June 2020

Here's the update on June killer whale sightings in the Salish Sea! The brief visit by part of L-Pod is documented by the two purple dots, where they showed up the evening of June 26 off the west side of San Juan Island and were seen westbound off Sooke the next morning.

There was a bit of a lull in Bigg's killer whale (transient) sightings in the first week of June, but they were then documented in the region every single day from June 7-30th. Overall, Bigg's reports were way down compared to last year, with 64 unique groups reported in June 2020 compared to a whopping 115 in June 2019. Even the 21 reports of unidentified ecotype in 2020 (gray dots on the map), which in all likelihood were Ts, wouldn't even begin to bridge this gap!

It will be very difficult this year to determine whether Bigg's killer whales are in fact spending a bit less time here this year, or if they just aren't being seeing and reported as often due to the impacts of COVID.