Warmer months signal it’s whale-watching season here in the Salish Sea, home to several types of whales. In season, Pacific Northwesterners may spot humpbacks, grays, minkes, and three distinct types of orcas.
Transient killer whales, also called Bigg’s orcas, eat seals, porpoises, sea lions, and sometimes other whales. Spotters who identify a group of two to six orcas from land are usually seeing transients. (Ironically, “transient” orcas are the ones most likely to hang around in familiar places.)
Another type of killer whale, the offshore orca, stays farther out to sea. Folks need to be in a commercial-sized boat to see a pod of offshore orcas, who travel in groups of twenty or more and prey on sharks.
The orcas most dear to many Pacific Northwesterners are the critically endangered Southern Resident killer whales.
Identified by their pod affiliation (J, K, or L, each with sub-pods) and birth order, Southern Residents can also be identified by individual markings on their backs and dorsal fins.
Southern Resident orcas eat only wild salmon and live in the coastal waters of British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon. They use a highly developed system of echolocation to find their prey and to communicate with each other. Decreasing quantities of wild salmon and increasing noise from shipping traffic are two factors affecting the decline of the Southern Residents.
Highly relational, Southern Residents live their entire lives in close-knit family units. Daughters stay with their mothers for life and share the rearing of their young with their grandmothers, aunts, and sisters. Females have been known to play a midwife role for each other at births.
Southern Residents have also been observed showing signs of deep emotion.
In 2018, a Southern Resident named Tahlequah (J35) gave birth to a calf who did not survive. Tahlequah carried her dead baby at the ocean’s surface for seventeen days and across one thousand miles.
For those of us who watched this grief unfold, day after brutal day, it was heartbreaking.
Tahlequah’s story continued. In 2020, when Tahlequah gave birth to Phoenix (J57), scientists witnessed a remarkable event when Southern Residents gathered from near and far, as if to celebrate.
In late 2024, Tahlequah again gave birth to a calf who did not survive. Once again, she carried her dead baby, unwilling to let go.
We live in an incredible, mysterious world, don’t we?
Want to learn more about orcas? Link to helpful information through these wonderful resources:
- Explore the Center for Whale Research, an organization dedicated to the study and conservation of the Southern Resident killer whale population in the Pacific Northwest.
- Get to know the Southern Residents by name.
- Read the historic updates posted by Lynda Mapes of The Seattle Times about Tahlequah’s “tour of grief” in 2018.
- Watch a short video of the Southern Residents celebrating Phoenix’s birth on September 5, 2020, or read one scientist’s personal thoughts about that remarkable event.
- Listen for whales by tuning in to the Orcasound hydrophones that are located here in the Salish Sea.
- Read inspiring stories about orcas, including my Wren Island books.
And consider telling a friend about Southern Resident orcas. Together, we can make a difference for these amazing whales!
[Photo courtesy of Unsplash.]
