@pnwprotectors #repost Family portrait by @taslishaw ・・・ J2 "Granny" (top row, second from the left) with the whales she was most often seen travelling and associating with in the last years of her life. We used to call this "Jpod Group A", and it included J2, J8, L87, the J14s, and the J19s (and usually the J16s). This became normal to see Jpod fractured into 2 groups, instead of all together as was the case in the past. People who have been studying these whales for decades think that they are splintering like this in an attempt to cover more ground to find the increasingly scarse Chinook salmon. In decades gone by, there would be super pod gatherings on a regular basis, but such a thing is becoming less frequent in the Salish Sea. As most of you know, the southern resident killer whales were not really around all summer, forced elsewhere to find their source of nutrition. In this illustration I wanted to depict "Jpod Group A" gliding through the green waters of Active Pass, a traditional route for the resident killer whales. #orca #killerwhale #blackfish #wildlife_art #illustration #art #whale #jpod #srkw #orcas #artist #ocean #oceanart