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The text came in about 1:30pm from Pioneer photographer/videographer Don Backman, “Orcas in Tillamook Bay” … I texted back, photos/video or it didn’t happen. He texted back, “I don’t have my camera …” WHAT?!! That will never happen again, I assure you. The pod of Orca whales were on the south side of the Tillamook Bay entrance on Friday April 25, 2025 – a friend of Don’s got some cell phone video … it shows a boat near the south jetty and the distinctive Orca killer whale fins, several of them. Thanks so much to Pioneer readers, and for Jamison Johnson (the boat in the original video) for sharing his videos. The Oregon Coast Killer Whale Monitoring program has identified the group. See the information below and the videos shared on the Pioneer’s social media.
Josh McInnes, Oregon Coast Killer Whale Monitoring Program
Tillamook Bay, Oregon (2025-04-25):
Good afternoon @everyone,
A huge thank you to everyone in the Tillamook Bay area for helping track and photograph the group of killer whales sighted yesterday. I received photographs and video clips from Jamison Johnson with Big Johnson’s Guide Service and was able to identify six of the whales as the famous T050s or Coos Bay Killers!
This transient (mammal-eating) family is led by the matriarch T050 (born. 1980). She has an adult daughter T050B (born. 1999) who has two offspring T050B1 (born. 2012) and T050B2 (born. 2020). T050 is also the mother of T050D (born. 2011) and T050E (born. 2013).
The T050s are a frequently encountered transient group off the Oregon coast and show up almost every spring during the harbor seal pupping period to feed on abundant seal pups. They typically travel with T051, a lone adult male that is also a seasonal visitor to the coast. You might remember that the T050s were involved in a successful hunt of a gray whale calf in 2023 off Cape Foulwether.
