Today we were thrilled to encounter a TRUE SUPERPOD!

Today we were thrilled to encounter a TRUE SUPERPOD while on the water in Puget Sound for our research project with the Center for Whale Research!

For Southern Residents, a superpod is when every member of the population is in the same waterway together. Sometimes the term gets used when there are members of every pod present, but L-Pod in particular often breaks into three sub-groups, so a true superpod requires the presence of the L4, L12, and L54 sub-groups, which we had today. That means there were 74 orcas all within a couple miles of each other!

While the weather wasn't ideal, we still had an incredible morning of data collection with intermingling social groups containing members of all three pods plus So. Many. Vocals. The drone videos and hydrophone recordings from today will take a long time to process (that's a "later in the winter" project), but we hope it reveals some interesting insights into pairing specific behaviors with specific call types.

In the meantime, I wanted to share images of two of the individual Southern Resident killer whales we get asked about most often, both of whom we saw today: L25 Ocean Sun and L87 Onyx. Both these individuals currently travel with the L12 sub-group which does not spend nearly as much time in the Salish Sea as they used to years ago. As a result, we don't get to share updates on them often, but we wanted to let you know that they were both there today! -MWS

Top image: L87 Onyx, who has a unique history in that he has spent years traveling with all three pods: J, K, and L

Bottom image: L25 Ocean Sun, the oldest living Southern Resident killer whale