Another exciting week with Bigg’s killer whale sightings still reigning supreme amongst our tours! This past week we spent some more time with families T65Bs and the T99s, but each of these families had some temporary traveling partners with them on some of our encounters. The T65Bs traveled with T49A1 “Noah” for a bit, and it was amazing watching T65B1 “Birdsall” rolling around and goofing off with him. When we encounter the T65Bs alone, T65B1’s sprouting fin seems pretty remarkable, but T49A1 really put into perspective just how much more growing T65B1 has to do to reach full size!
The T99s were traveling with T36 and the T36Bs this week; it’s suspected that T36 is the mother of T99, which would mean this was a family reunion of sorts! Young whales T36B1A “Maple” (b. 2025) and T36B4 “Auk” (b. 2022) stole guest’s hearts on occasion with their playful antics. Seeing T99C “Barakat’s” impressive dorsal fin next to little Maple was also a sight to see–his fin may be only slightly shorter than their body is long! At times, Barakat really seemed to enjoy participating in some play with Maple, slapping his large tail flukes at the surface and rolling around while Maple did “zoomies” around him.
The T123s and the T137s reappeared this week as well, after the T137s spent ample time down in the southern reaches of Puget Sound and the T123s had “disappeared” into the Strait of Georgia for a while. As always, T123A “Stanley” and T137A “Jack” get all the “ooohs” and “ahhhs” from guests, and I enjoy indulging everyone in some of the stories about these beloved families.
Last, but certainly not least, we welcomed in the T46Cs–whales that have not been spotted around the central Salish Sea for a few years. They were traveling with the T75Cs the length of their stay, and have since moved out of the Salish Sea again (as far as we know). But, while they were here, we got acquainted with them, as Blue Kingdom crew members had not seen the T46Cs before, with the exception of T46C2 “Sam” who has dispersed and often travels with her cousin T46B1 and T46B1’s two offspring. When the T46Cs were first spotted in the Strait of Juan de Fuca on 6.22, a “new-to-science” calf was with them! As one can imagine, there was a lot of excitement during our encounter and ample social behavior with four young whales under the age of 7 between these two families. We hope it won’t be long before they decide to visit us again!
With all of these family groups over the past 7 days, this brings our Bigg’s killer whale individual count to 38!
We also got to see the infamous “Big Mama” (humpback whale BCY0324) again, and her 2025 calf sure is a spunky little whale! Lots of breaching, tail throws, and high surfacings as they become acquainted with the Salish Sea. Humpback whale “Pepper” was also encountered on a tour in San Juan Channel. It seems like the larger groups of humpback whales are still maintaining a presence out in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, so we hope to continue running trips out that way! We also had some good encounters with feeding Minke whales off of the shelf along Salmon Bank (south of San Juan Island). At least 2-3 individuals seem to be finding ample food in that area, and the birds are helping both them, and us, find these sweet spots!
We’re looking forward to another exciting week on the water–come adventure with us!
