They were headed East and taking their time cruising along. A couple of whale watching boats with tourists was viewing them but giving the precious whales plenty of open space. I wanted to be sure to report it to you! Steady northbound at Borgman Road. A couple hundred yards off Whidbey shore steady southbound. I had to race in my car to the other side, but still managed to get a few photos.
Currently stalled, had been southbound. They were in the distance so hard to see how many. At that afternoon I spotted them again along the North shore of Whidbey Island by the old ferry terminal. A sailboat was watching them. This time I counted it seem to be at least five. With a juvenile or two. They had it out past Deception Pass where I can no longer see them around the corner of Yokeko point. They were heading to the pass for dinner I'm sure!
I'm sure the sighting has been reported and they were so distant I wasn't able to make any possible identifications. But it was still lots of fun! Watching them feed the North Shore of Whidbey was really fun even from across the bay. Very vigorous and keeping up with the adults. They stopped to do a little fishing before heading down the east side of Whidbey. They said there was only one dolphin, it had a fin, and looked like the dolphins they saw in Tampa.
Hales Passage, not Gig. They're from out of town. Additional info: [Moving] southeast.
Toward Point Fosdick. When I asked my dad about its behavior, he said it was swimming at a leisurely pace and looked almost as if it were looking for fish. Then another group swam in the Strait of Georgia heading into the sunset toward Saturna Island and the US side at pm. When they reached Cattle Point , they made a sharp turn and continued to Hein Bank. At first they seemed out of range for us so we skirted Salmon Bank looking for minke whales. We later realized that the orcas had stopped near the Hein Bank marker and were just hanging out for the last hour.
We decided to step on it with the hopes to see them. Unfortunately, as we got closer, they decided to begin travel again at about 6 knots westbound in the opposite direction eventually crossing the border. We came about and decided to head back in towards Lopez Island. Another report came in from the Ferry who spotted orcas near Thatcher Pass.
A whale watch boat was in the area and found them southbound along the Lopez coastline. It turned out to be the T18's and they were moving fast in our direction. We continued our course crossing over McAurthur Bank scanning for minkes, but instead found loads of diving birds. As we neared Colville Island, we spotted the blows and tall fins of the two big males.
The family of four orcas were traveling together at first but soon separated traveling parallel to each other as they moved westbound. After some nice looks we decided it was time to start making our way back to the barn. At around PM the T18s were heading west as well. The T65Bs were coming back East they had gone further west in the strait. They were both on a heading and speed to meet very soon after. The matriarchal nature of their culture was fully on display as the big boys T19B and T19C spent time in close proximity with their mother and grandmother.
One son would go with Mom and the other with Grandma and after a bit they would switch up. The size of the dorsal fins on these guys is awe-inspiring, made all the more interesting by the left-leaning tendency and thickness of T19B's giant fin. They zigzagged in a northwesterly fashion, which was ironically on a heading in which the T65B's were coming from the opposite direction.
We know these two family units have been meeting up over the past week in the San Juan Islands - are these pre-planned meet-ups? All photos taken with mm lens and cropped. This would have been at PM Tuesday. This guy with huge leaning dorsal is T19B.
Historical Data
The lateral dark scratch on his saddle patch is relatively new. They crossed in front of our bow, heading east and went on a mostly underwater hunt. Matriarch T65B, Chunk b.
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Gray came up from the happy meal mudflats to the south of us about 10am right around high tide, 9' , feeding and showing off, and slowly worked its way right up to our house southern tip of Mariners Cove. After more feeding and fin-waving, it surprised me and turned around and went back to the mudflats, fed for a good half hour, and then came back up here to our house once again!
It was still feeding as it moved along, but not as much as the first pass. So awesome - just me and Gray, no boats or nothin'. By around am, a bunch of crossing boat traffic started showing up, so Gray dove down and headed out into the channel toward northern tip of Camano, where I finally lost sight of it in the smoky haze.
Also, my neighbor says he saw it here at Mariners Cove at am. We found a very curious Minke whale in the Strait of Juan de Fuca that circled the boat to check us out. No photos. Photos of three members of the group are included. It came cruising by moderately close to shore at ish here at Mariners Cove , so about minutes later each day. It stopped at our flagpole for a minute to wave, but then continued on to the happy meal mudflats just south of us. It appeared to feed a little bit, but rather than continue south toward Polnell, it turned toward Camano and did an impressive sprint toward Utsalady.
It's so amazing to watch it do the big back arch, followed by that huge tail flip - just wow. Didn't see close enough for ID but likely No ID yet. Far out, they were northbound. As I watched the TBs the Ts appeared close in moving north.
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I noted that TB "Galiano" had a new scratch on his saddle patch since last I saw him on This is a lovely family, the males massive next to the females. I'm wondering about the T18s as it looked like at least two big males and one definitely had a "floppy" fin. It was about am on September 6th, and I heard the T18s were in the Juan de Fuca strait a couple of days later.
I'll do some more looking around and confirm. Prelim is based on the 3 males I'd guess they are off False Bay or south now. Good night.
Possible direction change as Kellett tides reverse As all 3 pods gathered , 73 individuals traveled leisurely north, some spread out and some in groups. They socialized while milling back and forth; some moving north past Edwards Point. Twice I heard vocalizations as they called to friends and family at the surface. Many floated on their backs or drifted upright. Sea snakes were displayed for companions.
Language selection
Gentle stretching spyhops and a few tail lobs were observed. After sunset at they changed direction and moved with purpose to the south. There was celebration in the air. It was communicated all along the shore inviting all watchers to join in. Photographed from shore. We left the group and headed about a quarter mile northeast of the other whales to where the J35s were.
J35 had indeed had her calf! It had not been there on the morning of September 3rd. Its' dorsal fin was not flopped over so the calf was probably born somewhere between the evenings of the 3rd and 4th. J35, the new calf J57, and J47 were non-directional and made a big circle before slipping back over the Canadian border.
We decided to give them some peace and quiet and went to find other whales. Mark decided to turn and head for the trailing main concentration of K's and L's, which were now slightly southwest of Race Rocks still spread out and moving slowly east. He started the encounter at when he came across K21 eastbound leading the procession 1nm south of Race Rocks 48 There were a few groups that were quite animated and were generally pointed northeast towards Constance Bank.