November 2023
Here is the November 2023 Salish Sea killer whale sightings map! Each dot represents a unique sighting of a unique group on a unique day. Red dots indicate Bigg's killer whales, our most abundant regional ecotype. Blue dots indicate Southern Residents, who kept up their November tradition of being present for quite a few days in inland waters. Yellow dots represent the uncommon visits of Northern Residents to the Salish Sea - in this case, the A23s and A25s. Gray dots, which become more frequent this time of year, represent confirmed orcas but unconfirmed ecotype, where often due to weather conditions, lack of eyes on the water, or shorter daylight hours, we don't get the follow up reports to help confirm which specific whales were present in that location.
One of the main reasons we track sightings rather than just "whale days present" is because for Bigg's killer whales they are "maxing out" on the whale days measure. That remained true in November, with confirmed Bigg's presence every single day of the month for the first time on record. The five-year average from 2018-2022 had them present 20 days in November, but this year they hit all 30! This is in part due to increased sightings effort and reporting, but also reflects an increase in the proportion of the growing Bigg's population that utilizes the Salish Sea and the longer time many family groups are spending here. The T109A2s, for example, used to be rare visitors to the Salish Sea, but this year came in in late September and stayed through late November without leaving at all!
Meanwhile we had confirmed presence of Southern Residents on 15 days in November, lower than their five-year average of 21 days, though adding the "speculated days" where we know they were inland somewhere but were unreported, they reach the 21 day mark. It was also the second year in a row we had a November superpod in inland waters, with all the Southern Residents traveling together up into the Strait of Georgia.
What remains to be seen in December is primarily how high the already record number of confirmed Bigg's sightings will go and also if the consecutive sightings streak will continue through the end of year. Through the end of November, we are already at over 260 straight days with confirmed Bigg's killer whales in the Salish Sea! We suspect at least a small number of them are here 365 days a year, but it would be fun to start being able to confirm that in the winter months. Let's see if our ever-growing network of community scientists can help us do it!
