We often refer to Southern Resident killer whale matrilines by the female that is the "glue" that holds the whales together, regardless of if she is alive or not. Matia and her sister L94 Calpyso lost their mom L11 Squirty in 2000, but because she is the matrilineal link between them, we still refer to Matia, Calpyso, and all of their descendents as the "L11s".

Calypso is a beacon of hope in L-Pod, being one of the females who is successfully reproducing on a regular basis with surviving calves born in 2009, 2015, and 2023.

L113 is one of many whales in the Salish Sea who has multiple common names or nicknames. She was named Cousteau through The Whale Musueum's Orca Adoption Program and was also named Molly by the Center for Whale Research. It's important we all use the same alphanumeric designations to track the whales for scientific purposes, but you can use whichever common name you like best!

A unique trait of Joy is that she is the progeny of two whales with consecutive alphanumeric designations. We know from observation that her mom is L77 Matia, and from genetic sampling her dad was determined to be L78 Gaia.

Windsong was first documented on the outer coast of Washington by NOAA researchers in February 2015, during one of a series of winter oceanic surveys aimed at better documenting Southern Resident killer whale habitat usage outside of the Salish Sea. Thanks in part to these surveys, SRKW critical habitat was extended to include the outer coast in 2021.

On her left side, Whistle has a unique open saddle patch where the pigment is actually split into two broken segments that don't connect with one another, the only Southern Reisdent to have such a marking!

L126 was first photographed by a fisherman off Tofino. When the L12 sub-group visited inland waters two weeks later, the Center for Whale Research went out to look for this new calf, and were greatly surprised to fine not one but two new babies traveling with this group! Balcomb received the first number since he was the first one photographed; the second calf was designated L127.

Scuba has one of the thinnest and widest open saddle patches among living Southern Residents. Saddle patches typically brigthen as whales get a little older, and we can't wait to see hers come in more clearly!