The Orca Behavior Institute says it’s “thrilled” to have seen a southern resident killer whale (SRKW) superpod gather in the waters south of Vancouver Island last week.
A “superpod” is when the entire southern resident killer whale population gathers in one place.
“For those who may not know, a true Southern Resident superpod occurs when all members of the J, K, and L pods gather together in the same location. That’s 74 whales!” said the Orca Behavior Institute in a social media post Sunday.
All three pods gathered in the Puget Sound area on Nov. 10 and 11.
Researchers first got an inkling that a superpod was forming when they spotted J-Pod travelling north on Nov. 9.
“Meanwhile, K-Pod and L-Pod were spotted southeast of Discovery Island, B.C. travelling east, originally aiming toward the San Juan Islands before veering south,” said the Orca Behavior Institute.
“All three pods met up somewhere in the eastern Strait of Juan de Fuca, and by midnight, were audible via the Bush Point hydrophone coming back into Puget Sound,” added researchers.
“It left us all wondering if Js knew Ks and Ls were coming in, and if perhaps that’s why they went north – to meet them!”
On the morning of Nov. 10, researchers say they could hear the gathered excitement of the orcas on a hydrophone in Sunset Bay, Wash.
“The group initially moved northwest toward Point No Point, but by the afternoon had flipped and headed south,” said the Orca Behavior Institute.
The next day, the superpod was spotted north of Blake Island, Wash., before they “widely dispersed across the channel and travelling north at steady speed.”
A maps showing where the superpod met and travelled over a three-day period can be found below.
(Orca Behavior Institute/Facebook)
The OBI says it recorded more than 1,000 vocalizations during the superpod gathering that it will study moving forward.
“It was particularly cool to have the orcas engaged in such different behavior on both days,” said the OBI.
“On the first day, they weren’t just *in* a superpod they were behaving *like* a superpod, which to us means large groups of intermingling whales hanging in one location and just all around enjoying each other’s company,” the institute said.
“Then on the second day, the whales were in steady travel mode, moving at a good clip north through and ultimately out of Puget Sound. Despite this, they were still in mixed groups containing members from multiple pods and were still vocalizing a lot.”
Southern residents critically endangered
Unlike their cousins, the Bigg’s killer whales, southern resident killer whales are a critically endangered species.
The population numbers just 74, up by one from last year, but trends are showing a slow decline for the SRKWs.
The biggest threats to the southern residents include a decline in their main food source, chinook salmon, as well as increased urbanization in their habitat, such as more pollution and noise from cruise ships, tankers and freighters off B.C. and Washington’s coasts.
“We’re not talking about southern residents going extinct in the next five years, but we are talking about a fairly good chance of at least one of the (three) pods being gone within the next 50 years,” said Michael Weiss with the Center for Whale research in an interview with The Canadian Press last month.
With files from The Canadian Press
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