WHERE ARE THE ORCAS?

X

About This Map

A live map of recent orca (killer whale) sightings. It pulls fresh reports from open community sighting networks every time you visit and refreshes itself every 10 minutes. No account, no app.

Where Sightings Come From

Acartia is an open data cooperative for the Salish Sea carrying real-time reports from the region's sighting networks (including Orca Network community reports and the Whale Alert / Spotter apps). Precise locations, usually the most recent week.

iNaturalist carries photo reports from people worldwide, last 90 days. To protect sensitive populations, iNaturalist blurs the exact location of some orca reports by roughly 25 km. Those orcas are drawn faded and show a general area, not an exact spot; the rest appear where they were actually seen.

Reading The Map

Tile color shows freshness. The deeper the color, the more recent. Numbered blocks are several sightings grouped together; zoom in to split them apart. The bouncing marker is the newest report in your selected time range.

Please Be Whale Wise

If you head out to look: keep your distance. Regulations protect these whales, and in Washington State vessels must stay at least 1,000 yards away from Southern Resident orcas. See bewhalewise.org. This map is for curiosity and education, not navigation.

Made by Norjack Interdimensional.

Sightings belong to their reporters and networks · Basemap © OpenFreeMap / OpenStreetMap.

X

Saw An Orca? Report It!

Your report helps researchers and shows up on maps like this one.

Salish Sea / Pacific Northwest

Report to Orca Network (or their Facebook sightings group), or use the free Whale Alert app. Reports flow into the regional networks and appear here via Acartia, usually within minutes.

Anywhere In The World

Post a photo to iNaturalist and it will appear on this map (sometimes with a privacy-blurred location) once it is uploaded.