Puget Sound Orcas

Love google map. never mind I found it. I never think about whales and the south, unless at the beach. Orcas just say cold water to me. After watching that show I was amazed how many there are and how spread out they are around the world. Just this week I got word that part J pod is on the north end of vancouver island while other members of j pod are in tacaoma. They really get around.
 
For those who have not googled--Perdido Pass, is basically on the line between Florida Panhandle and Alabama. Orange Beach Alabama is on one side, and Pensacola (Perdido Key) is on the other side. (the Florabama Lounge is actually on the line--a couple of miles East of Perdido Pass.

Perdido Pass is 16 miles due South of my house--which is at the head of Perdido bay.
 
You can subscribe to an email list called Whale Watch through www.orcanetwork.org. There are daily reports on where the various pods are, it is VERY interesting. These are just reports of sightings that people email in. And you can see Tom is correct, they are actually pretty far-ranging. But Merv is correct too, these pods are called Southern Resident Killer Whales - that is the NMFS (National Marine Fisheries Service) ESA (Endangered Species Act) designation for them.

And this is a way bigger deal than most people realize. NMFS is still systematically deciding what to restrict or regulate next to protect the whales - they just recently issued an opinion that the FEMA National Flood Insurance Program regulations for Puget Sound are harming the whales and have to be changed - and this is one VERY tenuous connection, I have studied the Biological Opinion closely. It is the result of a lawsuit filed against NMFS by environmental groups who prevailed in the courts. We'll all just have to see what is next - oddly enough NMFS avoids mentioning the most obvious harmful thing - the incredible urbanization in the I-5 corridor directly adjacent to Puget Sound from Everett to Tacoma. The obvious solution is to relocate Seattle and I-5 to, say, Ellensburg...instead they go after flood insurance in Snoqualmie.
Grumpy":18ogay19 said:
Bob,

The Puget Sound Orcas are arguably a specific sub group which are resident.
More info at
http://www.orcanetwork.org/

Merv
Click to expand...
 
The local news just had a report on this "episode". They said the Orca were feeding on tuna. Apparently, the area they were in is not a normal Orca range, so the scientist are baffled. Kinda cool.
 
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