By DANA TIMS/YachatsNews
Jaklyn Larsen wasn’t planning to go for a run Monday, but that’s just what happened when the Florence-based professional photographer got word that a family of five killer whales was heading up the Yaquina River.
Larsen, a self-described killer whale enthusiast, dropped everything and made the drive to Newport, hoping she would make it in time to capture some images of the orcas that suddenly were lighting up social media up and down the coast.
As she arrived at the south jetty, Larsen noticed a sizable number of people running to catch a better glimpse of the pod as it made its way out of the river and back toward the ocean.
“I parked, grabbed my gear and just booked it to get a few shots,” she said. “And I’m so thankful I did. They are just incredible animals.”
At his office in British Columbia, meanwhile, killer whale researcher Josh McInnes was using images posted on Facebook to identify the five members of this particular pod, which was first reported off Seal Rock in 2016 and, more recently, at Depoe Bay last June.
“These are transient killer whales and they are known to move pretty far up and down the waters of the West Coast,” McInnes said in a telephone interview Tuesday. “What’s particularly interesting here is how their movements up into coastal rivers are really filling in a lot of the blanks we have about transient killer whale behavior off the Oregon coast.”
The transient killer whales are by far the most frequent sub-species of killer whales to frequent Oregon’s inner-coastal waters, feeding on other mammals such as harbor seals, harbor porpoises and Steller sea lions. They are believed to number more than 400 and are increasing every year.
Occasionally seen in Oregon waters are so-called offshore killer whales, which feed primarily on sharks and other fish. They have also been known to hunt gray whale calves in Monterey Bay and can be found in the open ocean stretching from the eastern Aleutian Islands of Alaska to southern California.
The third sub-species of orcas in the Northwest Pacific are southern resident whales. Their range centers on the coastal waters of southern Vancouver Island and the inland waters of Washington’s Salish Sea. The southern residents, which feed primarily on salmon, are listed as among the world’s most endangered species of marine mammals. As of 2020 only 72 individuals remained.
Monday excitement
The timing of the pod’s afternoon swim through Yaquina Bay and up the Yaquina River coincides with pupping season for harbor seals, McInnes said, a preferred food source for the transient killer whales. It’s a time when harbor seal pups have barely learned how and where to swim and are otherwise defenseless.
In fact, one of the images McInnes saw on Facebook contained some blood and blubber on the water’s surface, meaning at least one of the family of five enjoyed a dockside lunch on a swim that took them about five to six miles up river.
Unlike the coastlines of Washington and British Columbia, which have myriad small inlets and estuaries, the Oregon coastline is very linear, McInnes said. So orca ventures here are almost always up rivers, which gives researchers a great vantage point to study feeding behavior.
These daytime excursions, which are shared in real time by increasing numbers of social media users, are helping fill in the Oregon chapter of killer whale activity, McInnes said.
“We’re seeing more sightings than ever before,” he said. “It’s a very exciting time.”
South Beach resident Yale Fogarty said he could not agree more.
Fogarty, a retired longshoreman, got a heads-up from a friend Monday afternoon that killer whales had been spotted by a whale-watching boat near Depoe Bay, and that they were heading south toward Newport.
“My first thought was to set up on the jetty to see if they were going to head up the river,” he said. “Because if they go up the river, they are always going to have to come back down.”
He wasn’t disappointed, first spotting the pod at around 3:30 p.m. He shot some images of the whales and waited patiently until they finally swam back past around three hours later.
“My first thought was, are they sensing that harbor seals are around? Just out for a scenic drive? I, personally, don’t know of anyone who saw any hunting activity. Either way, it’s just an amazing experience to see them.”
- Dana Tims is an Oregon freelance writer who contributes regularly to YachatsNews.com. He can be reached at DanaTims24@gmail.com