Orcas visit Vashon waters

Southern Resident killer whales visited the southern waters of the Salish Sea over the last two weeks, swimming by Vashon and at one point foraging around the Tahlequah-Pt. Defiance ferry.

The orcas have visited the region multiple times this month, witnessed by residents and naturalists including local Indigenous orca expert Orca Annie Stateler.

The joy of their visits was a much-appreciated balm to the soul for Stateler, after the recent devastating news of the presumed death of Lobo, a member of the K Pod, and baby L128, born just in September.

Those disappearances and presumed deaths bring the population of the southern residents from 74 to 72 — and the southern residents, perched on a knife’s edge of survival, don’t lack for threats to their existence.

Depleted salmon resources threaten their survival and reproduction. Aquatic noise pollution scrambles their ability to talk to each other and find prey via echolocation. Environmental pollutants, like toxic chemicals, build up in their blubber and can even damage offspring when transferred through their milk. And their small population leads to inbreeding, a problem exacerbated by the loss of sexually mature males like Lobo.

A “superpod” of the orcas — a large group of all three pods travelling together — first made their way down on Nov. 1, Stateler said, “just in time for Native American Heritage Month.” She recalled standing in the rain at Point Robinson, eagerly awaiting a visit from the combined J, K and L pod members.

But the orcas turned north in the waters between KVI beach and Three Tree Point in Burien, Stateler said — mirroring a visit from a superpod two years ago this month, when a similar large group of whales turned around in the same spot. It’s been years since a superpod has been sighted at Point Robinson, she said.

Still, through binoculars, she saw many male dorsal fins — a sure sign of more than one pod present, she said, and what looked like foraging, tail slapping and possibly a breach. Happily, she also reported seeing chum salmon “breaching everywhere,” mirroring an optimistic report from the state Department of Fish and Wildlife this year on the overall Puget Sound chum population — though the orcas turned around before reaching those fish at Pt. Robinson.

Though the southern residents are known to prefer Chinook salmon, they also enjoy chum, Stateler said.

The superpod was travelling that day instead of eating, said orca researcher Mark Sears, and for the most part the orcas were sticking in their respective pods. Sears confirmed that as his crew followed the superpod that day, “everybody was present” except for Lobo — which he said is likely “the nail in the coffin” for that 31-year-old male.

Orcas, which form highly social, tight-knit matriarchal family groups, seem to join into superpods when they’ve been separated for a while, Stateler said. Like a big extended family reunion, superpods give the whales a chance to socialize. Mating also occurs during those meet-ups, Stateler said.

“It looks like a big, festive party,” she said.

One bright spot of news: J Pod has been eating well this year, especially around the Whidbey Island and Kingston area, Sears said.

“I can tell you, J Pod at least … have been feeding incessantly for almost a month now,” Sears said, and they’ve been following the chum salmon as they run through Puget Sound.

“In our experience, it’s fall, they’re definitely foraging and they look happy and healthy,” he said. “They run around, grab each other, push each other, vocalize above the surface. Sometimes they get into these periods of real rapid travel … you kind of wonder [why]. They’ll go for miles like that.”

J Pod made a stunning return last Friday, Nov. 8, when onlookers and photographers at Point Robinson were treated to the whales’ journey through the ferry lanes and down to Commencement Bay. The whales, spread across the eastern pass and heading southward, stayed a fair distance from shore, exhibiting distant spyhops, tail slaps, a breach, and impressive high-speed swimming, Stateler said.

One of those speedsters was beloved elder female Slick J16, who Stateler said is estimated to be about 52 years old and joked “has more energy than me.”

“She’s the oldest J pod member,” Stateler said. “To see her, so vibrant … I’m drawing inspiration from her during this dark time. … If she can be that tough and resilient, I guess we’re going to have to buck up too, right?”

The orcas kept going south and spent hours foraging around Dalco Passage, the strait between Ruston and the south end of Vashon, Stateler said.

And in a stunning surprise for riders of the Tahlequah – Pt. Defiance ferry, the orcas spent part of their afternoon foraging right by the boat.

One of those riders was Beachcomber Marketing Representative Pat Seaman. She was aboard the 1 p.m. boat heading toward Pt. Defiance, which had to stop part of the way through its journey for the orcas as they foraged and swam around nearby.

“Everybody watched and took photographs and videos,” she said, “and these two gorgeous, identical-sized (orcas) would come out in perfect unison. … I just couldn’t believe what I was seeing. … People were just thrilled.”

Orca visits are thrilling and often spiritually renewing, but their survival rests on everyone’s shoulders, Stateler said, especially in the harsh light of the recent deaths of southern resident orca babies.

So she reiterated that those who claim to love the orcas should consider how their desire to witness the whales actually affects those animals. She admonished fans of orcas to remember that the whales are imperiled and fragile — and taking long fossil-fuel trips solely to witness them contributes to the existential threat they face.

“Being in an obsessive relationship with something you love is often unbalanced and not healthy,” she said. “You self-professed orca lovers, do an audit. Are you being as sustainable as possible? How many miles are you driving to look at the whales? How many ferries are you taking? That 6PPD (a chemical pollutant) coming off your tires is getting into the salmon streams and killing the coho salmon.”

None of that is to dissuade islanders from going to their island beaches to see the orcas, which Stateler said she wholly supports. Rather, she said, off-island residents should consider watching the whales at a beach closer to where they live, which reduces their carbon footprint.

It’s “a death of 1000 cuts” for the whales, she said, and some of those cuts are inflicted by those who try to see them.

“What are we willing to do? How are we going to step up? What are we willing to sacrifice? Because I maintain their recovery is impossible if human beings are not willing to sacrifice something,” she said. “Don’t cry if you didn’t get to see the whales on a particular day. Be happy that the whales are out there finding food, doing what they need to do, in their infinite wisdom, in order to survive.”