This week’s whale sightings, from June 9th through June 14th, were definitely dominated by the Bigg’s killer whales! During the last seven days, guests spent quality time with many different family groups in this community: the T34 & T37 matrilines, two members of the T38s, the T46Bs, T60s, T65As, T73As, T75Bs and the T123s – roughly 39 different individuals spread across these tours.
It’s harder to pick a favorite encounter from this past week (which is a great problem to have!)–we seemed to have found a lot of hungry orcas and they were often fully displaying their prowess and finesse as apex predators on quite a few of our visits.
The Hungry Highlights: The T75Bs were traveling just offshore of the south end of San Juan Island when their behavior suddenly changed. Some thrashing and quick, erratic surfaces led me to believe it was possible they had come across potential prey. I caught a quick glimpse of a harbor seal in with the whales. Without the assistance of my camera, we may not have known exactly what they caught. RIP to the little harbor seal, but the stealth and quickness this family group displayed when snagging their meal was astounding, it appeared so effortless. We witnessed some celebratory rolling and tail slapping post hunt, along with “moonwalking” behavior from T75B2! “Moonwalking” –surfacing backwards– happens when Bigg’s killer whales have made a kill and are lining themselves up nose to nose to share the prey with another orca. They do not have flat teeth in order to chew their food, so ripping their prey into small enough pieces to swallow is their goal. This is easier when you have other individuals to help “process” the prey. The T75Bs made quick work of their meal and continued on, possibly looking for their next.
Hungry Highlights Part II: The T34s and T37s were fighting an ebb tide near Lagoon Point in Admiralty Inlet for quite some time before T34B “Sonder” began porpoising ahead of her group, making higher leaps every so many surfacings. At first, I was unsure if she had just grown tired of fighting the current and wanted to make some progress, or if this was the start of a hunt, but she made her intentions fully apparent when doubling back with the same behavior. It wasn’t long before the rest of her family moved in–and so did a mass of gulls, plucking scraps at the surface. As if some of her graceful leaps weren’t enough to witness during this encounter, we actually got to see the porpoise’s lungs floating at the surface. The skill and precision that they exhibit when removing what they’ll eat and leaving the rest is another thing that just absolutely blows my mind. I wasn’t sure if guests would be grossed out, but mostly everyone was interested and surprised at just how pristine and intact the lungs were.
These behaviors and quick glimpses of their lives allow guests to connect more with orcas day-to-day movements, hunting tactics, and caloric needs, but also make for great fodder, questions, and other stories I get to share while onboard.
As always, we’ve cherished these amazing and can’t wait to see what this next week will bring us!
