April 2022

After a short break while on vacation, we are back with your April Salish Sea orca sightings map! Just a reminder that each point on this map shows a unique group of whales seen on a unique day; repeat reports from one day are not shown, so this graphic gives an overall idea of the number of different groups of whales reported throughout the course of the month.

The Southern Residents (J-Pod) stayed in inland waters for the first two weeks of April, being sighted on 11 days around the San Juans and in the southern Strait of Georgia. On April 14 they were seen heading west out of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and if trends in recent years hold, we may not see Js again in the Salish Sea until July. Members of K- and L-Pods were both reported on the outer coast in mid-April, but we haven't had any further word on the location of Js since they left.

Meanwhile, Bigg's killer whales were confirmed present on 29 of 30 days in April, with at least 114 whales from the population utilizing the Salish Sea throughout the month. The Campbell River area and Puget Sound saw an increase in sightings compared to March, while reports were still present but in lower numbers around Nanaimo compared to their near-daily reports in March. The Puget Sound reports were boosted in large part from the T123s staying down there from April 13 through the end of April.

Since we are already partway into May, we can report there have been numerous large groups of Bigg's killer whales throughout the Salish Sea this month. Through May 11, there have not been any reports of Southern Residents in the Salish Sea.