A female resident orca whale breaches while swimming in Puget Sound near Bainbridge Island as seen from a federally permitted research vessel Saturday, Jan. 18, 2014.

Orca whales from the J and K pods swim past a small research boat on Puget Sound in view of downtown Seattle, Oct. 29, 2013. A satellite tag attached to an endangered killer whale named Onyx is yielding some new discoveries about the orca's movements.

A satellite-linked transmitter is visible on the dorsal fin of L87, an orca from the southern resident group of killer whales, while swimming in Puget Sound in view of a state ferry west of Seattle, Jan. 18, 2014. Federal researchers say the satellite-linked tag offered new details on the movements of the endangered orca whale before it stopped transmitting data earlier in the month. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data shows the orca spent the past several weeks cruising throughout the Salish Sea and out to the Washington coast.

In this photo taken Feb. 12, 2012, and provided by Cascadia Research, a dead orca whale is seen as a necropsy team stands nearby on the peninsula at Long Beach, Wash. When the 3-year-old endangered orca washed ashore in Washington state battered, bloodied and bruised in February of 2012, her death fueled a mystery over what killed her. Two years later, investigators say they don't know for certain what caused blunt force trauma to the animal's head and neck.

The dorsal fin of one orca whale is seen as another swims behind in Puget Sound at sunset as seen from Seattle's West Seattle neighborhood, Oct. 8, 2012.

Howard Garrett of the Orca Network says the whales identified from photos represented all three Puget Sound pods — J, K and L. He says this is the farthest south the orcas were seen in 2012, and it may indicate a shift that typically happens in the fall.