September 2026
Here is your September killer whale sightings map for the Salish Sea, and what a busy month it was!
We confirmed the presence of Southern Residents on 16 days, the second highest of the year behind only March (19 days). This included 22 sightings, with numerous days having two groups of SRKWs in different locations. J-Pod, K-Pod, and the Greater L4s all made an appearance, and sightings ranged from the far western Strait of Juan de Fuca to the central Strait of Georgia to Puget Sound. They don't always start their fall forays into Puget Sound in September, but they did this year!
We had our highest presence of Northern Resident killer whales for the year thus far, which matches their pattern for September 2025. All members of the A5 pod were among the visitors, with the A42s making an early season foray towards Howe Sound just north of Vancouver! We expect them to visit the Sunshine Coast often in the winter, but this was one of their earlier visits in recent memory.
Bigg's killer whales followed up their all-time record-setting August with another busy month, posting a new high for September of 270 unique sightings. Many days had over 10 different groups of Bigg's, and even on the last day of the month September 30th they were still going strong with 13 unique groups seen totaling over 50 individual whales.
Some specific highlights on the Bigg's front included the documentation of a new calf born to T36A1, uncle T49C Neilson meeting up with his nephew T49A2 Jude for their annual retreat, and the T60 brothers (T60D and T60E) spending several days "glued" to the shoreline of San Juan and Henry Islands in search of seals.
Another fun report has been T2B continuing to travel with her sister T2C, which she started to do in mid-August. T2B is an adult female with no living offspring who has been known to form various temporary but long-term associations with different unrelated groups. Most recently, she was traveling with the T73As and T109Bs, but we've also documented her over the years with the T60s and T90s. After all these years, what has compelled her to return to traveling with her closest living relatives? We can only guess!
Historically sightings tend to slow down as we get into October, especially with shorter daylight hours and more inclement weather, but this year, who knows? For four of the first six months of the year, Bigg's sightings were down compared to 2025, but over the last three months we've blown the previous monthly records out of the water. Southern Resident presence also fluctuates a lot in October, though if recent patterns hold, this should be an "up" year. Only time will tell!
Notes: Each dot indicates a unique sighting, defined as a unique group of orcas seen on a unique day, with different colors indicating different populations. This represents the first location each group was seen, not everywhere whales traveled. Gray dots mean killer whales were confirmed but ID to ecotype was not possible. Answers to other common questions can be found here
