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There were a lot of whales here this January and the winter months are a great time to see them in the Salish Sea. On this episode we talk about our January encounters and who has been present in the Salish Sea this winter. We also discuss how this was not always the case in the Salish Sea and how the old information persists that whale presence is predominantly May - September. But with the increase in both the Bigg's killer whale and humpback populations, and the changing patterns of Southern Resident killer whale presence in the inland waters, whales can be seen in the Salish Sea year-round. While Sara was in Australia with the Bremer Canyon killer whales in January, Jeff is joined by frequent guests Monika Wieland Shields from the Orca Behavior Institute and April Ryan, a marine naturalist and captain with Maya's Legacy Whale Watching.  We also announced special, limited availability collaborative whale watching tours with the Orca Behavior Institute and Maya's Legacy Whale Watching. These tours will be available on limited dates in July, 2026.  Designed for those who want to experience, learn about and support whale research, this unique tour will give you the chance to learn directly from a killer whale scientist. This tour follows the same half-day format as Maya's Legacy Whale Watching's daily half-day tours, with an added research perspective on board. A guest naturalist from the Orca Behavior Institute will share how scientists observe whales in the field and how observations made on the water contribute to long-term research efforts.  These tours are limited in availability:  Friday, July 3 — 4:30 PM Friday, July 10 — 3:30 PM Friday, July 17 — 3:30 PM Friday, July 24 — 3:30 PM Wednesday, July 29 — 4:30 PM If you are interested, you can contact Maya's Legacy Whale Watching to reserve seats. We also responded to several listener emails regarding the music at the beginning and end of each episode. Shout out to Other Animal who created original music for After the Breach Podcast. Curious which of our listeners knew there were whale vocals in there? Anyone interested in hearing the full version of the music? Hit us up by email. If you are enjoying listening to our podcast, please share this with your friends, follow/subscribe, and leave us feedback/reviews wherever you listen to podcasts! And if you’d like to join Jeff and Sara on a whale watching tour, please reach out to Maya's Legacy Whale Watching to book!  You can also find us on Instagram, Facebook and Youtube. Please send us feedback or questions at [email protected]. And remember, stay safe out there.   T19C, "Spouter," breaching during a sea lion hunt in January mid-day lighting. Photo by Jeff Friedman, Maya's Legacy Whale Watching.

Part 1: How We Got Here In this first episode of our multi-part series on Southern Resident killer whales, we step back to look at the full historical arc — from the pre-capture population, through the capture era, to the endangered listing that shapes recovery efforts happening today. This episode sets the foundation for the entire series. Before we can talk about recovery strategies and efforts, we need to understand how the Southern Resident killer whales became endangered in the first place. We discuss what we know about the pre-capture population, the capture era and its lasting impacts, recovery and then decline, risk factors and the endangered species listing. Coming up in Part 2 we will dig into actions that have been taken over the last 20 years since the endangered species listing, how much it has cost and the results (or lack of) for Southern Resident recovery. If you are enjoying listening to our podcast, please share this with your friends, follow/subscribe, and leave us feedback/reviews wherever you listen to podcasts! And if you’d like to join Jeff and Sara on a whale watching tour in 2026, please check out to Maya’s Legacy Whale Watching to book!  You can also find us on Instagram, Facebook and Youtube. Please send us feedback or questions at [email protected]. And remember, stay safe out there.   Links mentioned in this episode: Endangered Orcas: The Story of the Southern Residents: https://www.orcabehaviorinstitute.org/product/endangered-orcas-book NOAA Fisheries Recovery Plan for Southern Resident Killer Whales (2008): https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/resource/document/recovery-plan-southern-resident-killer-whales-orcinus-orca

Returning guest Jared Towers from Bay Cetology joins us on this episode of After the Breach Podcast to discuss a paper he co-authored in the Journal of Comparative Psychology, "Testing the Waters: Attempts by Wild Killer Whales (Orcinus orca) to Provision People (Homo sapiens)." Before getting into the paper, we talk a bit about the recent release of the updated Bigg's killer whale identification catalog! This is the first updated catalog since 2019 and hosts Sara and Jeff talk with Jared about the release. We move into the discussion about Jared's paper, which made international media when it was published earlier this year. What does it mean to provision people? What populations of killer whales are doing this? Why might they be doing this, what are possible motivations? What types of prey are they sharing? We discuss these questions and more with Jared, and we all share some examples of this from of our own experiences on the water with killer whales.  If you are enjoying listening to our podcast, please share this with your friends, follow/subscribe, and leave us feedback/reviews wherever you listen to podcasts! And if you’d like to join Jeff and Sara on a whale watching tour in 2026, please check out to Maya’s Legacy Whale Watching to book!  You can also find us on Instagram, Facebook and Youtube. Please send us feedback or questions at [email protected]. And remember, stay safe out there.   Links from this episode: Testing the Waters: Attempts by Wild Killer Whales (Orcinus orca) to Provision People (Homo sapiens): https://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2026-29805-001.html Photo-identification Catalogue and Status of the Coastal Subset of the West Coast Transient Population of Bigg’s Killer Whale in British Columbia, Canada: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/398258949_Photo-identification_Catalogue_and_Status_of_the_Coastal_Subset_of_the_West_Coast_Transient_Population_of_Bigg's_Killer_Whale_in_British_Columbia_Canada Bay Cetology: https://baycetology.org/ Finwave: https://finwave.io/  

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. If you are enjoying listening to our podcast, please share this with your friends, follow/subscribe, and leave us feedback/reviews wherever you listen to podcasts! 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!  You can also find us on Instagram, Facebook and Youtube. Please send us feedback or questions at [email protected]. And remember, stay safe out there. Links from this episode: 2025 Bigg's killer whale Photo-identification catalog Orca Behavior Institute Maya's Legacy Whale Watching Photos mentioned in this episode: T19s in winter lighting. Photo by Jeff Friedman    

We've mentioned him on many episodes. He's a young and fascinating whale, a social butterfly and sometimes a troublemaker. On this episode of After the Breach, Jeff and Sara are joined once again by Monika Wieland Shield of the Orca Behavior Institute to talk about T65A5 “Indy”. This young male has been dispersed since he was five years old and we talk about his history, his family, and some of his more interesting predicaments. We always ask the question, where and with whom will Indy be next? He was invited to join this episode of the podcast to tell his story but we did not receive a reply.  After our discussion about Indy, we chat about some of the latest summer sightings here in the Salish Sea! If you are enjoying listening to our podcast, please share this with your friends, follow/subscribe, and leave us feedback/reviews wherever you listen to podcasts! And if you’d like to join Jeff and Sara on a whale watching tour, please reach out to Maya’s Legacy Whale Watching to book!  You can also find us on Instagram, Facebook and Youtube. Please send us feedback or questions at [email protected]. And remember, stay safe out there.   Links from this episode: Orca Behavior Institute: https://www.orcabehaviorinstitute.org/ Maya's Legacy Whale Watching: https://sanjuanislandwhalewatch.com/ Photos: T65A5 Indy in 2014. Photo by Sara Hysong Shimazu   T65A5 Indy Sept 2025. Photo by April Ryan, Maya's Legacy Whale Watching.  

This episode of After the Breach is a special one—it was our first recording with a live audience! In celebration of the Orca Behavior Institute’s 10th Anniversary we joined Monika Wieland Shields and Michael Weiss at the Center for Whale Research’s Outreach Center with some of OBI’s biggest fans in attendance. We talk about bad whale movies (courtesy of Michael), we learn about OBI’s history, research, and plans for the future, and of course, we take audience questions! It was a lot of fun and there were a lot of laughs! If you are enjoying listening to our podcast, please share this with your friends, follow/subscribe, and leave us feedback/reviews wherever you listen to podcasts! And if you’d like to join Jeff and Sara on a whale watching tour, please reach out to Maya’s Legacy Whale Watching to book!  You can also find us on Instagram, Facebook and Youtube. Please send us feedback or questions at [email protected]. And remember, stay safe out there.    

Joining us on the latest episode of After the Breach Podcast we welcome back Dr. Cindy Elliser from PacMam Research to talk to us about a very important, non-cetacean that inhabits the Salish Sea—the harbor seal! These pinnipeds are an important species, both as prey and as predators. We talk about PacMam’s latest paper about site fidelity, and also learn some interesting facts about these charismatic creatures. We also get into seal politics and discuss why seals get a bad rap, why this is not deserved, and how culling pinnipeds will not accomplish what some think it might (and could be devastating to Bigg’s killer whales). If you are enjoying listening to our podcast, please share this with your friends, follow/subscribe, and leave us feedback/reviews wherever you listen to podcasts! And if you’d like to join Jeff and Sara on a whale watching tour, please reach out to Maya’s Legacy Whale Watching to book!  You can also find us on Instagram, Facebook and Youtube. Please send us feedback or questions at [email protected]. And remember, stay safe out there.   Links from this episode: Pacific Mammal Research: www.pacmam.org Pacific Mammal Research on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pacificmammalresearch/# Pacific Mammal Research on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PacificMammalResearch Pacific Mammal Research on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@pacificmammalresearch Resident Harbor Porpoises (Phocoena phocoena vomerina) in the Salish Sea: Photo-Identification Shows Long-Term Site Fidelity, Natal Philopatry, and Provides Insights into Longevity and Behavior: https://www.mdpi.com/2673-1924/6/1/9 Increased presence of mammal-eating killer whales in the Salish Sea with implications for predator-prey dynamics: https://peerj.com/articles/6062/  

Joining us on this episode is Trevor Branch, a professor at the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences at the University of Washington, to discuss his paper, "Most “flight” baleen whale species are acoustically cryptic to killer whales, unlike “fight” species." The discussion details how baleen whales can be categorized as either "fight" species or "flight" species, based on their responses to killer whale attacks, their vocalizations and other behaviors. We discuss which baleen whales belong in the flight club and which fall into the flight club and why.  He also shares with us information from another paper he authored on a related topic that unravels the mystery of the missing blue whale calves.  If you are enjoying listening to our podcast, please share this with your friends, follow/subscribe, and leave us feedback/reviews wherever you listen to podcasts! And if you’d like to join Jeff and Sara on a whale watching tour, please reach out to Maya’s Legacy Whale Watching to book!  You can also find us on Instagram, Facebook and Youtube. Please send us feedback or questions at [email protected]. And remember, stay safe out there.   Links from this episode: Most “flight” baleen whale species are acoustically cryptic to killer whales, unlike “fight” species: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/mms.13228 Unravelling the mystery of the missing blue whale calves: https://fish.uw.edu/2025/02/unravelling-the-mystery-of-the-missing-blue-whale-calves/ Trevor Branch: https://fish.uw.edu/faculty/trevor-branch/

March was an incredible month for whale sightings in the Salish Sea, with killer whales encountered on almost 90% of our tours with Maya's Legacy Whale Watching. On this episode of After the Breach Podcast, Sara and Jeff share several stories about the whales they encountered in March, including a brand new calf (T46B3A) with the T46Bs. They are part of the amazing legacy of T46, and Sara and Jeff tell her story in this episode. Also included is a discussion of the T49As and T19s and their frequent spring encounters hunting sea lions in the San Juan Islands. The episode also includes other killer whales encountered throughout the month. If you are enjoying listening to our podcast, please share this with your friends, follow/subscribe, and leave us feedback/reviews wherever you listen to podcasts! And if you’d like to join Jeff and Sara on a whale watching tour, please reach out to Maya’s Legacy Whale Watching to book!  You can also find us on Instagram, Facebook and Youtube. Please send us feedback or questions at [email protected]. And remember, stay safe out there.   Links from this episode: Orca Behavior Institute Salish Sea Killer Whale Sightings for March 2025: https://www.instagram.com/p/DIUCfY4v_sJ/ T46C2 whale rescue, After the Breach podcast episode 33: https://www.afterthebreachpodcast.com/e/episode-33-more-killer-whale-rescues-t46c2-t73b-t109a3a/  Baby orca is a descendent of a whale almost sold to SeaWorld in 1976: https://www.popsci.com/environment/new-orca-calf/   Photos & videos from this episode: T46B3A. Photo by Sara Shimazu   T46B3A. Photo by Sara Shimazu   T46B3A. Photo by Sara Shimazu  

Often encountered on the water, Harbor Porpoise are the smallest cetacean in the Salish Sea and can be very underappreciated. Joining Sara and Jeff to share incredible information and research about these unique mammals is Cindy Elliser, the founder and research director of Pacific Mammal Research (PacMam).  We discuss findings about photo identification and site fidelity from her recent published research, linked below, as well as other fascinating information such as harbor porpoise breeding, feeding, wake surfing and more.   If you are enjoying listening to our podcast, please share this with your friends, follow/subscribe, and leave us feedback/reviews wherever you listen to podcasts! And if you’d like to join Jeff and Sara on a whale watching tour, please reach out to Maya’s Legacy Whale Watching to book!  You can also find us on Instagram, Facebook and Youtube. Please send us feedback or questions at [email protected]. And remember, stay safe out there.   Links from this episode: Pacific Mammal Research: www.pacmam.org Pacific Mammal Research on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pacificmammalresearch/# Pacific Mammal Research on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PacificMammalResearch Pacific Mammal Research on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@pacificmammalresearch Resident Harbor Porpoises (Phocoena phocoena vomerina) in the Salish Sea: Photo-Identification Shows Long-Term Site Fidelity, Natal Philopatry, and Provides Insights into Longevity and Behavior: https://www.mdpi.com/2673-1924/6/1/9 Photos from this episode: All photos by Cindy Elliser, Pacific Mammal Research            

Sara, Jeff and a group of After the Breach Podcast listeners just returned from the Dominican Republic where they spent a week with North Atlantic humpback whales in their winter breeding waters on the Silver Bank. The plan was to record this episode from the Silver Bank, but everyone was having so much fun (and there were some technical difficulties), so it had to be recorded after Sara and Jeff returned home to Friday Harbor, Washington. Joining Jeff and Sara to recount some of the highlights are two members of the Maya’s Legacy Whale Watching crew, who also joined the charter to the Silver Bank. Alex McIntire and Mikayla Riley both had their first in-water experience with whales and have a chance to share the memories of their first swim—and also all of the other memorable encounters they had that week. It was an incredible week that had a lot of in water encounters with moms and young calves, including TW and her calf ("Floppy Disco"). Jeff also swam with TW on the Silver Bank in 2023. The entire group also had a rare and coveted encounter with dancers, which are acrobatic, curious humpbacks. Check out some of the videos on the Episode 39 page or on our YouTube channel. A huge shout out to the amazing team at Conscious Breath Adventures—Gene, Cat, and Jeff—and to the hardworking crew of the Sea Hunter. They all make the live aboard and humpback encounters a life changing experience. And special thanks to the amazing humpback whale TW and her 2025 calf. We are wishing them an easy and successful migration north this spring. Jeff and Sara will have more information soon on upcoming trips, both near and far. In the meantime, if you’d like to join them for some After the Breach fun, they’re hosting two separate weekends in 2025 in the San Juan Islands that each include two full days on the water looking for whales and wildlife in the Salish Sea. The first is on May 17-18th. The second is September 20-21st. Reach out to at [email protected] to learn more and to sign up for one or both weekends! If you are enjoying listening to our podcast, please share this with your friends, follow/subscribe, and leave us feedback/reviews wherever you listen to podcasts! And if you’d like to join Jeff and Sara on a trip then reach out to Maya’s Legacy Whale Watching to book!  You can also find us on Instagram, Facebook and Youtube. Please send us feedback or questions at [email protected]. And remember, stay safe out there.   Links from this episode: Conscious Breath Adventures: https://www.consciousbreathadventures.com/ Photos & Videos from this episode:   Humpback whale TW, named for the marking on her left pec fin.   This was the start of humpback whale Mojo's dancing over several minutes. She continued dancing on and off for about an hour.    Humpback whale TW and her 2025 calf, Floppy Disco, who approached several times to get a closer look.        

On this episode of After the Breach, Jeff is reunited with Sara after she returns from Bremer Bay, Western Australia. The two of them get down into the details of what she encountered while out on the water with Naturaliste Charters. This time Sara spent almost two months down there and started out on the water earlier than ever before. They weren’t sure what they were going to find starting in mid-December but the whales were there waiting for them when they arrived to the Hotspot the very first time. Aside from some amazing bird sightings Sara saw a brand new calf, many different groups of killer whales, and talks a little bit about the data she’s collecting and what they might use it for in the future. Sara and Jeff are now out on the Silver Bank with the North Atlantic humpback whales so stay tuned for a recap from the Silver Bank on the next episode! For more information and stories about the Bremer Canyon killer whales, you can listen to some of our previous episodes: episode 21, episode 22, and episode 23. If you are enjoying listening to our podcast, please share this with your friends, follow/subscribe, and leave us feedback/reviews wherever you listen to podcasts! And if you’d like to join Jeff and Sara on a trip then reach out to Maya’s Legacy Whale Watching to book!  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: https://naturalistecharters.com.au/   Photos from this episode:  Photos by Sara Shimazu        

On Episode 37 of the podcast, co-hosts, Jeff and Sara, welcome back returning guests Monika Wieland Shields of the Orca Behavior Institute and Michael Weiss of the Center for Whale Research. With two very different populations of killer whales using the waters of the Salish Sea they wanted to delve deeper into the calf survival rates of the two populations. Are they the same? Are they different? Jeff and Sara chat with these two researchers about that.    This comes after the loss of calf L128 who was born to L90 “Ballena” this summer. The four talk about her, why this was a unique situation, and really take a look at the reproductive success of a food-limited population versus one that is not food-limited.   They also chat about the joint field study between Center for Whale Research and Orca Behavior Institute in Puget Sound that kicked off this November. It’s an exciting project and we learn more about it and what they learned from their first sessions down in Puget Sound.   Links from this episode: Center for Whale Research: https://www.whaleresearch.com/ Orca Behavior Institute: https://www.orcabehaviorinstitute.org/

Frequent guest Monika Wieland Shields, co-founder and director of the Orca Behavior Institute, joins hosts Sara and Jeff for a recap of 2024 whale sightings, trends and observations. What stood out most is that there were a lot of whales in the Salish Sea in 2024. The episode covers the sightings trends for Southern Resident killer whales, Bigg's 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 2025, and as usual, weave in and out of other whale topics along the way.  If you are enjoying listening to our podcast, please share this with your friends, follow/subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts, 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: https://www.orcabehaviorinstitute.org/ Maya's Legacy Whale Watching: https://sanjuanislandwhalewatch.com/

Joining us on episode 35 of After the Breach podcast is special guest Alexandra Morton. She has been called "the Jane Goodall of Canada" because of her incredible thirty-year fight to save British Columbia's wild salmon. She joins hosts Sara and Jeff to talk about her journey from whale researcher to wild salmon activist and back to whale researcher. The episode begins with Alexandra talking about how she got started studying orca communication in California with killer whales Corky and Orky, sharing some fascinating stories from her time with them. She then discusses her move to British Columbia to study wild killer whales, including Corky's family. The conversation moves on to why she turned her attention to lead the fight to save the wild salmon these orcas depend on from the devastating impacts of open net fish farms and industrial aquaculture. Throughout the conversation she shares the challenges she faced, how she found a path to create change and begin the removal of open net salmon farms in B.C. She also shares a few ways people everywhere can help save wild salmon.  We conclude our conversation talking about what is next for her, including a return to her passion for studying killer whales. She tells amazing stories throughout the episode.   Links mentioned in this episode: Alexandra Morton: https://www.alexandramorton.ca/ Books by Alexandra Morton: Not on My Watch:How a renegade whale biologist took on governments and industry to save wild salmon:  https://www.amazon.com/Not-My-Watch-biologist-governments/dp/0735279667 Listening to Whales: What the Orcas Have Taught Us:  https://www.amazon.com/Listening-Whales-What-Orcas-Taught/dp/0345442881 Orcalab: https://orcalab.org/