with the amount of Super pod days. A superpod is when all three of our Resident Orca pods- J, K, and L meet up in the same area and often put on a great show, breaching, tail slapping, spy hopping and socializing together. J pod has 27 members, K pod is the smallest of the three pods with 19 members and L pod is the largest with 36 members.

Over 99% of our tours this season have been spent with our Resident and/our Transient Orcas. It has been truly fantastic. With the amount of new Resident Orca babies and the general trend of more Transient Orcas and Humpback whales returning to this area, we are all hopeful for many more exciting summers to view these magnificent marine mammals.