June 2023

Here is our June 2023 Salish Sea orca sightings map! As you can see, Bigg's killer whales continued to be everywhere. They were confirmed present on every day of the month for the sixth time in the last seven years (with only the COVID year of 2020 coming in at less than all 30 days), and also the most unique sightings of any month so far this year at 175.

Some highlights included the T85s making a rare Salish Sea appearance, all of the T124As traveling together for a time, and the T77s making their first documented return to the Salish Sea for the year.

Meanwhile, the Southern Residents were present for 10 days of June, with J-Pod making visits at the beginning and the end of the month, with their second visit being in the company of the L12 sub-group. Not only was it great to see these whales in the Salish Sea for the first time since January, but they were accompanied by TWO new calves in L126 and L127.

Each dot on this map represents a unique group of orcas on a unique day of the month, so while this doesn't represent everywhere the whales traveled, it gives a sense of the number of different groups utilizing the region over the course of the month. This type of wildlife tracking is only possible due to a network of hundreds of individuals that contribute sightings reports and photos to sightings groups throughout the Salish Sea. We confirm all Southern Resident killer whale reports first hand by reviewing photos, videos, and/or acoustic data (if we don't see them ourselves), while for Bigg's killer whales we either do the same thing or rely on a group of skilled observers to confirm IDs. A big THANK YOU to everyone who participates in this tracking to help create these awesome maps!

‍