{"id":730637,"date":"2026-06-28T07:02:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T07:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/730637\/"},"modified":"2026-06-28T07:02:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T07:02:12","slug":"biggs-orca-sightings-on-the-rise-in-puget-sound-salish-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/730637\/","title":{"rendered":"Bigg\u2019s orca sightings on the rise in Puget Sound, Salish Sea"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sightings of Bigg\u2019s orcas<\/a> \u2014 commonly referred to as transients \u2014 are up across the inland Puget Sound area and the Salish Sea, including Bellingham Bay.<\/p>\n

\u201cOverall, Bigg\u2019s killer whale sightings have increased dramatically in the Salish Sea over the last decade, so most regions are seeing many more of the mammal-eating orcas than they used to,\u201d Orca Behavior Institute Director Monika Wieland Shields told The Bellingham Herald.<\/p>\n

Their presence is largely due to abundant food availability and an increase in their population, according to Weiland Shields.<\/p>\n

Bigg\u2019s killer whales differ from southern resident orcas in that they prey on other marine mammals such as seals and whales<\/a>, rather than salmon or other marine fish.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one of those good news stories,\u201d Salish Sea Institute<\/a> Associate Director Dr. Cindy Elliser told The Herald. \u201cThey\u2019re here because there is food. This shows that if we can protect the prey, predators will come. Seeing them is a good sign that things are going well in the ecosystem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several orca whales were documented<\/a> swimming together in Bellingham Bay on June 4. Another group of whales was documented in the same general area on June 21.<\/p>\n

Bellingham native and part-time resident Conner Harrington captured a video of the group of orcas seen on June 21.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was walking down to Boulevard Park from Bayview Drive when I heard someone say there were whales,\u201d Harrington told The Herald. \u201cI looked over and saw the orcas right near the boardwalk. It was incredible seeing them so close, and it was amazing to watch everyone enjoying the moment on such a beautiful day \u2014 especially on Father\u2019s Day and the first day of summer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harrington said this was the third time he\u2019s seen orcas in the wild, but he has never seen them that close to shore.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve spent most of my life in the area, and it feels like there\u2019s been an incredible amount of whale activity in the bay lately,\u201d Harrington said.<\/p>\n

Orca sightings in the Puget Sound and Salish Sea area collected by the Orca Network\u2019s Whale Sighting Network team have steadily increased since 2014, according to the organization\u2019s 2025 Orca Sightings Summary report.<\/p>\n

The highest number of reports came in 2025, at 14,149. That\u2019s up from 2,101 reports to the network in 2014. The vast majority of the 2025 reports \u2014 11,279 of them \u2014 were identified as Bigg\u2019s orcas.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile a variety of matrilines have been seen in Bellingham Bay in past years, it is the T123s, a family of four, who have been sighted multiple times this June. They may have decided they like that area for whatever reason and may keep on visiting,\u201d Orca Network Whale Sighting Network<\/a> co-coordinator Rachel Haight told The Herald.<\/p>\n

A matriline, which is an orca social unit made up of a female and her living descendants,<\/a> may find a \u201cfavorite area\u201d and revisit that spot frequently, according to Haight.<\/p>\n

Spring has been a busy time for Bigg\u2019s sightings over the last several years, according to Haight.<\/p>\n

\u201cBigg\u2019s orcas in general are spending more time in the Salish Sea as the southern residents spend less time here. At the same time, the Bigg\u2019s population is continuing to increase, likely in large part due to the high availability of prey across the region,\u201d Haight said.<\/p>\n

An increase in reporting may also be playing \u201cat least a small part\u201d in the increase in sightings, according to Haight.<\/p>\n

Orca Network\u2019s Community Group on Facebook, which hosts real-time sightings, has seen steady growth in users in the past few years. It now has more than 126,000 members, many of whom reside in the Salish Sea and Puget Sound area, Haight said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIncreasing community effort, open collaboration, and sharing of reports\u201d helps make tracking orcas in a large variety of locations easier, Haight said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople have to first spot orcas and then know to report to the proper sources; without that, orcas may be present, but \u2018unnoticed\u2019 in a way,\u201d Haight told The Herald.<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Rachel Showalter<\/a><\/p>\n

The Bellingham Herald<\/p>\n

Rachel Showalter graduated Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo in 2019 with a degree in journalism. She spent nearly four years working in radio, TV and broadcast on the West Coast of California before joining The Bellingham Herald in August 2022. She lives in Bellingham.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sightings of Bigg\u2019s orcas \u2014 commonly referred to as transients \u2014 are up across the inland Puget Sound…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":730638,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":["post-730637","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\/730637","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=730637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730637\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/730638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=730637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=730637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=730637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}