We’ve had another beautiful two weeks of weather and wildlife sightings, so here is our recap for April 14th-27th.
Bigg’s killer whales have continued to cruise around our area, and we even had them in Burrows Bay just outside our office right before departure time this past Friday! It doesn’t happen too often, but it is pretty awesome when they show up right in our backyard. Bigg’s groups that we encountered on tours this past week include: the T19s (3), T46Bs (9), T49A2 with his buddy T51 (2), T63 & T65 (2), T65A3 who spent time with the T90s (4) and T167A and B (2), T117A with T117Bs and T172 (4), the T123s (4), and a crazy trio of “mystery” orcas, the T419s (3), for a total of 34 individuals.
While we’re always excited to see whales, two very interesting sightings that prompt some additional contextual details were the T419 trio and T49A2 with T51:
To explain a bit more about these “mystery” T419s: these were the whales that wandered into Burrows Bay just before our departure on Friday April 17th! We had been hoping that they might find themselves in our area because they are not whales that had ever been documented in the Salish Sea prior to this extended “tour” they’ve been on. The trio was first sighted off of Vancouver, BC back in early March. Their dorsal fins and saddle patches were unfamiliar to local naturalists and researchers alike, causing quite the buzz about who they were and where they came from. To add a layer of mystique, they have visible cookie cutter shark bite scars along their saddle patches as well! This indicates that at some point, these whales venture to warmer waters where those sharks can be found–but where, exactly?! Since their first few sightings in March, this trio quickly left Vancouver and made their way into Puget Sound where they spent a few weeks, potentially getting a “lay of the land.” This offered local researchers, land-based whale watchers/enthusiasts, and naturalists the chance to make more observations and collect data. The trio has been seen eating harbor seals and harbor porpoise, synonymous with Bigg’s killer whale diets, and their overall morphology also suggests they are Bigg’s killer whales, but their vocalizations are a bit different. It will be interesting to see what else we might learn as they continue their foray around the Salish Sea! After spending some time around the Anacortes area, they popped back down into Puget Sound, and were last seen departing Admiralty Inlet just a few days ago. An unknown group of 3 which fit their description was seen from the Anacortes Ferry bound for the islands, and then again later that day NW of Lummi Island, but that’s all speculation for now. They’ve had the habit of going undetected for several days and then “appearing” somewhere else, so we might see them again in the near future!
T49A2 “Jude” and T51 “Roswell” are the second notable sighting. This pair of unrelated males have a couple nicknames including “double trouble” and the “Barnes Lake Boys” and for good reason! These two earned their nicknames when several seasons ago the duo found themselves stuck in a saltwater lagoon off the north end of Prince of Wales Island in SE Alaska. They managed to make their way into the lagoon through a shallow entry point covered in a massive kelp bed–thought to be potentially following a harbor seal. That massive kelp bed and narrow channel was likely what prevented them from making a natural “escape.” The tide has to be just right for this area to be passable, especially for full grown adult male T51 to push through. After 3 weeks of their stay, researchers devised a plan to use specific Bigg’s killer whale calls of their known associates to coax them in the direction of the exit at the exact right tide. It took 3 attempts, but third time’s the charm, and as they pushed beyond the kelp bed and channel they were back out in open water–finally free! This sighting of them both in the Salish Sea this past week is the first time we’ve recorded the pair traveling back together again since the incident, and we can’t help but wonder if they still talk about their 6 week stay. T51 is not a common Bigg’s we see around our area, much preferring waters around Alaska and the outer coast, so it was a special treat to spot the big guy. We just hope these two stay out of trouble and continue to live their best “Bigg’s” life.
As far as our baleen whale species go, gray whales are still keeping a steady presence off the NAS Whidbey area, and we have had a couple humpback whale sightings this week, mostly made up of individual MMX0099 “Gretzky” (for Wayne Gretzky, Canadian hockey player and coach that wore the number 99). It’s not uncommon to have humpbacks in the area already, though we’ll see them in greater numbers as summer nears and moms and calves start making their departure from warm-water breeding areas around Hawaii and Mexico.
Occasional sea otter sightings have happened on several of our trips, as well, and are always a delight to spot, as they’re also an uncommon species to the inland Salish Sea.
It’s been a gorgeous, mild spring so far, and we’re excited to see what the next week brings us! Hope to see some of you out there with us!
