When visiting Seattle, tourists often enjoy viewing the Space Needle and the downtown skyline from Puget Sound.
A newly arrived group of killer whales seems to be taking a similar route.
Three orcas, previously unrecorded in the Seattle area, have thrilled whale watchers with multiple appearances near downtown in the past month. They’ve also been seen along other shorelines in the vicinity.
“People … are all very happy to see this,” said Hongming Zheng, an amateur whale photographer who spent 10 hours driving to locate the elusive pod. “It was epic.”
Researchers meticulously track killer whales in the Salish Sea, the waters between Washington state and Canada, by identifying their fins and saddle patches — the grayish marks on their sides.
It was unexpected when this trio of orcas appeared in Vancouver, British Columbia, in March, as they weren’t listed in local whale catalogs.
Through further investigation, researchers found images of the pod in Alaskan waters from the previous year, according to Shari Tarantino from the Washington-based Orca Conservancy.
The group consists of an adult female and what are thought to be her two young, including a large young adult male.
They have been labeled as T419, T420, and T421 — the T denotes “transient,” not “tourist.”
The visiting orcas bear circular scars from cookiecutter sharks, which attach to larger animals and remove a piece of them. This indicates they have spent time in the open ocean, where these sharks reside.
“We don’t know their exact origin with 100% certainty yet, but the leading hypothesis is that they’re from Alaska, possibly the Aleutian region, given their appearance and the fact that some Alaskan populations range widely across the North Pacific,” Tarantino wrote in an email.
As for why these three have traveled so far from their usual habitat, Tarantino suggested they might be on a culinary exploration. This pod preys on sea mammals — unlike the endangered salmon-eating resident orcas — and the Salish Sea is rich with harbor seals, sea lions, and porpoises.
“They have quickly become a crowd favorite,” Tarantino wrote. “People spend a lifetime hoping to see a killer whale from shore, and these three have more than delivered.”
