Here is our weekly recap of whales and wildlife that were encountered during our trips that ran September 14th through September 20th. We’re beginning to cool off quite a bit and have had some exceptionally calm seas and exciting adventures over this last week.
Bigg’s killer whales that we encountered over this last week consisted of the T19 trio, T36s (6) that partnered up and traveled wth T49A1 “Noah” for a little bit, the T60s traveling with T59A4 (5), the T60 Brothers (T60D and T60E), the 65Bs (4), the T123s (4), and finally T137A “Jack,” who was mostly on his own (as far as our trips were concerned). This makes for 26 individuals. The T60 brothers and T65Bs were seen on multiple trips, and the T123s have been putting in the miles between the central Salish Sea and up into the Strait of Georgia.
We had wonderful weather which gave us the ability to head out to an area just SW of Victoria called Race Rock Ecological Area on a few of our trips, and the humpback whale activity out there has been amazing. We’ve had mom/calf pairs, tail-lobbing humpbacks, lunge feeding, and lots of surface time as 8-12 individuals (on average) have been using this area to forage. Of the humpbacks we were able to identify we had: Vega, Pinnacle, Hammer, Exclamation, Zillion and her 2026 calf, CRC-19569 (no nickname yet), and several others that were too busy feeding to be doing those deep dives that expose their tail flukes for identification. Race Rocks is such a magical area in and of itself–lots of bird activity, feeding humpbacks, noisy California and Steller sea lions–we absolutely love getting to introduce guests to this special place.
A late, possibly “over-summering” gray whale was spotted on a tour on 9.20 down near Hat Island, Possession Sound, and turned out to be none other than CRC53 “Little Patch.” This individual was actively feeding on his side, showcasing the shallow, risky feeding techniques they’ve learned to use as they scoop up ghost shrimp out of the mucky bottom in certain locations found around Saratoga Passage. I’m not sure if we’ve ever had a gray whale on tour in September before, so a notable sighting, for sure.
The inner-island sea otter has been around, though not as reliably over the last week. It’s possible this individual has found multiple areas to feed, and we’ve just missed him when we cruise by. But, as a very rare visitor for our area of the Salish Sea, we’ve been delighted when we can find him and are always on the look out.
As always, we look forward to seeing what next week has to offer us!
