Orcas spotted off Whidbey shores, whale group announces

October 29, 2016 1:30 am
Bonnie Gretz photo Southern Resident orcas (J and K pods) swim through Saratoga Passage on Oct. 11 just offshore of Langley.
Bonnie Gretz photo Southern Resident orcas (J and K pods) swim through Saratoga Passage on Oct. 11 just offshore of Langley.

Southern Resident orcas have arrived in Puget Sound, the Orca Network recently announced.

Members of J and K pods (and L87 who travels with J pod) were seen early this month crossing into Admiralty Inlet, continuing south and making their way to Point No Point, Hansville by nightfall. Orca Network Whale Sighting Network volunteers followed the movements of the pods from shore-based perches on Whidbey Island to Vashon Island and many points in between, collecting sighting information which is used by researchers, agencies and organizations working to help endangered Southern Resident orcas.

“As the fall progresses and the winter season approaches, the SRKW [Southern Resident killer whales] have historically shifted their attention from Fraser River Chinook salmon to chum salmon headed for rivers in Puget Sound,” Deborah Giles of the Center for Whale Research said in a news release. “This shift in prey is celebrated by orca enthusiasts as the whales make more frequent trips to waters viewable from South Puget Sound shorelines. Given the decline of Chinook salmon throughout the whales’ historical range, Puget Sound bound salmonid species have become that much more important to the whales from October through early Spring.”

Since the 2005 Federal listing of the Southern Resident orcas under the Endangered Species Act, Orca Network has assisted National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries and the Center for Whale Research to help track the orcas’ winter travels in Puget Sound and along the outer coast. According to Ken Balcomb, founder of the Center for Whale Research, this orca community often can’t find enough salmon to survive. Less than half of the females within their reproductive years have brought healthy calves into the population in recent years. The first step is to help salmon spawn and survive to adulthood.

“We have to consider the ecological solution here,” Balcomb said.

This time of year orcas can be observed in waters around Whidbey Island, the Kitsap and Olympic Peninsulas, and the inland waters of Puget Sound.