Northern resident community seen in Victoria
For the first time in 25 years the Northern resident killer whales were seen in the waters of Victoria. Fifty to sixty whales were counted, the Northern resident community is usually seen North of Vancouver Island up in the Queen charlotte islands and to the east of the island.
In the meanwhile the Southern residents have not been seen in a month and are almost always around in the waters of Victoria especially during the summer months.

Are the Southern residents dying out?
Since 1995 when the Southern resident orca community was numbered at 98, the orca community now is numbered at 82 orcas within the three pods. An estimated 48 orcas from the three southern resident pods were captured for display in aquarium, most of them died in this process (one of these whales is Lolita, from J pod), this huge chunk taken from the population may be one of the reasons in the decline in the poulation of whales but this is not the only reason why. Researcher Ken Balcomb states that because of the small population of salmon in the area (the residents main diet) the whales are having to resort to other fish such as rockfish which contain high levels of toxins called (PCBs) polychlorinated-biphenyls, research is showing that some of the adult males in J pod are carrying very high levels of these toxins. Ken Balcomb claims that the decline is most likely to carry on for the next two decades. How big was the Southern resident orca population in the past is not yet known. But eight whales have died in this last year, Canada has put the Southern resident community on the endangered list.