TACOMA, Wash. — The internet is abuzz with eyewitness accounts of orcas frolicking near the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.
The J Pod orcas were spotted far south in Puget Sound this early in their chinook salmon runs.
This stunned local orca experts.
According to those who were there, these members of the J Pod put on quite a show near the Narrows Bridge.
Whale watchers say these orca sightings could be a sign that the salmon population is recovering.
Members of the J Pod are among the endangered Southern Resident whales.
This is the first time in half a century that these orcas have been seen playing, and possibly eating, near the Narrows Bridge.
“I saw about eight of them coming, like little babies,” said local writer and podcaster Vicki Saint Clair.
She was there on Saturday.
“They put on a full show from here at Titlow (Park) all the way up underneath the Narrows bridge,” said St. Clair. “We watched them through the binoculars. And we raced our butts up the footpath up as close as we could get to the Narrows bridge up there. It was really cool.”
Orca experts say that the sighting wasn’t just cool—it was historic.
“They actually went to Carr Inlet, and they even went south more and went into Henderson Bay,” said Shari Tarantino, the Executive Director of the Orca Conservancy. “And that is just wild.”
Tarantino says that in recent years, the J Pod often traveled south but would soon head back because there weren’t any chinook salmon to eat.
“So, the fact that they actually went that far in tells me they were eating,” she added.
Whale watchers were already celebrating the sighting of a new baby calf, J63, born to J40.
J36, also known as ‘Alki,’ just lost a baby calf, seen carrying it on her head for several days on Sept. 12.
The sight of this calf has the whale-watching community cheering for a group of endangered mammals that have struggled with deaths and low birth rates.
“It means our salmon are doing well,” exclaimed Mishele Barnett of Lakewood. “And that the restoration of that ecosystem is going strong. And you know that is just beautiful news for the Pacific Northwest.”
If you missed this amazing orca show, you’re likely out of luck.
Tarantino says they are likely headed north to Canada for a chinook run.
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