Orcas never seen before in Seattle delight whale watchers with a visit

Seattle– When tourists visit Seattle, it’s common to view the Space Needle and the downtown skyline from Puget Sound.

It’s a route that a newly arrived pod of killer whales also appears to be following.

Three orcas previously unseen in the Seattle area delighted whale watchers with several visits just outside downtown last month. They also sailed to other shores in the region.

“People… are all very happy to see this,” said Hongming Zheng, who photographs whales in his free time. It took him 10 hours to drive to find the mysterious capsule. “It was epic.”

Researchers keep detailed records of killer whales that frequent the Salish Sea, the waters between Washington state and Canada, identifying their flippers and saddle plates, the grayish markings on their sides.

So it was a surprise when this pod of three orcas arrived in Vancouver, British Columbia, in March. The three were not listed in any local whale catalogs.

After some digging, researchers found photos of the group in Alaskan waters last year, said Shari Tarantino of the Washington-based Orca Conservancy. The group includes an adult female and what are believed to be her two cubs, including a large young adult male.

They have now been referred to as T419, T420 and T421 – the T meaning “transient” and not “tourist”.

Visiting orcas have something local whales don’t: circular scars left by cookie-cutter sharks, which latch onto larger animals and cut them into pieces. This is proof that they spent time on the high seas, because that’s where sharks live.

“We don’t yet know their exact origin with 100% certainty, but the main hypothesis is that they come from Alaska, perhaps the Aleutian region, given their appearance and the fact that some Alaskan populations are widely distributed in the North Pacific,” Tarantino wrote in an email.

As for why these three are thousands of miles from their home range? Tarantino said it’s possible they’ll go on a culinary excursion. This group feeds on marine mammals – unlike the resident orcas which feed on salmon, an endangered species – and the Salish Sea teems with harbor seals, sea lions and porpoises.

“They quickly became audience favorites,” Tarantino wrote. “People spend their whole lives hoping to see a killer whale from shore, and these three more than succeeded. »