{"id":550067,"date":"2026-03-28T08:20:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T08:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/550067\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T08:20:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T08:20:14","slug":"mystery-orcas-return-to-seattle-area","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/550067\/","title":{"rendered":"Mystery orcas return to Seattle area"},"content":{"rendered":"

The mystery orcas are back in town.<\/p>\n

A trio of unidentified orcas, never observed in the Pacific Northwest before, showed up in early March<\/a>, first in Canada\u2019s Vancouver Harbour, then in the busy ports of Seattle, Tacoma, and Olympia.<\/p>\n

Where they hail from is still unknown, though researchers determined these mammal-eating, transient orcas had been seen once before, in Anchorage, Alaska. Unusual, cookie-shaped scars indicated they had also spent time in the deep, warm seas favored by the micro-predators known as a cookie-cutter sharks.<\/p>\n

The mystery trio showed up again Thursday morning, cruising along the downtown Seattle waterfront in Elliott Bay and the mouth of the Duwamish Waterway, beneath the giant cranes and cargo ships of the Port of Seattle\u2019s Harbor Island.<\/p>\n

RELATED: Mystery orcas from afar thrill Seattle-area whale watchers<\/a><\/p>\n

The wild predators did not shy away from even the most industrial waters in their apparent hunt for seals and sea lions. The trio, believed to be a mother and her two sons, mostly hugged the King County shoreline as they headed to Tacoma\u2019s heavily industrialized Commencement Bay.<\/p>\n

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Observers with the Orca Network reported the orcas heading into Tacoma\u2019s Thea Foss Waterway, past the massive Temco grain elevators and a Silver Cloud Hotel, before swimming toward Gig Harbor and Vashon Island.<\/p>\n

On Friday, other whale watchers spotted the trio near Bremerton and Bainbridge Island.<\/p>\n

A small National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration research boat tagged along Thursday to get photos and possibly DNA to help unravel the mystery of these unusual visitors.<\/p>\n

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NOAA researcher Brad Hanson held an air rifle as he stood in the bow of the inflatable boat, hoping to get a biopsy \u2014 a tiny plug of skin and blubber \u2014 to reveal the orcas\u2019 genetics and exposure to long-lasting pollutants like PCBs.<\/p>\n

In an email, Hanson called it “a unique opportunity without a lot of investment to get info on relatively rare killer whales.”<\/p>\n

\u201cWe weren\u2019t able to get a biopsy nor did we get any recordings as the whales only appeared to hunt once with no obvious kill,\u201d Hanson said.<\/p>\n

Unlike the region\u2019s endangered southern resident killer whales, which hunt by emitting sounds to echolocate salmon in the inky depths, transient orcas hunt their mammalian prey silently. They are unlikely to vocalize until after they have had a kill.<\/p>\n

The team was able to get photographs and pump up seawater the whales had just swum through to obtain traces of environmental DNA or \u201ceDNA.\u201d The tidbits of floating genetic material can reveal animals’ presence, genetics, and diets when biopsies are not practical.<\/p>\n

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The scientists tracked the orca trio for about two and a half hours, from the Fauntleroy ferry dock in West Seattle to Three Tree Point in Burien, with whales occasionally surfacing next to them.<\/p>\n

Researchers have federal permits to approach closer than the buffer zones mandated by state and federal laws.<\/p>\n

All other vessels are required<\/a> to stay at least 200 yards away from the transient orcas and 1,000 yards away from the endangered southern residents.<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The mystery orcas are back in town. A trio of unidentified orcas, never observed in the Pacific Northwest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":550068,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":["post-550067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=550067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/550068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}