January 2021

It was a relatively quiet start to 2021 in terms of orca sightings in the Salish Sea. This is not unusual, as January is often the month with the fewest reports for both Southern Residents and Bigg's killer whales.

This year, the Southern Residents were reported on just four days in January, though members of all three pods were seen. All of J-Pod continued to travel with part of K-Pod as they did at the end of 2020, and we had an unexpected visit from just 5 members of L-Pod who made a brief pass by the west side of San Juan Island mid-month. Both new calves J57 Phoenix and J58 Crescent were seen and appeared to be doing well.

There was a fair number of reports of Bigg's killer whales in the Strait of Georgia, including a handful of sightings off the Nanaimo area. Several less common matrilines to the region made appearances, including the T85s, T109Bs, and T167s.

As you can see from the two yellow dots, the A42s of the Northern Resident community also made their way into the Salish Sea, spending some time along the Sunshine Coast, the exact same area they visited in December 2019.

While we did see a distant dorsal fin in January, we have yet to have our first research encounter of the year, so we are eagerly awaiting some more whale reports near San Juan Island as well as the increasing daylight that starts to become noticeable throughout the month of February!