It's time for our annual recap of whale sightings from the past year. Frequent guest Monika Wieland Shields, co-founder and director of the Orca Behavior Institute, joins hosts Sara and Jeff for a discussion of 2025 whale sightings, observations, and trends.   

Find out how we did on our predictions from last year's recap, Episode 36. Download the new Bigg's killer whale ID guide and follow along to find out which matrilines were here more and less in 2025 than the previous year.

The episode covers the sightings trends for Bigg's killer whales, Northern and Southern Resident killer whales, and humpbacks. We talk about numbers from tours with Maya's Legacy Whale Watching as well as the broader numbers collected by Orca Behavior Institute. 

Monika, Sara and Jeff also share their predictions for 2026, and as usual, weave in and out of other whale topics along the way.

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And if you’d like to join Jeff and Sara on a whale watching tour over the holiday season or in 2026, please check out to Maya’s Legacy Whale Watching to book! 

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T19s in winter lighting. Photo by Jeff Friedman