Episode 22 of After the Breach finds co-hosts, Sara and Jeff, still down in Bremer Bay, Western Australia with their friend and colleague, April Ryan. They have had so many encounters over the past two weeks and there’s so much to share! This time around the three of them share a quick highlight reel of just a few of the things that have stood out to them lately. They’ll have so much more to share once they’re back home (and rested!) but join them now to hear about what’s different for Sara from last year to this year, the patrolling whales that made a lasting impression on April, and Jeff’s memorable encounter with a juvenile who just seemed intrigued by the Go Pro camera the crew had in the water—and it wasn’t the first time for this particular whale! 

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Videos from this Episode:

Photos from this Episode

Bremer Canyon killer whales pursuing a beaked whale. Photo by Sara Shimazu

Orca kids prey sharing. Photo by April Ryan

Orcas prey sharing. Photo by Sara Shimazu.

Albatross with lunch on the fly. Photo by April Ryan

Orca teeth. Photo by Jeff Friedman

Episode 21 of After the Breach finds co-hosts, Jeff Friedman and Sara Shimazu, coming to you from on the road. The two are down in Bremer Bay, Western Australia for the month of January and with them is their colleague and episode guest, April Ryan, who joined them on Episode 8 “Orcas Take a Minke Whale”. The three have been out on the water nearly every day and after over a week of encounters with the orcas of the Bremer Canyon the three discuss first, second, and fourth impressions of this amazing population.

Where is the Bremer Canyon and who are these whales? Jeff and Sara introduce both as they set the stage for retellings of their stories of the past few days interspersed with information on what makes these whales and their ecosystem so special. April, who is visiting for the first time, shares her first impressions of this new-to-her population. The three of them talk about the power behind these whales as they chase their prey (mainly beaked whales, but they also eat fish!), the predation events they’ve witnessed, the new calf in one of the groups, and even four previously undocumented adult whales! WITH OPEN SADDLE PATCHES! What does it mean? Well, the truth is we don’t really know but they share their speculations and thought about that and so much more.

Before they sign off the episode Sara talks a bit about the research she’s doing and the interview she did with ABC Australia about the Bremer Canyon orcas.

If you’d like to get out on the water with Jeff and Sara you can sign up for a tour with Maya’s Legacy Whale Watching in Friday Harbor, San Juan Island, Washington. Just make sure to let them know you listen to the podcast and would like to meet Jeff and Sara! And if you’re looking for an extra special whale trip our co-hosts will be offering another photo workshop in August 2024 and a trip to swim with humpback whales on the Silver Bank in the Dominican Republic in February 2025. There are only a few spots left between the two so definitely reach out to them if you’re interested in signing up!

If you are enjoying listening to our podcast, please share this with your friends, follow/subscribe, and leave us feedback/reviews! You can also find us on Instagram, Facebook and Youtube. Please send us feedback or questions at [email protected].

Links from this episode:

• Naturaliste Charters Whale Watching

Photos from this episode:

Open saddle patch on newly discovered whale in Bremer Canyon. Photo by Sara Shimazu

New calf in Bremer Canyon. Photo by Sara Shimazu

Bremer Canyon Orca, "Nibbles," surging to predation of beaked whale. Photo by Sara Shimazu

Beaked whale organs after predation. Photo by April Ryan

Beaked whale brain. Photo by April Ryan

More surging. Photo by Jeff Friedman

On this episode of After the Breach podcast, hosts Jeff Friedman and Sara Shimazu are joined by Monika Wieland Shields from Orca Behavior Institute to recap the season in numbers. We discuss sightings data for both Southern Resident killer whales (salmon eaters) and Bigg's killer whales (marine mammal eaters), and recap some incredible stories from our latest whale sightings around the San Juan Islands. 

We jump right in talking about a recent November superpod with all members of the Southern Resident orca population and how sightings of superpods in the inland waters of the Salish Sea have changed over the last 20 years. We discuss in detail how the presence of Southern Residents in the Salish Sea and how they are seen more frequently from October - March than their historical peak season of April - September. We talk about how their old patterns have completely filpped and what this may mean. We also point out the confusion in the general public created by having a population we don't see as often as we used to, yet there are media stories of record numbers of killer whale sightings, due to the dramatic increase of Bigg's killer whale sightings.

Our conversation transitions to the record setting number of Bigg's killer whale sightings and how each year since 2017 continues to break previous records. We talk about how much has changed in less than 10 years.

Our conversation continues to some recent Bigg's sightings, including a Minke whale hunt, a steller sea lion hunt, and a once in a lifetime moment for Monika (you'll have to listen to the podcast to hear the story). 

We conclude with another meet the matriline, this time with the T123s: Sydney (T123), Stanley (T123A), Lucky (T123C) and Darcy (T123D).    

If you are enjoying listening to our podcast, please share this with your friends, follow/subscribe, and leave us feedback/reviews! You can also find us on Instagram, Facebook and Youtube. Please send us feedback or questions at [email protected].

Links from this episode:

• Orca Behavior Institute

Photos from this episode:

Photo by Sara Shimazu

Photo by Sara Shimazu

Photo by Sara Shimazu

Photo by Sara Shimazu

In mid-August two killer whales were observed to be trapped in Barnes Lake, near the small community of Coffman Cove, in Southeast Alaska. Through an amazing collaboration between residents of Coffman Cove, NOAA, scientists and others, the whales were successfully rescued and guided back to open water on September 29th. Jared Towers, director of Bay Cetology joins us to tell the story of the rescue and how he helped to guide the whales out of Barnes Lake.  

Our discussion begins with Jared talking about Barnes Lake, a saltwater lagoon with entrances to the north and south, and the challenges of getting in and out of the lake from open water. Jared also discusses an incident in 1994 when offshore killer whales were trapped in the same area for several weeks. He also discusses his involvement in previous killer whale rescues with T046C2 and T073B, the challenges of whale rescues and the available methods that can be used.

Jared helped to identify the two Bigg's killer whales that were trapped in Barnes Lake, T051, a 42-year-old male, and T049A2, a 16-year-old male. Prior to their sighting in Barnes Lake in mid-August they had been last reported together off the west coast of Vancouver Island on July 9th.

Our discussion with Jared covers the incredible collaboration that took place to rescue T051 and T049A2 and the detailed considerations and contextual knowledge behind the specific vocals he played to help guide the whales out of Barnes Lake. 

Jared tells the story in detail of how the first attempt failed to get the whales free through the kelp bed at the north entrance. He continues by describing how the team regrouped the following day to successfully free the two whales through the south entrance. 

Our discussion with Jared concludes by talking about Finwave, an online photo-identification database he helped develop to streamline identification and cataloguing sightings information, and how it is currently being used to track Bigg's killer whale data.

Sara and Jeff finish the episode talking briefly about recent whale sightings around the San Juan Islands and meet the matriline with the T049As.

If you are enjoying listening to our podcast, please follow/subscribe, leave us feedback/reviews and share with your friends! You can also find us on Instagram, Facebook and Youtube. Please send us feedback or questions at [email protected].

Links mentioned in this episode:

• Bay Cetology: https://baycetology.org/

Photos mentioned in this episode:

Barnes Lake and Coffman Cove from Google Maps

Photo by Jared Towers

Photo by Jared Towers

Photo by Jared Towers

The Center for Whale Research (CWR) is dedicated to the study and conservation of the critically endangered Southern Resident killer whale population and also study the thriving Bigg's killer whale population. Joining us as our guests from CWR  are  Research Director, Dr. Michael Weiss, and Orca Survey Lead, Dave Ellifrit.

We cover a variety of topics in our discussion, filled with lots of great stories. We being talking about the census work conducted by CWR as well as behavioral observations from drones to observe social interactions, networks and prey sharing behavior. 

The discussion is full of fascinating stories, and we had to ask Dave to tell a few more stories, one about a legendary Bigg's killer whale hunt of a Minke whale, and a happy baby Southern Resident killer whale story. 

With so many great stories, we will surely have these two back on a future episode.

We finish our discussion talking about how the whales are so interdependent on each other and how social effects influence population trajectory. And of course we heard a few more topics interwoven into the conversation, from whales tossing their babies around to different body shapes, fat foreheads, and funny looking whales. 

The episode concludes with our latest sightings, including the continuing saga of T65A5 and an update on Jack's summer camp, and our meet the matriline with the T18s.

We have dates for our 2024 After the Breach Podcast Photo Workshop! Saturday August 24th and Sunday August 25th, 2024. You can sign up for both days or just one day. Email us or you can find details here.  

We also have dates for our 2025 week-long charter to see the humpbacks of the Silver Bank, which will be February 15-22, 2025. Stay tuned for more details. 

If you are enjoying listening to our podcast, please follow/subscribe, leave us feedback/reviews and share with your friends! You can also find us on Instagram, Facebook and Youtube. Please send us feedback or questions at [email protected].

Links mentioned in this episode:

Center for Whale Research: https://www.whaleresearch.com/

CWR New Vessel for Field Research: https://www.whaleresearch.com/post/new-vessel-will-open-up-new-opportunities-for-center-for-whale-research-fieldwork

There is often something special about September whales. Mid-August through mid-October is a favorite time to view whales in the Salish Sea, typically with an abundance of orcas, humpback whales and many days of beautiful fall lighting. Sara and Jeff begin this episode by sharing some highlights of this year's September whales, including a humpback playing with logs, humpbacks lunge feeding in krill blooms, and the many matrilines of Bigg's killer whales that have been in the area. 

The episode continues to highlight some of the many killer whale encounters and a recap of this year's After the Breach Podcast Photo Workshop. Over the two days of the workshop, in addition to humpback whales, we encountered a total of 48 individual Bigg's killer whales. We saw a total of 32 orcas each day in various groups. We talk about the memorable ending of day one, with a group or orcas nicknamed "Jack's summer camp," (an interesting split in matrilines we started talking about in episode 16) in epic late afternoon September lighting. We also talk about a very rare encounter with the T028As, a family that has not been documented since 2021, and the 109A2s, a family that has an 18 year old mom with 4 young kids!

The episode includes a section we almost forgot, meet the matriline, where we discuss the T36s. T36 is the mom of T36A and T36B, and also the presumed mom of T99 and T137. This makes her her responsible for 19 whales, including grandkids and her first great grandkid. 

We have dates for our 2024 After the Breach Podcast Photo Workshop! Saturday August 24th and Sunday August 25th, 2024. You can sign up for both days or just one day. Email us or you can find details here.  

On this episode we also discuss a bit about our 2025 Silver Bank week-long charter, which will be February 15-22, 2025. Stay tuned for more details. 

If you are enjoying listening to our podcast, please follow/subscribe, leave us feedback/reviews and share with your friends! You can also find us on Instagram, Facebook and Youtube. Please send us feedback or questions at [email protected].

Photos from this episode:

Humpback whale, "Stitch," playing with logs. Photo by Jeff Friedman, Maya's Legacy Whale Watching

Lunge feeding humpback whale. Photo by Jeff Friedman, Maya's Legacy Whale Watching

Krill bloom at the surface. Photo by Jeff Friedman, Maya's Legacy Whale Watching

End of day of the After the Breach Photo Workshop. Photo by Jeff Friedman, Maya's Legacy Whale Watching

We are back!  Sara and Jeff found time to connect for a new episode to talk about some of the latest amazing sightings and our upcoming photo workshop & all day tours on September 23rd and 24th.

We talk and tell stories throughout the episode about how many different groups of orcas have been in the area over the last few months. We share a brief update on the brothers from Episode 15 and share the latest in the ongoing saga of T65A5, Indy, who became entangled in crab gear. He freed himself and resumed his role as social butterfly of the Salish Sea. 

We also talk about a new calf with the 75Bs and who might be the mom. And T63, "Chainsaw" has made an unusual late summer appearance. 

We finish the episode with teasing some thoughts on upcoming epoxides and our offseason plans to see whales around the world.

If you are enjoying listening to our podcast, please follow/subscribe, leave us feedback/reviews and share with your friends! You can also find us on Instagram, Facebook and Youtube. Please send us feedback or questions at [email protected].

On this episode of After the Breach podcast, hosts and professional guides, Jeff Friedman and Sara Shimazu, talk about a recent interesting encounter they had on May 20th with two brothers from the Bigg’s killer whale population, T125A and T128. Also joining us is returning guest, Monika Wieland Shields from the Orca Behavior Institute (OBI) who was also out on the water and provides her own observations from that day.

Starting out the episode the three talk about the latest sightings in the Salish Sea. It has been a busy spring and there has been a lot happening. We’ve had some of our more famous humpback whales return, tons of Bigg’s killer whales sightings, and even J-pod returned just before the end of May! Monika shares some interesting insights courtesy of OBI.

On May 20th, two killer whales were reported south of San Juan Island in the eastern Strait of Juan de Fuca. The two were quickly identified as T125A and T128. These boys belong to an interesting family of four, led by their mother T125. In 2015 the matriline was seen in the Salish Sea for the first time in 22 YEARS. They were around for a few days but then disappeared again. Since then these two brothers seem to have dispersed from their mom and have been making annual forays into the area where they’ve quickly become whale watching favorites. They usually travel fairly tight together but last month when they were seen they were traveling in the general vicinity of each other but separated over a mile from the other as they traveled north into Rosario Strait.

Once there they came together briefly before separating again. T128 went into the inner San Juan Islands through Thatcher Pass while T125A continued up Rosario Strait. When Jeff and Monika caught up with T128 he was not really going anywhere and was circling on the west side of Blakely Island. What they did notice right away was that he had some pretty deep rake marks from another killer whale on his dorsal fin!

Meanwhile T125A was continuing up Rosario Strait where Sara got on scene with him. He quickly turned and headed back down the strait in the direction he had come from and started vocalizing and pushing a lot of water as he came up to the surface, sometimes rolling and slapping his dorsal fin or tail lobbing. It really seemed like he was trying to be loud and obvious as to where he was.

Jeff reported that T128 turned and actually went back out into Rosario Strait where he would have heard his brother and then quickly turned and went back into the inner islands. He was last seen heading west past Lopez Island ferry terminal and T125A was left still heading south in Rosario Strait.

There’s a lot of room for speculation and human interpretation into what happened here, if anything. Did the two brothers have an argument and needed some time apart? Was T125A the culprit to those rake marks on his brother? There are so many questions and we can only guess as to what may have happened. We had hoped they would show up the next day but they disappeared overnight and haven’t been seen since.

That is until a few days before we were going to post this episode; guess who showed up!? The brothers, reunited, and in the case of T128, all healed! Where were they the last three weeks? Did they reunite the night of the 20th or did they take some more time apart?

We have an upcoming photography workshop in September! Details are available on our website www.afterthebreachpodcast.com or you can send us an email at [email protected]. It’s September 23rd and 24th and we will spend each day on the water with catered lunches and a ton of information to share!

If you are enjoying listening to our podcast, please follow/subscribe, leave us feedback/reviews and share with your friends! You can also find us on Instagram, Facebook and Youtube. Please send us feedback or questions at [email protected].

For complete show notes, links and photos, please visit our website: https://www.afterthebreachpodcast.com/e/episode-15-brothers

Links mentioned in this episode:

• Orca Behavior Institute blog post about the encounter with the brothers, T128 and T125A

Photos mentioned in this episode:

The collaboration between whale watching companies in the Pacific Whale Watch Association (PWWA) and other groups makes whale watching in the inland waters of Washington state and British Columbia unique, resulting in some of the most responsible whale watching on the planet. Erin Gless, the executive director of the Pacific Whale Watch Association, joins us to discuss the origins of the PWWA and the special collaboration that takes place on the water to promote responsible whale watching, education, research and conservation.   

But first we share some of recent sightings from our whale watching tours with Maya's Legacy Whale Watching in the San Juan Islands. We've been seeing more humpbacks as they are returning to their summer feeding waters in the Salish Sea, including several encounters with Divot (BCX1057) and Zephyr (BCZ0414). On a few of those encounters the mom and daughter were traveling together. We also discuss encounters with large groups of Bigg's killer whales, highlighting a day where we watched a group of 19 killer whales traveling hard against a strong tide in the narrow part of San Juan Channel. Included in this group were iconic whales T87 (Harbeson) and T63 (Chainsaw). Photos included below. We wrap up the latest sightings from our encounter seeing a big family reunion with T65, T63, the T65As and T65Bs. Later in this episode we talk about this entire family in more detail.

We turn the discussion to responsible whale watching and welcome Erin, who has been working in the whale watch community in various locations since 2008 and is currently the executive director of the Pacific Whale Watch Association. Erin talks with us about the origins of the PWWA and how it currently represents 30 companies over a large geographic range, spanning from Seattle in the south to Telegraph Cove, BC to the north, and Port Renfrew to the west. We discuss at length the unique nature of the collaboration between companies and how this differs from whale watching in many parts of the world. The discussion includes how this collaboration creates responsible whale watching practices and makes this region such a popular whale watching spot, with different groups and species of whales being documented on an almost a daily basis. We also talk about how this collaboration spans outside PWWA with other whale watching associations, ferries, commercial shipping, researchers and others.

We then discuss data collection being done by PWWA operators, including sentinel actions, which are proactive steps taken on the water to protect whales and other wildlife throughout the shared waters of the Salish Sea. 

We wrap up our discussion with Erin by talking about how to find and choose a responsible whale watching company in other parts of the world. 

We conclude the episode by introducing a new segment called “Meet the Matrilines” in which we will be talking in detail about a specific family of Bigg's killer whales in each episode. This episode’s matriline is one that we often mention in our latest sightings, the T65 family tree, which include T65, her presumed son, T63, her oldest daughter T65A and her 5 kids, and her youngest daughter T65B and her 3 kids.

We will be holding a photography workshop / all day whale watching & wildlife tour on Saturday, September 23rd and Sunday, September 24th. You can sign up for one day or both. We will be on the water all day(6-8 hours) and the price includes catering, photography instruction, and whale ID tips. It will be a lot of fun. If you are interested please email us at [email protected].

If you are enjoying listening to our podcast, please follow/subscribe, leave us feedback/reviews and share with your friends! You can also find us on Instagram, Facebook and Youtube. Please send us feedback or questions at [email protected].

For complete show notes, links and photos, please visit our website: https://www.afterthebreachpodcast.com/e/episode-14-responsible-whale-watching

Links mentioned in this epsisode:

• Pacific Whale Watch Association: https://www.pacificwhalewatchassociation.com/

Photos mentioned in this episode:

Iconic Bigg's killer whales T87 born est 1962 (Harbeson) left, and T63 (Chainsaw) born 1978 right. Photo by Jeff Friedman

Bigg's killer whales pushing against tide in San Juan Channel. Photo by Jeff Friedman.

Sentinel action: removing discarded fishing gear from the water. Photo by PWWA.

Sentinel action: whale warning flag for other vessels. Photo by PWWA

Shared waters: Bigg's killer whales & BC ferry. Photo by Sara Shimazu

Shared waters: Bigg's killer whales & Washington ferry. Photo by Sara Shimazu

Shared waters: Cruise ship with humpback whale. Photo by Ellie Sawyer

Following up on our last episode where we discussed the low genetic diversity of Antarctic Type D killer whales, in this episode we chat about another recently published  genetics paper that focuses on killer whale populations in the Northeast Pacific, including Southern Resident, Northern Resident, Alaskan Resident, Offshore and Bigg's killer whales. Joining us for this discussion is returning guest Monika Wieland Shields, co-founder and director of Orca Behavior Institute. 

But first we share some recent sighting stories because so much is happening on the water and we continue to see large groups of Bigg's killer whales in the area. Sara and Jeff ran an all day tour last weekend with Maya's Legacy Whale Watching and spent time with a group of 19 whales from several families, including the T036As, T049A1, T124As, T124C, T125A, T128, and the T065Bs, who had a new calf by her side.

There are so many young whales in the Bigg's population and on this particular encounter, over 25% of the whales were under the age of 3. We discuss the contrast between the number of Bigg's v Southern Resident killer whales under the age of 10 and how this is stunning when seen visually (see image under photos).

We also discuss a recent sea lion hunt right outside of Friday Harbor with the T018s with the T049As, and an interesting encounter with the T046s and T046Bs where T046 herself was not present.

We then turn the conversation to the recently published paper, "Inbreeding depression explains killer whale population dynamics." Monika leads the discussion about inbreeding depression, which is defined as reduced biological fitness that results from breeding between related individuals. The primary finding of the study is that both males and females are less likely to reach age 40 if they have a higher inbreeding coefficient. The Southern Resident killer whales lack of recovery is due, in part, to their lack of genetic diversity compared to the other populations in the Northeast Pacific, which have all been increasing in population. We discussed the role of the captures for marine parks and how this created a population bottleneck. We also discuss other factors hindering Southern Resident recovery and what can be done to address the factors that are within our control.

We also talk about some of the fascinating supplemental information in the paper, including updated paternity information and effective population sizes.

We conclude the episode by announcing our After the Breach Photo Workshop with Sara & Jeff. We will be holding the workshop on Saturday, September 23rd and Sunday, September 24th. You can sign up for one day or both. We will have all day tours (6-8 hours) each day, including catering, photography & whale ID tips, and a lot of fun. If you are interested please email us at [email protected].

If you are enjoying listening to our podcast, please follow/subscribe, leave us feedback/reviews and share with your friends! You can also find us on Instagram, Facebook and Youtube. Please send us feedback or questions at [email protected].

For complete show notes, links and photos, please visit our website: https://www.afterthebreachpodcast.com/e/episode-13-inbreeding-depression-and-killer-whales

Links mentioned in this episode:

• Orca Behavior Institute: https://orcabehaviorinstitute.org/

Photos mentioned in this episode:

T065B with new calf T065B3. Photo by Sara Shimazu

T019B. Photo by Sara Shimazu