Many of the orca sightings we’ve shared here in recent months have started with a tip from Jeff Hogan. We often identify him as an “orca expert” for brevity’s sake – but here’s the long version: What he’s best known for is the environmental-education program Killer Whale Tales. Over the past decade, thousands of local students have seen Killer Whale Tales presentations, and the number grew this week with two more in West Seattle – Lafayette Elementary on Monday, and Sanislo Elementary on Tuesday, where we stopped in. We talked with Jeff before the presentation, and he explained what he was going to talk about – as well as the story behind one of his most popular audio/visual aids:

The program is explained further on the Killer Whale Tales website. When not in the classroom, Jeff is often in the field observing and photographing whales – not just orcas; before this week, we last encountered him one month ago today at Arroyo Beach, when he was first to tell us about the death of the gray whale that stranded there (see the video interview in our report from the scene that afternoon).