Another weekly recap of wildlife sightings from our tours for the week of May 19th – May 25th is upon us!
As expected, Bigg’s killer whales are still making their way into, and around, the central Salish Sea, which set us up nicely for viewing opportunities with multiple family groups. This past week, guests on our tours spent time with these families: the T19s (3), an interesting mix of the T59/59A family group with only 4 present (they don’t always travel together, so no cause for alarm there), the T60s core family (4), T64Bs (3) who were traveling pretty exclusively with the T65As (and this was a FULL family reunion of six whales for the T65As this week), T69D2 (who was traveling with the T60s briefly), the T100s (3) and T123s (4)–both families which were seen on multiple trips this past week, making for a total of 28 individual Bigg’s.
We are straddling spring and summer where we have a decent overlap in the baleen whale species that are most commonly seen in the Salish Sea. Gray whales have been present around San Juan and Lopez islands, as well as off both shorelines of Whidbey Island. We have seen them in transit to other sightings and have had great conversations about them as a result. Humpback whale BCX1795 “Scuttle” seems to be our token humpback this spring, popping up in different waterways between Victoria, BC and the San Juan Islands, so was seen on multiple tours over the last several weeks. BCz0298 “Split Fin” and BCX1675 “Strike” made appearances this week, as well. It’s been nice to see these familiar flukes returning to feed around the area!
With some lower tides again this past week, the ebb and flood tides have been more dramatic, and we have seen lots of seabird activity, harbor porpoise congregating in some areas as they are feeding, and even located some ochre sea stars and other intertidal critters that are not always visible when the water is higher. We also ran the gamut of almost every season you can experience in the Salish Sea, from calm, cool, sunny days, to chilly, windy, rainy ones. You never know what you might encounter, but adventure is something guaranteed on any trip out on the water!
We’re looking forward to seeing what the next week brings us on the wildlife front! Hope you can join us!
