May 2024

What a month was May! Just one quick glance at our orca sightings map and you can tell it was a busy one.

The Southern Residents were confirmed present for a whopping 20 days of the month, their highest total since 2011.

We had visits from nearly the entire population: Js, Ks, and all Ls but the L54 sub-group. On some days there were multiple groups seen in different areas, leading to the total Southern Resident sighting count of 24. They spent time both around the San Juan Islands and throughout the entirety of the Strait of Georgia.

And the Bigg's killer whales continue to do what they do best: paint the Salish Sea red. We count a sighting as a unique group of whales seen on a unique day, and Bigg's sightings were up by 60 compared to May 2023. This is the fourth May in a row that we were able to confirm the presence of Bigg's all 31 days of the month.

Brothers T65A3 Amir and T65A5 Indy spent the entire month in Puget Sound, meeting up on May 24th with grandma T65 Whidbey and uncle T63 Chainsaw (who wouldn't want an Uncle Chainsaw?!). The foursome ended the month with an ongoing stint in Hood Canal. Howe Sound was another hot spot. Members of the T71B, T86A, and T124A matrilines visited the area early in the month, and the T123s, T87 Harbeson, and T124C Cooper also spent time there. The largest group of Bigg's for the month - 22 whales - came in off a report from Powell River on May 3rd.

June is often a quieter month than May, in part because some Bigg's make their late spring exodus, heading north presumably to Alaska before returning to the Salish Sea later in the summer. Historically June was one of the best months for Southern Resident sightings in the Salish Sea, but in recent years it has been one of the worst, as the lack of spring Chinook returning to the Fraser River have led the whales to search elsewhere for food. But this year has already proven to differ from the patterns of the recent past, so we're hopeful we'll see the Southern Residents again sooner rather than later.