Killer Whales of Alaska
A living guide to the salmon-eating residents, mammal-hunting transients, offshore shark specialists and overlapping killer-whale communities of Alaska.
Search by pod, stock, region, prey type or Alaska killer-whale story.
One state. Several killer-whale cultures.
Alaska is one of the most complex killer-whale regions on Earth. Fish-eating Residents, mammal-eating Transients and Offshore shark specialists can occupy the same broad seas while remaining genetically, acoustically, socially and culturally distinct.
NOAA now recognizes two resident populations centered in Alaska: Southern Alaska Residents and Western Alaska North Pacific Residents. The long-term Southern Alaska catalogue follows more than 30 pods across Southeast Alaska, Prince William Sound, Kenai Fjords and Kodiak, while the western population extends through the Aleutian Islands and Bering Sea. Federal stock assessments still combine these whales in one broad Alaska Resident management stock.
Alaska’s mammal hunters are even more structured. The tiny AT1 / Chugach population is isolated around Prince William Sound and Kenai Fjords, while the enormous federal Gulf of Alaska–Aleutian–Bering Sea Transient stock contains additional genetic and acoustic structure. Farther southeast, West Coast Bigg’s and Northern Residents overlap Alaska waters, and Southern Residents are rare visitors.
Dorsal-fin shape, saddle patches and scars help researchers identify and compare individual Alaska killer whales.
Federal minimum for the combined Alaska Resident management stock: 921 photo-identified whales from the Gulf / Southeast component plus 999 from the Aleutian Islands and Bering Sea.
Individual Southern Alaska Residents currently tracked by North Gulf Oceanic Society across more than 30 pods.
Federal minimum for the Gulf of Alaska–Aleutian–Bering Sea Transient management stock, based on photo-identifications from 2001–2012.
AT1 / Chugach whales reported alive in a 2025 peer-reviewed study; NOAA’s general species page still carries seven from older stock material.
One spill. Two killer-whale communities changed for decades.
When the Exxon Valdez grounded in Prince William Sound, both AB Pod and the AT1 Transients moved through heavily oiled waters. The consequences were unlike anything seen in neighboring killer-whale groups.
AB Pod—part of the fish-eating Alaska Resident community—lost a large share of its members in the period following the spill and has never fully regained its former size. The AT1 Transients suffered an even more catastrophic decline. Nine of the original 22 whales disappeared within roughly a year and a half, and the population has produced no known calf since before the spill.
The two groups eat completely different prey and belong to different killer-whale cultures, yet the same environmental disaster left both with demographic scars that are still visible more than three decades later.
Salmon. Marine mammals. Sharks.
Fish specialists
Large, vocal maternal groups maintain pod-specific call traditions. In southern Alaska, Chinook, chum and coho salmon are important at different hotspots and seasons, with halibut, arrowtooth flounder and sablefish also contributing.
Marine-mammal hunters
Smaller, quieter groups hunt seals, porpoises, sea lions, belugas and sometimes baleen whales. Different transient populations overlap Alaska without becoming one social community.
Shark specialists
A 2025 diet synthesis found elasmobranchs in 89.3% of identified prey events. In Alaska and northern British Columbia, Pacific sleeper sharks and salmon sharks were especially important in spring and early summer.
AA, AB, AD, AK, AX…
Southern Alaska Resident pods were assigned letter combinations as researchers photographed and sorted social groups. Pod labels such as AB, AD8 and AK6 describe social and acoustic units—not individual whales.
Pods can split
Resident pods are made of matrilines. As the population grows, social units can split while retaining closely related calls. AK2 and AK6 are a classic example, and the growing AK2 complex appears to be subdividing again.
Acoustics reveal hidden whales
Some pods are heard on winter hydrophones far more often than they are seen. Killer-whale call repertoires can identify pods and populations even when weather, darkness or distance prevents visual photo-identification.
Alaska’s population map is still being rewritten
Management stocks, biological populations, ecotypes and social pods are not interchangeable. NOAA currently recognizes Southern Alaska Residents and Western Alaska North Pacific Residents as separate resident populations, even though federal stock assessments still combine them in one Alaska Resident management stock.
The federal 1,920 Resident minimum is deliberately conservative and combines photo-ID counts collected in different periods: 921 whales from the Gulf of Alaska / Southeast Alaska component and 999 from the Aleutian Islands / Bering Sea. The 587 Transient minimum is also based on older photo-ID work, while newer genetic and acoustic research shows substantial structure inside the broad western Alaska transient management stock.
AT1 is another place where sources differ by update cycle: a 2025 peer-reviewed study reports six surviving whales, while NOAA’s current general species page still displays seven from older stock-assessment material. This guide uses six where a current number is needed and notes the discrepancy rather than hiding it.
Pods, populations & visitors
Start with the Southern Alaska Resident pod catalogue, then move west into the Aleutians and Bering Sea before exploring AT1, transient population structure, Offshore shark hunters and cross-border visitors.
01 Southern Alaska Residents Resident population
Field & research notes
- NOAA recognizes Southern Alaska Residents as one of four resident killer-whale populations in the northeastern North Pacific.
- They range broadly from Southeast Alaska through Prince William Sound and Kenai Fjords to Kodiak Island.
- North Gulf Oceanic Society currently tracks more than 30 pods and more than 950 individual whales in its southern Alaska photo-ID catalogue.
- A 2025 diet study showed strong seasonal and geographic differences: Chinook, chum and coho salmon were important at different hotspots, with Pacific halibut, arrowtooth flounder and sablefish contributing consistently.
02 AA1 & AA30 Pods Resident pods
Field & research notes
- Very seldom seen in the long-term southern Alaska study area.
- North Gulf Oceanic Society says the AA pods have been thoroughly documented only eight times since 2000, so current family composition is harder to track than frequently encountered pods.
03 AB Pod Resident pod
Field & research notes
- First catalogued in 1984 and strongly associated with Prince William Sound.
- AB Pod passed through the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989 and lost roughly one-quarter of its members soon afterward.
- Unlike most neighboring resident pods, AB has still not returned to its pre-spill abundance, and some matrilines have disappeared completely.
04 AB25 Pod Resident pod
Field & research notes
- Originally catalogued as part of AB Pod before becoming recognized as a separate social unit.
- AB25 whales are most commonly encountered in Prince William Sound.
05 AD5 Pod Resident pod
Field & research notes
- Historically encountered in Kenai Fjords and Prince William Sound, with records from Kodiak and Kachemak Bay.
- The pod has not been reliably documented in the core study area since 2016.
- One adult male, nicknamed Lobster, is famous for a long-term collapsed dorsal fin.
06 AD8 Pod Resident pod
Field & research notes
- One of the most frequently encountered resident pods in Kenai Fjords during early summer.
- Several whales carry distinctive dorsal-fin notches that make the pod especially familiar to local observers.
- AD8 is the only resident pod documented traveling over the moraine into Northwestern Fjord.
07 AD11 Pod Resident pod
Field & research notes
- Frequently encountered in Kenai Fjords and Prince William Sound.
- Its call repertoire resembles that of AD5, suggesting a close historical relationship between the two pods.
08 AD16 Pod Resident pod
Field & research notes
- Frequently encountered in Kenai Fjords and Prince William Sound and known to travel deep into Prince William Sound fjords.
- Acoustic and genetic work shows an especially close relationship with AK pods despite the AD designation.
09 AE Pod Resident pod
Field & research notes
- Strongly associated with Prince William Sound and comparatively uncommon in open-ocean waters.
- An unusually high proportion of AE males have damaged, bent or collapsed dorsal fins.
10 AF5 Pod Resident pod
Field & research notes
- One of several resident pods that spends much of its time in Southeast Alaska between Icy Strait and Frederick Sound.
- AF5 also makes long movements to Prince William Sound, Kenai Fjords and Kodiak, illustrating why the old term resident can be misleading.
11 AF22 Pod Resident pod
Field & research notes
- One of three pods that appear to spend much of their time in Southeast Alaska between Icy Strait and Frederick Sound.
- AF22 whales also make long movements toward Prince William Sound, Kenai Fjords and Kodiak.
12 AG Pod Resident pod
Field & research notes
- Often associated with Southeast Alaska between Icy Strait and Frederick Sound.
- AG whales regularly make long-distance trips toward Prince William Sound, Kenai Fjords and Kodiak.
13 AH1 & AH20 Pods Resident pods
Field & research notes
- Very seldom seen in the core southern Alaska study area.
- North Gulf Oceanic Society reports that the AH pods have not been well documented since 2003.
14 AI Pod Resident pod
Field & research notes
- Most often associated with Montague Strait, Hinchinbrook Entrance and waters around Kayak Island.
- AI is part of the long-running Prince William Sound resident catalogue.
15 AJ Pod Resident pod
Field & research notes
- First catalogued in 1984.
- AJ is most commonly found in Prince William Sound.
16 AJ8 Pod Resident pod
Field & research notes
- Historically part of the broader AJ social complex and most commonly encountered in Prince William Sound.
- AJ8 has been seen less frequently than the main AJ Pod in more recent years.
17 AK2 & AK6 Pods Resident pods
Field & research notes
- The AK whales split into two major pods during the 1990s but retain nearly identical calls.
- AK6 is among the most frequently encountered resident pods in Kenai Fjords and regularly visits Prince William Sound.
- AK6 is also the resident pod most often documented rubbing on beaches near Fox Island in Resurrection Bay.
- The growing AK2 branch appears to be splitting further into newer social units such as AK9, AK10 and AK16.
18 AL Pod Resident pod
Field & research notes
- A rarely documented resident pod.
- The best-known Gulf of Alaska encounter came from Prince William Sound in 2009, with additional photographs from the Barren Islands.
19 AM Pod Resident pod
Field & research notes
- A small and rarely encountered pod first clearly documented in Kenai Fjords in 2011.
- Its limited sighting history makes it one of the less-understood Alaska Resident groups.
20 AN10 Pod Resident pod
Field & research notes
- Not frequently seen from research vessels, but regularly detected on winter hydrophones.
- The pod demonstrates how acoustic monitoring can reveal presence even when visual encounters are scarce.
21 AN20 Pod Resident pod
Field & research notes
- Another infrequently photographed pod that is heard more regularly on winter acoustic recorders.
- Its call patterns help distinguish it from neighboring resident groups.
22 AP Pod Resident pod
Field & research notes
- First documented in 2003 but not formally named until repeated observations clarified the social relationships.
- AP whales have been encountered in Kachemak Bay and Kenai Fjords.
23 AS2 Pod Resident pod
Field & research notes
- A long-known but relatively infrequently encountered resident pod.
- Sightings in the core study region can be separated by several years.
24 AS30 Pod Resident pod
Field & research notes
- Part of the AS resident lineage first catalogued in 1984.
- Public field notes are limited, so this guide avoids assigning a more specific current range or status than the source catalogue supports.
25 AW Pod Resident pod
Field & research notes
- Rarely encountered in the central Gulf of Alaska study area.
- Satellite telemetry has shown that AW whales spend time west of Kodiak Island, revealing a range larger than visual sightings alone suggested.
26 AX1 Pod Kodiak-centered resident
Field & research notes
- Part of the larger AX complex once thought to be a single huge pod after a 1990 multi-pod aggregation.
- Later observations separated the AX whales into multiple matrilineal groups centered largely around Kodiak.
- AX1 was last officially documented in the NGOS core study region in 2019.
27 AX27 Pod Kodiak-centered resident
Field & research notes
- One of the AX groups documented every few years in the core study region.
- North Gulf Oceanic Society lists 2019 as its most recent official local documentation while maintaining useful matriline and acoustic records.
28 AX32 Pod Kodiak-centered resident
Field & research notes
- A rarely encountered AX group.
- North Gulf Oceanic Society lists 2008 as its most recent official documentation in the core study region.
29 AX40 Pod Kodiak-centered resident
Field & research notes
- A rarely encountered AX group.
- North Gulf Oceanic Society lists 2018 as its most recent official documentation in the core study region.
30 AX48 Pod Kodiak / Katmai resident
Field & research notes
- A large AX social complex containing several matrilines.
- Some matrilines are encountered every few years in the northern Gulf study area.
- Telemetry shows use of the Kodiak and Katmai coast.
31 AY Pod Resident pod
Field & research notes
- AY whales were once encountered regularly along the Kenai Fjords coast.
- North Gulf Oceanic Society reports no official local documentation since 2016.
32 Western Alaska North Pacific Residents Resident population
Field & research notes
- NOAA’s current species framework recognizes Western Alaska North Pacific Residents separately from Southern Alaska Residents.
- These fish-eating residents occupy the Aleutian Islands and Bering Sea portion of Alaska’s resident range.
- Federal management still combines western and southern Alaska residents in one Alaska Resident stock; the western component of that minimum uses 999 photo-identified whales from 2001–2010.
- Because survey coverage and individual distinctiveness are incomplete, NOAA describes the western photo-ID count as a conservative minimum rather than a full census.
33 Aleutian & Bering Sea Resident Network Western Alaska research
Field & research notes
- A decade of photo-ID work across roughly 4,000 km from the Gulf of Alaska through the western Aleutians documented extensive social and spatial structure among fish-eating residents.
- The study identified four major social clusters with strong site fidelity; most repeatedly seen whales ranged less than 500 km, although some moved more than 1,000 km.
- Whales known to remove groundfish from longline gear were embedded in this larger social network, suggesting learned depredation behavior can spread through social connections.
- Genetic and movement evidence supports finer population structure than the single broad Alaska Resident management stock implies.
34 AT1 / Chugach Transients Depleted Alaska population
Field & research notes
- AT1 is a genetically and acoustically distinct mammal-eating population centered on Prince William Sound and Kenai Fjords.
- Long-term study began with 22 whales in the 1980s. Nine disappeared within roughly a year and a half of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.
- No observed birth has occurred since 1984, and a 2025 peer-reviewed study reports only six survivors, with the remaining females beyond normal reproductive age.
- NOAA’s general killer-whale species page still displays seven animals from older stock material, so current sources are not perfectly synchronized.
- AT1 is designated depleted under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
35 Gulf of Alaska–Aleutian–Bering Sea Transients Federal management stock
Field & research notes
- The current federal stock spans an enormous area from the Gulf of Alaska through the Aleutian Islands and Bering Sea.
- NOAA continues to use a minimum of 587 whales based on photo-identifications collected from 2001–2012; it is a conservative, dated minimum rather than a current full census.
- Marine-mammal prey include seals, porpoises, sea lions and baleen whales, with local groups developing different hunting traditions.
- New genetic and acoustic work demonstrates additional biological structure inside this broad management stock.
36 Western Alaska Transient Structure Population complex
Field & research notes
- NOAA acoustic and genetic work has identified at least three distinct transient subpopulations in western Alaska.
- A 2025 synthesis describes separate transient populations associated with the Gulf of Alaska, eastern / central Aleutians and Bering Sea, in addition to AT1, West Coast Transients and a western North Pacific population.
- These biological populations are still grouped more broadly for some U.S. management purposes, so the federal Gulf of Alaska–Aleutian–Bering Sea Transient stock should not be read as one socially uniform community.
37 Unimak Gray-Whale Hunting Aggregation Seasonal predation hotspot
Field & research notes
- Each spring, mammal-eating killer whales concentrate around Unimak Island / False Pass as northbound gray whales round the Alaska Peninsula.
- Research has documented more than 100 killer whales using the stopover, with predation focused heavily on young gray whales.
- Satellite-tagged whales later moved north into the Bering Sea and as far as 1,620 km into the Chukchi Sea, likely tracking the gray-whale migration.
- Genetic studies also identify a smaller sympatric Unimak transient subgroup that does not fit neatly with other known transient populations.
38 Offshore Killer Whales Shark specialists
Field & research notes
- Offshore killer whales range from California north through Alaska and can occur in large ocean-ranging groups.
- A 2025 synthesis of 84 predation events found elasmobranchs made up 89.3% of identified prey, confirming a pronounced shark-and-ray specialization.
- Pacific sleeper sharks were the single most frequently identified prey item, and sleeper plus salmon sharks were primarily taken in Alaska and northern British Columbia during spring and early summer.
- Offshores remain genetically, acoustically and ecologically distinct from resident and transient killer whales.
39 Northern Residents in Southeast Alaska Cross-border residents
Field & research notes
- Northern Resident killer whales from British Columbia regularly extend into parts of Southeast Alaska.
- Federal stock assessments treat them separately from Alaska Residents; they have not been seen to intermix socially with the Alaska Resident population.
- Southeast Alaska is therefore one of the places where multiple fish-eating resident populations can occur in the same broader region.
40 Southern Residents — Rare Alaska Visitors Occasional visitor
Field & research notes
- Southern Resident killer whales are centered much farther south, but NOAA documents their range extending as far north as Southeast Alaska.
- Alaska sightings are rare and do not make Southern Residents an Alaska resident population.
- They remain socially and genetically distinct from Northern Residents and Southern Alaska Residents despite limited geographic overlap.
41 West Coast Bigg’s in Southeast Alaska Cross-border transients
Field & research notes
- West Coast Transient / Bigg’s killer whales range from California through British Columbia into Southeast Alaska.
- They overlap geographically with Alaska-specific transient populations but form a distinct social, acoustic and genetic population.
- This overlap makes Southeast Alaska one of the most population-diverse killer-whale regions in the northeastern Pacific.
Where the facts come from
This WUTA guide is independently written from long-term Alaska photo-identification, government stock assessments and peer-reviewed killer-whale research.
- North Gulf Oceanic Society — current Southern Alaska Resident pod catalogue
- North Gulf Oceanic Society — Aleutian Islands killer-whale research
- NOAA Fisheries — current killer-whale populations, ecotypes and conservation status
- NOAA Fisheries — Killer Whale Research in Alaska
- NOAA Fisheries — Alaska marine mammal stock assessments and killer-whale stock definitions
- Myers et al. 2025 — Southern Alaska Resident diet across seasonal foraging hotspots
- Wright et al. 2025 — Offshore killer-whale shark specialization
- Myers et al. 2025 — Alaska population acoustics and six surviving AT1 whales
- PLOS ONE 2025 — Northeast Pacific transient population structure
- Durban et al. 2023 — Unimak gray-whale predation stopover and satellite movements
- Fearnbach et al. 2014 — Western Alaska Resident social and spatial connectivity
- Gulf Watch Alaska — AB Pod and AT1 recovery monitoring after Exxon Valdez
Pod membership, abundance estimates and population boundaries can change as whales are re-encountered and genetic/acoustic work improves. Federal stock labels are management units and may lag behind finer biological population structure. Use the newest primary catalogues and stock assessments for formal identification or scientific decisions.
