August 2021

Here is our August 2021 sightings map of orcas in the Salish Sea!

The abundant Bigg's killer whale reports continued, with more than 70 individual members of the population being documented in the region throughout the month, many of them staying around for most or all of August! The T60s, the T34s, T37, and T37Bs, the T65As, the T37As, and the T18s are just some of the whales that were regularly spotted.

Amazingly, with the busy month we had, we have already surpassed the 2019 record for most sightings of Ts in the Salish Sea in a year, and we still have four full months to go in 2021! (A "sighting" is a report of a given group of Ts on a given day. So if the T65As and T37As are seen in two different locations on August 1, that's two sightings. If they are seen in one place together on August 2, that's a third sighting.)

On the resident killer whale front, members of A-Clan of the Northern Residents made several visits to the Campbell River area, while further south the four whales in the L54 sub-group of the Southern Residents came into inland waters on August 25.

Earlier this year, we had an uncanny repeat when members of K-Pod came down through Johnstone Strait to the San Juan Islands on the exact same days of 2021 as in 2020. In another echo of last year, after being absent for all of August, J-Pod made their way east through the Strait of Juan de Fuca on August 31, and have stayed in the Salish Sea for the subsequent days since then. If history continues to repeat itself, we should be in for a fairly decent September with the Southern Residents after a very sparse April through August!