January 2020

It's hard to believe January 2020 is already in the books! Rather than put single data points onto a graph for the first month of the year, we decided to map the month's Salish Sea sightings by ecotype. Thanks again to our devoted volunteer Tomislav Flip for helping to make these visuals happen!

Interestingly, this may be the first month since January 2019 when ALL members of the Southern Resident community were documented in inland waters (still awaiting confirmation on the L54 sub-group, but at least all the others!).

While sightings are likely to be lower this time of year anyway, but the combination of rougher weather and fewer people on the water means that groups of whales (especially Bigg's) are more likely to be missed. There are also more groups that we don't get an identification on, indicated here by the gray dots, because they may be reported from a ferry, for instance, but then not picked up again by anyone else who might be able to get an ID.

Thanks as always to the Pacific Whale Watch Association, Orca Network, and all the citizen scientists on shore and on the water who document and share their sightings so we can all learn more about killer whales in the Salish Sea!