Orca pod back at mouth of Columbia

Published 11:14 am Tuesday, February 16, 2016

ILWACO — The K pod of Southern Resident Killer Whales — also known as orcas — was just off the mouth of the Columbia River on Tuesday morning, Feb. 16.

The pod, famous in Puget Sound, has been tracked in recent years thanks to satellite tags attached to one individual each winter. This tracking show the SRKW orcas spend much of the winter and spring on the outer coast hunting for their preferred food, Chinook salmon.

In 2015, tourists spotted the orcas from Cape Disappointment State Park on Memorial Day Weekend after the K pod had spent a number of weeks in this vicinity. Earlier in 2015, scientists aboard the NOAA research vessel Bell M. Shimada took many photos of the orcas, including some of a newborn calf with its mother off North Head in Pacific County.

On Feb. 16, NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center issued this update:

“As of the last update on the morning of 9 February, K33 and the rest of K pod were near La Push on the outer Washington coast heading south. By the evening of the 10th they were off the entrance to the Columbia River, where they turned north. They gradually continued north reaching the Quinault Canyon area off the Washington coast on the 13th.

“Here they turned south again such that by the morning of the 15th they were off Willipa Bay. As of this the morning (16th) they were off the mouth of the Columbia River.

“We are hopeful that K33’s tag continues to remain attached into the near future as the NWFSC cruise on the NOAA vessel Bell M. Shimada to locate and follow the whales during their winter coastal movements is scheduled to get underway 20 February.”

In 2014, the satellite tag fell out too soon, and it was impossible to keep track of the orcas’ movements in the ocean.