A Sunny Summer Day on San Juan Island with the Southern Resident Killer Whales
Imagery and Story by Sara Montour Lewis
The Southern Resident Killer Whales historically spent the majority of their summers in the Salish Sea, delighting summer tourists and residents alike with their frequent passes through the waters of Puget Sound. In recent years, though, with dwindling salmon populations and increased pollution and vessel activity on Puget Sound their population is at enormous risk and the Salish Sea as a whole isn’t providing for them in the way that it used to.
When we heard that J Pod and a few members of L Pod had been keeping a presence around San Juan Island we watched from afar until FOMO got the best of us and we joined forces with Orca Conservancy to head to the island for the day to get our SRKW fill.
Our day started with a 3:30am wake up call to catch the earliest ferry out of Anacortes, where we watched a stunning sunset with great blue herons, purple martins and an (always) adorable belted kingfisher that were also starting their day. Once we hit Friday Harbor it was a nonstop scavenger hunt to track the whales and sneak in sightings from land where we could which led to a 23-hour day of pure SRKW bliss including sightings of so many adorable J Pod babies, the oldest living Southern Resident Killer Whale, a couple of fantastic breaches, and a sliver of encouragement that the Salish Sea just might be able to turn things around and provide for these whales in abundance once again.
Enjoy our journey below, and to learn more about the Southern Resident Killer Whales, including what you can do to help them thrive, jump over to our SRKW page.
J Pod greeting us with a stunning first pass, grouped together close to shore
J38/Cookie, J58/Crescent and J19/Shachi passing landbank on San Juan Island
J58/Crescent stealing hearts
L22/Spirit
L85/Mystery
L25/Ocean Sun. L25 is the oldest living Southern Resident Killer Whale and the last remaining member of the L25s. She’s estimated to be born around 1928, making her potentially nearly 100 years old.
L22/Spirit breaching in front of the Olympic Mountains 😍
