We've all been there.

☔🌬️🌊 Wed, Apr 15

Yesterday, through a mighty wind, the T100s navigated Vashon Island, traveling down East Passage in the morn, then up Colvos where upon exiting they stalled to hunt. Meanwhile, a pod of orcas showed up northbound in upper Hood Canal.

📸 T100C Laurel by Jason Cook 4/14.

#psws

That’s An Opalescent Nudibranch! (Or Is It?) — Our Wild Puget Sound Originally published by The Revelator

"“I know what you are.”

Except… the ocean has a way of revealing that certainty is often just a placeholder.

Because this animal has lived a double life inside human language..."

@oceanhoptimism.org | @therevelator.org

The T123s off Washington Park — Our Wild Puget Sound This day started off with the intention of finding two great horned owls that I had seen the previous day but the orcas of the Salish Sea rarely like to give up their spotlight so, of course, they cam...

"This day started off with the intention of finding great horned owls but the orcas of the Salish Sea rarely like to give up their spotlight so, of course, they came marching south towards where I was at and they got so close that I had no choice but to ditch the birds to find them..."

The Orca Behavior Institute's March 2026 killer whale sightings map of the Salish Sea, showing first sighting locations for every unique report of killer whales.

Here is our March 2026 sightings map for killer whale reports in the Salish Sea! Bigg's bounced back in a big way, present all 31 days.

You can read our full recap of the month, including highlights for each population, here:
www.orcabehaviorinstitute.org/sightings-ma...

#whaleksy #orcas

🩵🧡 Fri, Apr 3
Find a beach & maybe you’ll find any of the wonderful whales who inhabit this beautiful place we share. Opportunities have been plentiful w/more before us.

Yesterday: T137s, heaps of grays & a humpback! Wonder who today brings.

📸 T419s & the Mountain by Amber Stanfill 3/26.
#psws

What do we know about these whales? What don't we know?

Join Monika Wieland Shields, Director of the Orca Behavior Institute, for a Patreon-exclusive talk about these "truly transient," enigmatic T419s on Monday, April 6th, at 6pm PST.

Not a Patron yet? Become a supporter via the link in comments!

This is such a fun idea!

A rocky spot along a river with tall trees running along each side.

Did you know ~2,800 different streams and rivers flow to Puget Sound? These riparian areas support salmon and other plant and animal species. We have up to $3M available for projects that improve, protect and restore Puget Sound riparian habitats. Learn more & apply:
ecology.wa.gov/blog/april-2...

We have some low tides and warmer weather in store around Puget Sound this weekend, which is our very favorite combination. 😍

Taking fishing lessons from a true pro.

A casual little orca tail slap

The Whale Museum Live Stream YouTube video by TheWhaleMuseum

Members of the endangered Southern Resident Killer Whales are traveling south in Haro Strait right now and can be seen and heard on the Lime Kiln webcam + hydrophone. 💕🐬

Long Overlooked as Crucial to Life, Fungi Start to Get Their Due Fungi create soil, sequester vast amounts of carbon, and contribute $55 trillion to the global economy, but knowledge about them is scarce. Now, mycologists are pushing to get the international scient...

"Fungi create soil, sequester vast amounts of carbon, and contribute $55 trillion to the global economy, but knowledge about them is scarce. Now, mycologists are pushing to get the international scientific community to recognize fungi on the same level as plants and animals..."

Not the weekend's biggest local news (that would be the tens of 1000s who gathered to oppose Trump or celebrate light rail), but the mystery orcas were still on their Tour de Seattle this weekend, spotted by the Elliott Bay grain terminal Sunday afternoon.

Have you ever tried to find a gray whale sticker and had to search through page after page of weird AI franken-whales?

Don’t worry, we’ve gotchoo.

Several other whales have been spotted in the Sound today, so if you're close to the water keep your eyes peeled and let us know if you see anything!

💕🐬

3/3

These guys have been seen previously in Anchorage, but they also have the marks of cookie cutter sharks on them, deepening the mystery.

These three are now known as T419, T420, and T421, and it'll be interesting to see how long they stay in Puget Sound + where they travel to next!

2/3

A few days ago some interesting Bigg's (mammal-eating) killer whales appeared near Vancouver. They weren't recognized as members of our west coast population and caused quite a stir as everyone tried to figure out who they were.

Today they're in Seattle + southbound towards Tacoma!

1/3

If you need a break from the world today keep your eyes on the Sound as several whales have been spotted today. 💕

💕

Sometimes people are so laser focused on fixing one issue that they don’t take a step back to understand how it all connects.

That’s fair.

I know some of these people and have had extensive conversations with them about this, so I have some insight into their thinking and it does seem to be rooted in deep passion for one environmental issue without the capacity (or willingness) to look more broadly at all of the impacts.

We know that stormwater run off is awful because of the pollutants from cars. Creating dense housing (with trees, might I add!) that reduces the reliance on cars is an obviously major benefit for reducing those harmful pollutants.

To be fair, I don’t think the opposition is blatantly evil, I just think it’s the result of shortsightedness and some shallow thinking about a deeply complicated matter.

We need to evolve past “trees = good and cities = bad” when we’re talking about environmental matters.

Op-Ed: To Save Trees and Orcas Build More Homes in Seattle » The Urbanist # Cars and sprawl that are the true problem as the Puget Sound region seeks to boost salmon runs and protect salmon-eating orca whales. Building more homes in Seattle is the way to curb sprawl.

Thanks for mentioning this! Also, last year @jazzyspraxis.bsky.social and I went into even more depth on this topic at @theurbanist.org

“Building new housing is one of the most important things we can do to help our orca population survive,” Cruickshank said. “Density actually helps orca populations. That’s because it reduces the amount of pollution in stormwater that harms salmon and the orca that depend on the salmon runs. Now, what is in that stormwater that harms salmon and orca? It’s runoff from cars. It’s oil, it’s bits of tires. It’s the shavings off the brakes when you hit the brakes, when you’re driving. Stuff like that that gets into the stormwater, runoff goes into the sound, kills salmon and hurts orcas, and it’s exacerbated when we build sprawl, when we cut down forests and pave over farmland that destroys salmon habitat that orcas depend on, it also means more people are driving. So what we need to do is build dense cities.”

The screenshot with the full quote in the Alt text.

One other thing: we've been quiet here as we've been focusing on helping our communities during this ongoing government occupation. We hope you're doing the same and are making it through the days ok.

Please support your local orgs that are doing vital immigrant rights work at this time.

nwirp.org

Conservation Groups Join Push Against Seattle Growth Plan » The Urbanist # Birds Connect Seattle, Thornton Creek Alliance, and the Orca Conservancy are among the groups trying to send the City of Seattle back to the drawing board on its housing growth plan. They're pushing...

Read the full article by @typewriteralley.bsky.social at @theurbanist.org

The plight of the endangered Southern Resident Killer Whales is real + it's immediate but we need to evolve the way that we think about environmentalism and also of what a sustainable city + environmental activism looks like.