All three pods gathered in the Puget Sound area on Nov. 10 and 11.<\/p>\n
Researchers first got an inkling that a superpod was forming when they spotted J-Pod travelling north on Nov. 9.<\/p>\n
\u201cMeanwhile, 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,\u201d said the Orca Behavior Institute.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll 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,\u201d added researchers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt left us all wondering if Js knew Ks and Ls were coming in, and if perhaps that\u2019s why they went north \u2013 to meet them!\u201d<\/p>\n
On the morning of Nov. 10, researchers say they could hear the gathered excitement of the orcas on a hydrophone in Sunset Bay, Wash.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe group initially moved northwest toward Point No Point, but by the afternoon had flipped and headed south,\u201d said the Orca Behavior Institute.<\/p>\n
The next day, the superpod was spotted north of Blake Island, Wash., before they \u201cwidely dispersed across the channel and travelling north at steady speed.\u201d<\/p>\n
A maps showing where the superpod met and travelled over a three-day period can be found below.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/581620784_1263749012466251_976267197511213906_n.jpg\")
(Orca Behavior Institute\/Facebook)<\/p>\n
The OBI says it recorded more than 1,000 vocalizations during the superpod gathering that it will study\u00a0moving forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was particularly cool to have the orcas engaged in such different behavior on both days,\u201d said the OBI. <\/p>\n
\u201cOn the first day, they weren\u2019t 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\u2019s company,\u201d the institute said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Southern residents critically endangered\u00a0<\/p>\n
Unlike their cousins, the Bigg\u2019s killer whales, southern resident killer whales are a critically endangered species.<\/p>\n