April 2020
Here's a look at killer whale sightings in the Salish Sea for the month of April!
As expected due to all the Covid-19 related shutdowns, sightings were down this April compared to last year, but thanks to our growing support network of volunteer citizen scientists we are keeping track as best we can! With recreational and tourism boats off the water for the entire month we are undoubtedly missing some of the whales that were here, and we're also lacking a lot of ID information as observers haven't been able to follow up on reports to confirm ecotype and/or matriline identities. That's evidenced by the fact that we have twice as many "unknown ecotype" reports this April compared to April 2019! I suspect that's also why the dots are more clustered towards the shorelines on this month's map (where waterfront residents have been able to spot them), but there are few "open water" reports except for where ferries have been operating.
Even given the above, transient/Bigg's killer whales were confirmed present on 25 days in April. Southern Residents were spotted on six days, but five of those were in the northern Strait of Georgia. If you compare to just the central/southern Salish Sea region that we've been tracking over a longer period of time, this was the lowest month for SRKW sightings since April 2013 when they were not seen for the entire month.
There's often a decrease in Bigg's killer whale sightings in the summer, thought to be in part because they head north to Alaska where seal pups are being weaned sooner. They then follow the pup weaning season south, returning to the Salish Sea in greater numbers again in August and September when our seal pups are being weaned here. This year, there's some evidence they may have made their "Salish Sea exodus" sooner, as in mid-April several dozen Bigg's killer whales were documented over the course of a week heading north through the Salish Sea, past Campbell River, and then north through Johnstone Strait and into Queen Charlotte Sound. After that came a week with very few reports!
That said, May has started out with a bang, as today on May 1st we had reports of at least six different groups of orcas in the Salish Sea! As always, we will have to wait and see what the rest of the month brings, but with improving weather, increased daylight, and hopefully continued lifting of coronavirus-related restrictions, we trust that May will involve more whale sightings and encounters for all of us!
