FRIDAY HARBOR -- A whale research organization says a sighting of some of Puget Sound's endangered resident killer whale population off the California coast near San Francisco shows that the fish these whales eat are dwindling and that they're traveling to California waters to find food.

The Center for Whale Research acquired photos of the whales from a San Francisco-based photographer, spokesman Kelley Balcomb-Bartok said.

The photographer said she saw about nine orcas, but the research center could identify only two -- a female known to researchers as K20 and her 3-year-old offspring, K38.

The whales are members of K-pod, part of Puget Sound's southern resident killer whale population, Balcomb-Bartok said.