After the Breach Podcast

Jeff Friedman and Sara Shimazu
  • 5.0 (52)
  • NATURE
  • UPDATED BIWEEKLY
After the Breach Podcast

A podcast for whale enthusiasts by whale enthusiasts. Join professional guides and whale watch captains Jeff Friedman and Sara Shimazu as they share their passion and love for whales, bringing you personal stories of recent whale sightings and encounters, research, news and interviews.

  1. Episode 39 - Trip Report, Humpbacks of the Silver Bank

    MAR 18

    Episode 39 - Trip Report, Humpbacks of the Silver Bank

    Sara, Jeff and a group of After the Breach Podcast listeners just returned from the Dominican Republic where they spent a week with North Atlantic humpback whales in their winter breeding waters on the Silver Bank. The plan was to record this episode from the Silver Bank, but everyone was having so much fun (and there were some technical difficulties), so it had to be recorded after Sara and Jeff returned home to Friday Harbor, Washington. Joining Jeff and Sara to recount some of the highlights are two members of the Maya’s Legacy Whale Watching crew, who also joined the charter to the Silver Bank. Alex McIntire and Mikayla Riley both had their first in-water experience with whales and have a chance to share the memories of their first swim—and also all of the other memorable encounters they had that week. It was an incredible week that had a lot of in water encounters with moms and young calves, including TW and her calf ("Floppy Disco"). Jeff also swam with TW on the Silver Bank in 2023. The entire group also had a rare and coveted encounter with dancers, which are acrobatic, curious humpbacks. Check out some of the videos on the Episode 39 page or on our YouTube channel. A huge shout out to the amazing team at Conscious Breath Adventures—Gene, Cat, and Jeff—and to the hardworking crew of the Sea Hunter. They all make the live aboard and humpback encounters a life changing experience. And special thanks to the amazing humpback whale TW and her 2025 calf. We are wishing them an easy and successful migration north this spring.Jeff and Sara will have more information soon on upcoming trips, both near and far. In the meantime, if you’d like to join them for some After the Breach fun, they’re hosting two separate weekends in 2025 in the San Juan Islands that each include two full days on the water looking for whales and wildlife in the Salish Sea. The first is on May 17-18th. The second is September 20-21st. Reach out to at afterthebreachpodcast@gmail.com to learn more and to sign up for one or both weekends! If you are enjoying listening to our podcast, please share this with your friends, follow/subscribe, and leave us feedback/reviews wherever you listen to podcasts! And if you’d like to join Jeff and Sara on a trip then reach out to Maya’s Legacy Whale Watching to book!  You can also find us on Instagram, Facebook and Youtube. Please send us feedback or questions at afterthebreachpodcast@gmail.com. And remember, stay safe out there.   Links from this episode: Conscious Breath Adventures: https://www.consciousbreathadventures.com/ Photos & Videos from this episode:   Humpback whale TW, named for the marking on her left pec fin.   This was the start of humpback whale Mojo's dancing over several minutes. She continued dancing on and off for about an hour.    Humpback whale TW and her 2025 calf, Floppy Disco, who approached several times to get a closer look.

    50 min
  2. Episode 38 - Killer Whales of Bremer Canyon, 2025 Update

    FEB 21

    Episode 38 - Killer Whales of Bremer Canyon, 2025 Update

    On this episode of After the Breach, Jeff is reunited with Sara after she returns from Bremer Bay, Western Australia. The two of them get down into the details of what she encountered while out on the water with Naturaliste Charters. This time Sara spent almost two months down there and started out on the water earlier than ever before. They weren’t sure what they were going to find starting in mid-December but the whales were there waiting for them when they arrived to the Hotspot the very first time. Aside from some amazing bird sightings Sara saw a brand new calf, many different groups of killer whales, and talks a little bit about the data she’s collecting and what they might use it for in the future. Sara and Jeff are now out on the Silver Bank with the North Atlantic humpback whales so stay tuned for a recap from the Silver Bank on the next episode! For more information and stories about the Bremer Canyon killer whales, you can listen to some of our previous episodes: episode 21, episode 22, and episode 23. If you are enjoying listening to our podcast, please share this with your friends, follow/subscribe, and leave us feedback/reviews wherever you listen to podcasts! And if you’d like to join Jeff and Sara on a trip then reach out to Maya’s Legacy Whale Watching to book!  You can also find us on Instagram, Facebook and Youtube. Please send us feedback or questions at afterthebreachpodcast@gmail.com.   Links from this episode: Naturaliste Charters: https://naturalistecharters.com.au/   Photos from this episode:  Photos by Sara Shimazu

    42 min

  3. FEB 8

    Episode 37 - Calf Mortality & Reproductive Rates in Salish Sea Killer Whales

    On Episode 37 of the podcast, co-hosts, Jeff and Sara, welcome back returning guests Monika Wieland Shields of the Orca Behavior Institute and Michael Weiss of the Center for Whale Research. With two very different populations of killer whales using the waters of the Salish Sea they wanted to delve deeper into the calf survival rates of the two populations. Are they the same? Are they different? Jeff and Sara chat with these two researchers about that.    This comes after the loss of calf L128 who was born to L90 “Ballena” this summer. The four talk about her, why this was a unique situation, and really take a look at the reproductive success of a food-limited population versus one that is not food-limited.   They also chat about the joint field study between Center for Whale Research and Orca Behavior Institute in Puget Sound that kicked off this November. It’s an exciting project and we learn more about it and what they learned from their first sessions down in Puget Sound.   Links from this episode: Center for Whale Research: https://www.whaleresearch.com/ Orca Behavior Institute: https://www.orcabehaviorinstitute.org/

    49 min

  4. JAN 3

    Episode 36 - 2024 Whale Sightings Recap

    Frequent guest Monika Wieland Shields, co-founder and director of the Orca Behavior Institute, joins hosts Sara and Jeff for a recap of 2024 whale sightings, trends and observations. What stood out most is that there were a lot of whales in the Salish Sea in 2024. The episode covers the sightings trends for Southern Resident killer whales, Bigg's killer whales and humpbacks. We talk about numbers from tours with Maya's Legacy Whale Watching as well as the broader numbers collected by Orca Behavior Institute.  Monika, Sara and Jeff also share their predictions for 2025, and as usual, weave in and out of other whale topics along the way.  If you are enjoying listening to our podcast, please share this with your friends, follow/subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts, and leave us feedback/reviews! You can also find us on Instagram, Facebook and Youtube. Please send us feedback or questions at afterthebreachpodcast@gmail.com.   Links from this episode: Orca Behavior Institute: https://www.orcabehaviorinstitute.org/ Maya's Legacy Whale Watching: https://sanjuanislandwhalewatch.com/

    46 min
  5. Episode 35 - Alexandra Morton: From Whales to Salmon and Back Again

    12/16/2024

    Episode 35 - Alexandra Morton: From Whales to Salmon and Back Again

    Joining us on episode 35 of After the Breach podcast is special guest Alexandra Morton. She has been called "the Jane Goodall of Canada" because of her incredible thirty-year fight to save British Columbia's wild salmon. She joins hosts Sara and Jeff to talk about her journey from whale researcher to wild salmon activist and back to whale researcher. The episode begins with Alexandra talking about how she got started studying orca communication in California with killer whales Corky and Orky, sharing some fascinating stories from her time with them. She then discusses her move to British Columbia to study wild killer whales, including Corky's family. The conversation moves on to why she turned her attention to lead the fight to save the wild salmon these orcas depend on from the devastating impacts of open net fish farms and industrial aquaculture. Throughout the conversation she shares the challenges she faced, how she found a path to create change and begin the removal of open net salmon farms in B.C. She also shares a few ways people everywhere can help save wild salmon.  We conclude our conversation talking about what is next for her, including a return to her passion for studying killer whales. She tells amazing stories throughout the episode.   Links mentioned in this episode: Alexandra Morton: https://www.alexandramorton.ca/ Books by Alexandra Morton: Not on My Watch:How a renegade whale biologist took on governments and industry to save wild salmon:  https://www.amazon.com/Not-My-Watch-biologist-governments/dp/0735279667 Listening to Whales: What the Orcas Have Taught Us:  https://www.amazon.com/Listening-Whales-What-Orcas-Taught/dp/0345442881 Orcalab: https://orcalab.org/

    1h 5m

  6. 11/27/2024

    Episode 34 - The Legacy of Captain Jim Maya

    Episode 34 brings to the podcast a long overdue and special guest, the legendary Captain Jim Maya, to tell his stories, talk about his whale watching experience on the Salish Sea dating back to 1996, and the legacy he has created.  Captain Jim is an epic story teller, teacher, whale and wildlife enthusiast, and the ultimate connector. He has connected people around the world with whales, wildlife and sense of place found in the Salish Sea, including Jeff and Sara and many of the Maya's Legacy Whale Watching team.  Episode 34 begins by discussing these connections and moves on with Jim talking about making his big life change from being a high school teacher in California to starting a whale watch company in Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. He talks about what is was like on the water when he first started, back in the day when superpods of Southern Resident killer whales were commonly seen all spring and summer and the changes that have taken place since his early days. Jim weaves in some of his great stories throughout the episode.   Links from this episode: Maya's Images: https://mayasimages.com/ Maya's Legacy Whale Watching: https://sanjuanislandwhalewatch.com/   Photos from this episode:

    50 min
  7. Episode 33 - Killer Whale Rescues: T46C2, T73B & T109A3A

    11/12/2024

    Episode 33 - Killer Whale Rescues: T46C2, T73B & T109A3A

    After a fall hiatus while our co-hosts, Jeff and Sara, were busy on the water, the dynamic duo is back with Episode 33! Joining them is returning guest, Jared Towers, from Bay Cetology. Jared last visited to chat about the rescue of T51 “Roswell” and T49A2 “Jude” from Barnes Lake in Alaska on Episode 19 and he is back now to talk about more killer whale rescues that he’s been involved with. The three of them start out talking about T46C2 “Sam” and her entrapment in a bay on Aristazabal Island in British Columbia. The then-four year old was surreptitiously found by two killer whale researchers who were able to rally a response that included Jared. He talks about that rescue, what they did, and what they learned from it. That feeds into the story of T73B who stayed in Comox Harbor in 2018 for a week. Unlike Sam’s story, T73B was an independent male and Comox Harbor was a very busy harbor and it was the busiest time of year—midsummer! The response had similarities but also a lot of differences to the previous one. And last, but certainly not least, Jared talks about the rescue of T109A3A “Kʷiisaḥiʔis” (aka. Brave Little Hunter) from Zeballos, BC. this spring after her mother stranded and drowned. The ongoing rescue, which took about a month, was complicated, extensive, and really highlighted that what these rescues all share is that in the end, the whales involved are the ones calling the shots. The story of T109A3A is ongoing, with some confirmed sightings of her afterwards and we will all have to wait and see what happens in the future. If you are enjoying listening to our podcast, please share this with your friends, follow/subscribe, and leave us feedback/reviews wherever you listen to podcasts! And if you’d like to join Jeff and Sara on a trip then reach out to Maya’s Legacy Whale Watching to book!  You can also find us on Instagram, Facebook and Youtube. Please send us feedback or questions at afterthebreachpodcast@gmail.com.   Links from this episode: Bay Cetology: https://baycetology.org/ Bay Cetology Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/baycetology Killer whale observed dragging sailboat around Vancouver Island Harbor: https://youtu.be/zLMvUOq7Bms?si=jJBp91pYxFO6x-He

    1h 19m

  8. 08/20/2024

    Episode 32 - Demystifying Killer Whales Part 2

    Join your hosts, Jeff Friedman and Sara Shimazu, along with returning guests Monika Wieland Shields from the Orca Behavior Institute and Michael Weiss from the Center for Whale Research as they dive back into demystifying killer whales. The topics range from T109A3A’s saga to Iberian orcas to Southern Resident killer whales being doofuses (per Michael) to T65A5 being a sexual genius (per Jeff). The conversation winds its way down some rabbit holes but touches on more topics that people brought up as feedback from part one as well as from the minds of four exhausted whale people during this late night conversation. We hope you enjoy!

    1h 2m
See All (39)

5
out of 5
52 Ratings

About

A podcast for whale enthusiasts by whale enthusiasts. Join professional guides and whale watch captains Jeff Friedman and Sara Shimazu as they share their passion and love for whales, bringing you personal stories of recent whale sightings and encounters, research, news and interviews.

Information

  • Creator
    Jeff Friedman and Sara Shimazu
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2025
  • Episodes
    39
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2022 All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    After the Breach Podcast

You Might Also Like

To listen to explicit episodes, sign in.

Stay up to date with this show

Sign in or sign up to follow shows, save episodes, and get the latest updates.
Select a country or region

Africa, Middle East, and India

Asia Pacific

Europe

Latin America and the Caribbean

The United States and Canada