Meet the L12 sub-group

The L12 sub-group (or Greater L12s) is the mid-sized sub-group from L-Pod typically numbering between 10 and 15 individuals. They are independent enough from the Greater L4 sub-group that they show some acoustic divergence, sounding different vocally than the largest portion of L-Pod and indicating that their separation from the rest of the pod has probably been going on for many generations. As the largest of the three pods, it makes sense that L-Pod would be the most likely to split into additional sub-groups. The L12s fall in that gray area between "sub-pod" and "pod"; some researchers have suggested that if we had known what we do now when the original alphanumerics were given, the L12s may have deserved to be designated "M-Pod".

When around the San Juan Islands, the L12s are notorious for rarely "going north", or heading all the way up to the Fraser River. They are classic westside shuffle whales, often staying in Haro Strait even if other Southern Residents who are present head up to the Strait of Georgia. They seem to favor foraging off the southwest side of San Juan Island, sometimes not even making it up as far north as Lime Kiln Point State Park as they shuffle.

The two most well-known members of the L12 sub-group are L25 Ocean Sun and L87 Onyx. L25 is currently the oldest living member of the entire Southern Resident population at an estimated age of 96, though there is a lot of speculation in this guess. While there is a popular theory that she may have been the mother of Lolita/Tokitae, a Southern Resident who was taken into captivity in 1976 and lived at the Miami Seaquarium until her death in 2023, there has been little concrete evidence to support this claim. L87 meanwhile is a whale that taught us our claim that Southern Residents never disperse from their natal family groups is incorrect! Since the death of his mother in 2005, Onyx has spent years traveling with K-Pod, J-Pod, and the Greater L4 sub-group.