March 11, 2026 — Killer whales in Alaska’s Prince William Sound and Kenai Fjords have a diverse, seasonally changing diet of salmon and groundfish, consumed across regional foraging hotspots, a new study shows.
This population of about 1,000 animals, with a growth rate estimated in 2014 at 3.4 percent, shifts from Chinook, chum, and coho salmon to smaller amounts of Pacific halibut, arrowtooth flounder, and sablefish, depending on where the orcas are hunting. The study was published recently in the journal Ecosphere.
An actual estimate of the number of fish these killer whales eat was not part of this study, said Hannah Myers, an assistant professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, and lead author of the study. Researchers found that the orcas consumed mostly Chinook salmon in one foraging hotspot, mostly chum salmon in another, and mostly coho salmon in the third, Myers said. Pacific halibut, arrowtooth flounder, and sablefish also showed up in fecal samples as important prey items.