By Pepper Fisher

SAN JUAN ISLAND – The J-Pod Southern Resident orcas were spotted on the west side of San Juan Island Tuesday evening for the first time in 108 days. In fact, members of all three Southern Resident pods returned to the inland waters at once.

That’s exciting news to those who study and monitor such things.

We spoke with Howard Garrett, co-founder of The Orca Network, Wednesday morning.

“From what I understand, members of all three pods, J,K and L pods, kind of spread out, but in their little family groups, and moving from group to group, foraging and in their usual place off of San Juan Island.”

Historically, the San Juans is where the whales spent their entire summers, feeding and socializing, before depleted salmon populations forced them to leave the Strait of Juan de Fuca altogether in search of better fishing.

Garrett says there have been sporadic sightings of the pods in open ocean west of the Strait, and first indications are that a healthy group has returned.

“The babies look good. The newest baby, just born last January, L-125, was looking good from all reports. So they have been out there and apparently getting enough to eat. It’s just a bad sign that we’re not having enough salmon in the inland waters for them to spend any time in here.”

No one had seen them as of this writing on Wednesday, so it may be that they’ve already moved on but, for now, it’s an encouraging sign that the Southern Residents were back on their old stomping grounds.

“It’s an important place to them. It’s a sort of a cultural socializing place, where they would meet up and not only forage, but socialize, get together. You know, have these kind of gatherings, super-pod events. You know, you would sort of see them out there, frolicking around with each other. So that is what people who were able to see yesterday and it was a joyful sight.”

(Photo by Brad Chrisman)