The Southern Resident orcas are divided up into three pods these are, J pod, K pod, and L pod. The Southern residents main diet is salmon, but because the local salmon population is getting more scarce it is making it harder for the orcas to feed and they have to feed on other fish such as Rockfish. L pod is the largest of the three pods and consists of 47 members, J pod has 19 members, and K pod has 16 members, making the total population 82 orcas. However the Southern Resident population was 92 orcas five years ago, it has been declining over the last few years due to pollution, not to forget the fact that the community has had to slowly recooperate from a huge decline in the population when about 13 orcas were captured for marine parks in the 60's and the 70's.

The orcas are identified by the grey patch behind their dorsal fin (this is known as the saddle patch), each individual orca has their own unique shape to the saddle patch. The orcas can also be identified by their dorsal fin, some orcas have small knicks in their dorsal fin which makes the orcas more easy to identify (the cartilage does not grow back once it has been knicked or cut). The Center For Whale research takes photographs of the Southern Resident orcas saddle patches and fins and puts together a booklet of identification photos with each orcas name and identification number, e.g. J-2 Granny.