A Southern Resident orca breaching in the Salish Sea — A Southern Resident breaching off the San Juan Islands. Every animal in this population is known individually by sight.

Southern Resident census · record 2026-09-07

74Southern Resident orcas alive at the last complete census▼ 1 on the previous census (down one animal)Census date 1 July 2026 · next count 1 July 2027

Source. Photographic census by US Orca and partner survey teams, reconciled against the regional catalogue maintained continuously since 1976. Each animal is identified individually; nothing on this line is modelled.

Standing

Record 2026-09-07

Seventy-four whales. One narrow window.

US Orca is a research and advocacy nonprofit working on the three things that decide whether Pacific orcas survive: enough salmon, quiet enough water, and clean enough blubber.

Individuals: 74
Pods catalogued: 3
Years of photo-ID: 50+
Diet that is Chinook: 80%
Field days 2026: 68

Figure 1 — Population, 1976–2026

Photographic count

**Figure 1.** Southern Resident population by census year, 1976–2026. Bar length is scaled against the recorded peak of 98 animals (1995); the percentage column repeats that value as text.
Census year	Individuals counted · share of 1995 peak
1976	7172%
1980	7981%
1985	7880%
1990	8991%
1995	98100%
2000	8284%
2005	8890%
2010	8688%
2015	8183%
2020	7476%
2023	7577%
2026	7476%

Census years shown at five-year intervals to 2015 and annually thereafter. Counts are photographic, not modelled.

Table 1 — Census by pod

1 July 2026

**Table 1.** Southern Resident census by pod, 1 July 2026. Every individual is identified photographically; no figure in this table is estimated.
Pod	Matrilines	Individuals	Adult females	Calves since 2021	Change since 2016
J pod	7	25	8	5	+1
K pod	4	16	5	1	−2
L pod	11	33	11	4	−3
All pods	22	74	24	10	−4

Figure 2 — Diet composition

2019–2026 sampling

Chinook salmon 80%
Chum salmon 9%
Coho salmon 5%
Steelhead 3%
Other / unidentified 3%

**Figure 2.** Southern Resident diet composition by prey species, from prey remains and faecal genetic sampling across the 2019–2026 field seasons. Segments are labelled with their own percentage and distinguished by fill pattern as well as tone.
Prey species	Share of diet
Chinook salmon	80%
Chum salmon	9%
Coho salmon	5%
Steelhead	3%
Other / unidentified	3%

Figure 3 — Threat severity

Assessed 2026-09-07

Prey Decline

Severity 5 / 5 · Critical · Worsening

What would move thisChinook escapement above the ten-year mean for three consecutive returns.

Vessel Noise

Severity 3 / 5 · Moderate · Improving

What would move thisA mandatory seasonal slowdown in the Haro Strait corridor, not a voluntary one.

Contaminants

Severity 4 / 5 · High · Flat

What would move thisStormwater treatment retrofits on the twelve largest urban outfalls.

Entanglement & Ship Strikes

Severity 2 / 5 · Low · Flat

What would move thisDerelict gear recovery funded every season instead of every third season.

**Figure 3.** Threat severity, scored 1–5 against mechanism confidence and measured effect size. The meters above encode the same values; every rating is also written out here as a number and a word.
Pressure	Severity	Band	Trend	Lag to effect
Prey Decline	5	Critical	Worsening	5–20 yr
Vessel Noise	3	Moderate	Improving	Immediate
Contaminants	4	High	Flat	20–50 yr
Entanglement & Ship Strikes	2	Low	Flat	1–3 yr

Reading the record

Every Southern Resident orca alive today has been photographed, catalogued and given a name. Researchers can identify each one on sight. That level of knowledge is extraordinary, and it exists because the population is small enough that it is possible — which is the problem.

A group this size has no statistical buffer. There is no margin in which a bad year averages out.

**Plate 1.** J pod surfacing on a survey transect, Salish Sea. Every dorsal fin in this frame is an individual with a catalogue number.

Cause of decline

The threats are documented, mechanistically understood, and mostly solvable. Chinook salmon runs have collapsed. Vessel noise masks the echolocation the whales hunt with. Banned contaminants still cycle through the food web and pass from mother to first calf.

None of this requires new science to act on. It requires deciding to act.

They are not being hunted. They are being starved.

**Plate 2.** Wild Chinook on a spawning reach. Chinook escapement is the single variable most tightly coupled to Southern Resident survival.

Populations on this coastline

4 records

Same coastline, three populations that do not interbreed, do not share language, and do not share a fate.

**Table 2.** The three North Pacific ecotypes, compared on the measures that separate them. Bigg's and offshore figures are regional estimates.
Population	Individuals	Trend	Listing	Primary prey	Typical group
Southern Residents	74	▼ −4	Endangered	Chinook salmon	3 pods
Bigg's orcas	~380	▲ +62	Not listed	Marine mammals	2–6
Offshore orcas	~300 est.	— unknown	Data deficient	Sharks (inferred)	30–100

A fourth record covers behaviour and culture across all three: Behavior & Culture.

Programme

3 records

**Table 3.** What we do about it — the three programme areas and their current reporting figures.
Programme	Scope	Headline figure
Field Research	Photo identification, acoustic monitoring and non-invasive sampling across a short field season.	4,210 photo-ids logged
Policy & Advocacy	Turning field data into rules that actually change what happens on the water.	6 hearings attended
Education & Outreach	Coastal communities decide what happens on this water. They should have the data.	62 skipper briefings

Latest field notes

Journal

2026-08-19 · Acoustics
Listening Through a Noisy Ocean
What eight months of hydrophone data says about when the Salish Sea actually goes quiet.
2026-07-02 · Photo-ID
What Photo-ID Actually Tells Us
Fifty years of dorsal fin photographs, and why the catalogue is the single most valuable thing we have.
2026-05-28 · Prey
The Salmon Problem Is a River Problem
You cannot fix orca nutrition in the ocean. The work is four hundred miles inland.

Orcas can't wait for consensus.

Field seasons are short and the population is small. Steady support is what keeps boats on the water and hydrophones in the sea.

Get involved Contact the team