Bigg’s and Southern Resident KELŁOLEMEĆEN

September 09, 2025

Bigg’s

J26

J63 showing herself out of the water!

Bigg’s

Young female breaching

J39

Following our SRKW sighting on September 08, we set out with news J pod was still in the area of San Juan Island. As we travelled down Haro Strait, we saw a group of whales south of ĆTESU (Darcy Island) heading north. We slowed and observed them and quickly determined these were Bigg’s killer whales. We stayed with these whales to obtain identification photos, and to monitor marine mammal compliance, flying our whale flag and hailing other vessels in the area to keep our killer whale relatives safe. These whales are believed to be the T099s.

After gathering data with the Bigg’s, we continued south towards the Southern Residents. These whales were determined to be J pod, and they were shuffling up and down the west side of San Juan Island near KEXṈIN,EṈ. The whales were surface active, and were chatty as we deployed our dip hydrophone and obtained underwater recordings. It was a special day to listen to the whales in real time as we photographed them. We stayed with the whales with our engines off for a couple hours, and then headed back up north to end the day.

All photos are taken with a 200-600 zoom lens.