Southern Resident Killer Whales Visit Penn Cove for First Time Since Captures
Originally published in the Salish Current
L pod swims into Penn Cove on Nov. 4, 2024. L-25 Ocean Sun is closest to the camera. (Jill Hein)
For the first time in 53 years, the Southern Resident killer whales have been observed in Penn Cove, near the town of Coupeville on Whidbey Island.
The last time the Southern Residents were seen at Penn Cove was during the captures of 1970 and 1971, when they were corralled into net pens and the calves taken and sent to marine parks around the world. Between these two captures, 11 calves were taken and five whales died.
According to Howard Garrett, longtime whale activist and co-founder of Whidbey Island’s Orca Network, following these traumatic captures, the Southern Residents had not been observed in Penn Cove. That is, until recently.
Not only did the Southern Residents recently visit the cove, but according to observers, they spent hours “pacing,” swimming back and forth, near three different sites that were important to the captures: the site where the net pens were set, near the dock where the calves were hauled out of the water, and in front of the inn where members of the capture team lodged.
Lots of Fish, Lots of Black Fish
There are two ecotypes of killer whales in the Salish Sea: the transients, also known as Bigg’s killer whales, that eat seals and other marine mammals, and the Southern Resident killer whales (SRKW), who eat salmon.
The SRKW have spent more time than usual around Whidbey Island this fall, because 2024 has been a record chum year in Central and South Puget Sound. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife had predicted a return of 486,562 chum to Central/South streams, but that estimate has now nearly doubled to 900,000.
Scientists aren’t entirely sure why chum runs are so much stronger this year, but it is probably related to higher survivability out in the ocean: cooler waters and an increased food supply available to the fish.
“People have been talking about how many fish they’ve seen jumping down there,” said Garrett, referring to the Possession Triangle just south of Whidbey. “Everywhere they look, there are salmon jumping out of the water. And there’s a pretty good correlation between lots of fish and lots of black fish.” Black fish is another name for killer whales.
As of this writing, the SRKW have been observed in inland Puget Sound for 28 of the past 32 days. They have spent much of this time around the Possession Triangle. Garrett said that during their stay in the area, the whales have been displaying a lot of foraging behavior: they are spread out in singles, pairs and groups of three, taking long dives. “They're just searching every nook and cranny for fish,” he said.
Two-day Visit
The SRKW are made up of three pods: J, K, and L pods. It was L pod that made the historic visits to Penn Cove on November 3 and 4.
L-25, or Ocean Sun, is the oldest SRKW, at an estimated 96 years. She is the last surviving SRKW who was alive at the time of the Penn Cove captures. Notably, she was present when L pod ventured back into Penn Cove.
According to an account from Rachel Haight, whale sightings coordinator for the Orca Network, L pod first entered the cove on November 3. They swam at a quick and steady pace, with a lot of spy hops and breaches. Howard Garrett said that this is not a typical foraging behavior, but more of a “tight, social” behavior. L pod went about halfway into the cove before turning around and leaving.
On November 4, L pod visited Penn Cove again. It was a windy day, with gusts up to 60 mph. The orcas swam into Penn Cove against the wind, surfacing high in the chop and again doing a lot of breaching as they made their way into the cove.
“This time,” wrote Rachel Haight in the Orca Network in her report, “they went deep into the cove and spent hours hanging out.”
First the entire pod was seen porpoising, rising above and dipping below the water, near the Captain Whidbey Inn, where members of the 1970-71 capture teams lodged.
A little later, L pod drifted east and formed a resting line, not far from the San de Fuca dock. This is where the whale calves were put into slings and hauled out of the water.
“That would be the spot where the calves were strapped onto the side of a seine boat and staged,” said Garrett, “while arrangements were made for a truck and transport.”
Then, L pod split into two groups. L-72 Racer & her adult son L-105 Fluke broke away and went deeper into the cove, pacing in front of Captain Whidbey Inn. They spent an hour and a half swimming back and forth just out from the dock at the inn.
Meanwhile the larger group, including L-25 Ocean Sun, drifted south and spent two hours pacing, just north of the Penn Cove mussel rafts, not far from the exact location where the captures occurred.
Garrett knows the location of the captures because he was guided there by John Stone, who was present during both the 1970 and 1971 captures. Stone was the teenage son of the owner of the Captain Whidbey Inn.
As it started to get dark, L-72 and L-105 rejoined the larger group. When Haight and other observers left, all of L pod was still pacing in the area near where the net pens had been set.
That the whales spent multiple hours resting and pacing near three places most associated with the captures–the Captain Whidbey Inn, the San de Fuca dock, and just north of the mussel rafts–strikes Garrett as uncanny. “That’s just too much correlation to not be connected. I can read a lot into it, but anybody can.”
Of course, one can only guess at L pod’s motivations for entering Penn Cove and lingering at these particular locations. But one thing is clear, said Garrett. Judging by the whales’ behavior, “They weren't foraging. They weren't hunting.”
Map showing L-pod’s locations compared to important sites related to the captures: the site where the net pens were set, near the dock where the calves were hauled out of the water, and in front of the inn where members of the capture team lodged. (Rachel Haight)
“There’s a Larger Message Here”
The 1970-71 Penn Cove captures were documented by local newspaper photographer Wallie Funk, as well as Don McGaffin on King 5 News. The public outcry that followed helped put an end to orca captures in Washington State in 1976.
According to historian and author Sandra Pollard, records are not complete, but between 1965 and 1976, something like one third to one half the SRKW population was either captured or killed. When the first census of the SRKW was taken in 1976, there were only 71 whales left in the population. When the SRKW were listed as endangered in 2005, the National Marine Fisheries Service said that the SRKW had still not recovered from the dent in the population caused by the capture era.
One of the calves captured in 1970 was Tokitae, who was later identified as L pod whale by her calls. She spent 53 years at the Miami Seaquarium, in North America’s (and possibly the world’s) smallest orca tank.
In the mid 1990’s Howard Garrett, along with wife, Susan Berta, launched a decades-long campaign to bring Tokitae home. Starting in 1996 and up until Tokitae’s death in 2023, the Orca Network hosted a ceremony on August 8 every year on Penn Cove to commemorate the 1970 capture.
For Berta, L pod’s return to Penn Cove was deeply emotional. She said this event is important for the entire town of Coupeville. “I know the people in Coupeville have felt troubled by this part of our history. And now, we feel like maybe it's been forgiven. Maybe the whales have found a way to forgive us.”
In 2017, members of the Lummi Nation joined the campaign to bring Tokitae home. The Lummi have a kinship bond with the SRKW, and the word for killer whale in their language is qw'e lh'ol mechen, which translates to “our people that live under sea.” They claimed Tokitae as a kidnapped relative.
Raynell Morris of the Lummi Nation, who formerly worked with the nonprofit Sacred Sea, was part of a coalition called Friends of Toki, which made plans to retire Tokitae to a sea pen in the Salish Sea. The coalition was in the process of applying for permits when Tokitae died in August of 2023. Tokitae’s ashes were returned to the Salish Sea in a private ceremony in January 2024.
Ellie Kinley, a Lummi commercial fisher who also works with Sacred Sea, said that L pod’s return to Penn Cove feels like a powerful gesture toward healing. She said, “I truly feel that Ocean Sun was telling the story of the capture to her pod. I feel it's all just part of the healing process. I hope that everyone gets the feeling of healing from this news.”
L pod’s historic visit comes just as another SRKW, K-26, Lobo, has been reported missing, presumed dead. After the loss of L-128, a newborn calf, earlier this autumn, the total SRKW population now numbers 72.
“We clearly have more healing to do,” Morris said, “We know they've been hungry and starving and now they're doing this in Penn Cove two days in a row. There's a larger message here.”
Morris said the biggest thing we can do to help the southern residents is to breach the four Lower Snake River Dams to increase the supply of chinook salmon available to the SRKW. “It really is the time for the people to come together in a strong way,” she said, “And work together in a strong way, and tell the truth. I think these are all messages to us.”
Kinley agrees. “We can still do better,” she said, “We need to pick it up a notch.”