Posts Tagged ‘Transient Orcas’

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Victori-ous!

Monday, August 29th, 2011

Today we traveled all the way to Victoria to see one lone transient.  He was magnificent.  It was a long haul but when we arrived he appeared to be patrolling up and down the rocks.  He has one of the broadest dorsal fins I have ever seen.

The word on the street was that he had been harassing a sea lion prior to our arrival.  When we got there he was just cruising, back and forth along the rocks, occasionally rolling slightly on his side as if he was looking up toward the rocks to see what was on the lunch menu.  It was pretty cool.  After a bit of whale watching we began the long journey home.  Thanks to a ripping 5-6knot tidal flood, we made it there in record time.  We stopped for a group of Steller’s Seal Lions hauled out on whale rocks and in the water below.  On the way home the clouds parted and gave way to sun and flat water.  Seals were lounging.  Porpoises were frolicking.  Fantastic.

Laura, San Juan Safaris

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Rainy day doesn’t keep the whales away

Monday, August 22nd, 2011

It wasn’t exactly the nicest day on San Juan Island, but having it rain did not prevent us from going out and seeing the wildlife the Salish Sea has to offer. We first saw a bald eagle perched in a dead looking tree. Then, we saw some whales I haven’t seen for over two months…transients! There were four of them, traveling very quickly, their dorsal fins waving in front of us. It was the T-19 group, and I love seeing the transients because they are really the coolest, top predator of the sea! After spending time with them we headed back to Friday Harbor, taking a scenic route around Orcas Island. Through this area we spotted another bald eagle, as well as a blue heron, some harbor seals, and a few harbor porpoises. This rainy day definitely did not keep any of the wild life away.

Kristen, Naturalist, San Juan Safaris

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Newest Addition to Southern Resident Community

Monday, July 18th, 2011

We started seeing the dorsal fins of K pod after exiting the Speiden Channel and spotted Deadhead (K-27) with her new son (K-44). The boy is her first offspring and he will remain unnamed until after he has survived a winter and is officially considered part of the pod. Researchers do this because of the alarming fact that only around half of the calves survive the first year of life. The first-born calf has an even lower survival rate which is believed to be partially due to the large amount of toxins they receive through the milk. The organic toxin Polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) is extremely concentrated in the orcas of the Salish Sea with the transients having the highest levels recorded in any marine mammal. PCBs are soluble in fats so they are found in high doses in the fat-rich milk of mothers. A female unloads a huge portion of the toxins she accumulated throughout her life onto her first child, with subsequent calves receiving much less of the chemicals. With hopeful thoughts of this little ones future, we watched him lobtail next to the cliffs and lighthouse of Stuart Island while the sun warmed the scene.

Kirsten, naturalist

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Salmon buffet

Thursday, June 30th, 2011

Today we left the harbor and went up over Lopez and out into Rosario Straight.  We were nearly to Anacortes, just outside of Burrows Bay, when we saw a massive dorsal fin slice through the water.  There were a couple of smaller fins in the vicinity and as we drew closer there was a huge explosion of water as an orca breached clear and landed on its side.  Another breach followed shortly after and we noticed that there were whales very close to the rock.  They were moving fast, changing direction a lot and finally our suspicions were confirmed when one of the whales surfaced, on its back, with a salmon in its mouth.  We were able to identify Blackberry of J pod and Onyx (L-87).  The whales gradually moved around the corner, deeper into the bay.  We followed L-87 all by himself to the south and then rounded the corner to meet up with the whales in the bay.  There were spyhops and then more spyhops, a few breaches, and lots of tail slapping.  One younger individual swam on its back and tail slapped for a good 5 minutes straight.  We prepared to leave 3 or 4 times but couldn’t tear ourselves away from the activity.  It was the largest display of surface behavior I have seen all season.

Finally it was time to go, but only after we stopped to see a pair of Peregrine Falcons sitting in a dead tree.  We saw eagles and hawks as well on our way home.

It was a nice little Thursday.

Laura, Naturalist, San Juan Safaris

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Choices

Friday, June 17th, 2011

Today we got spoiled: we had a choice between two transient killer whale pods!  The first group was called in as located off Sidney Island on the Canadian side of the Haro straight.  We left the harbor with these whales in mind but then we got another call; a second pod was seen between Saturna and South Pender Islands.

Once we caught up with this second group, we found that there were three animals in the pod: one male, one female and one calf.  Even with lots of helpful eyes on the water, references to our transient catalog and chats with other vessels, we were not able to positively identify this pod.  They showed some splashing and direction changes and then began heading west along South Pender Island.

On our venture back to US waters and Friday Harbor, we saw a few perched bald eagles and many plump harbor seals at John’s Pass.  Watch out, seals, the transients are near and roughly two-thirds of their diet is YOU!

Serena, Naturalist

San Juan Islands

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Transients at Sucia

Thursday, June 16th, 2011

Today we left the harbor and headed north toward Sucia Island.  Once there we spotted a small pod of transients.  There were 3.  One female, one male, and one calf.  They were taking long dives with a few breaths at their surface intervals before they dove again.  They were  cruising along, with one quick stop that I thought might have been a hunting opportunity, but after a brief spyhop from the big male they continued along their merry way.  When we first saw them they were on the east side of the island.  When we left them it looked as though they were about to complete their circumnavigation as they turned the corner and headed up the west side.

We peeled away and turned back toward the harbor.  We stopped to view some harbor seals and a bald eagle and then stopped to watch a group of harbor porpoise cruising at top speed and porpoising at the surface (ironically right outside of the harbor).

Laura, naturalist

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Transients in the evening

Wednesday, June 15th, 2011

My favorite trip of the year so far.

Flat, calm, no wind, beautiful lighting, and thanks to the hockey game we were the only boat sitting off of Sidney Island with a pod of 5 transient orcas.  There was one big male, one calf, one other juvenile and a couple of larger adults (at least one was a mom).  They were swimming south, taking five minute dives, with long surface intervals when their behavior changed drastically.  They dove and then surfaced inshore of where they were, disrupting a noisy, congregating group of birds.  They milled at the surface for a few minutes and then turned and went back past us to where they originally were and proceeded to spend the next 40 minutes or so just milling. There was lots of rolling around at the surface, diving sideways, and at one point one of the adult females lifted the calf out of the water on her nose.

We watched, stunned, with the engines off as the pod swam in circles, brushing up against one another, porpoising and rolling.  Then two of the whales split away from the circle and things got a little bit strange.  It was as if someone had just sped up the merry-go-round.  The circling behavior continued, but more aggressively, with splashing, and speedy dives.  Finally I figured out what was going on.  A little harbor seal surfaced in the midst of the chaos.  I was expecting a quick kill followed by a pool of blood, but instead the whales continued to circle the poor little seal for the next 10 minutes.  He frantically looked up, then down, then back up as the whales continued to toy with him.  The calf was apparently getting a little hunting lesson as he mimicked the adults behaviors to the tee.

Finally we had to break away and head for home.  It was tough to leave and we continued to watch for as long as we could as we pulled away.  We saw the little guy breach and then they were out of sight.  It was a beautiful evening with amazing whales.

Laura, naturalist

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Transients Galore

Wednesday, June 15th, 2011

The M/V Sea lion departed Friday Harbor with reports of Transient Orcas coming from Thatcher Pass.  We motored past Yellow Island and stopped to check out some harbor seals hauled out on the rocks.  After that we headed towards Green Point on Spieden Island and noticed some blows on the north side of the island.  They turned out to be the Transients we had been looking for.  Accordingly to some other boats in the area they had just made a kill, but it was hard for us to tell if they were feeding on anything or not.  Eventually they were identified as the T65′s.  After watching the group mill for about 25 minutes we decided to circumnavigate Spieden and ended up finding numerous Bald Eagles and some more harbor seals.  On the way along the north side we encountered the same group of T’s and spent a few more minutes watching.  They hadn’t made much progress since we found them last, and they were changing directions quite frequently.  We shut the engines down and watched as they made a direction change and increased behavior.  We saw one of the younger animals breach about 200 yards from the boat!  Most of the passengers got a really good look at this behavior!  After a few more minutes we let the whales pass us by and we turned toward the harbor.  It was an excellent change of pace to see Transients back around San Juan Island!

 

Mike

Naturalist – San Juan Safaris

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A harbor seal meal for many

Tuesday, May 31st, 2011

Wildlife galore today!  We departed Friday Harbor with a northbound heading: towards the sunshine.  We had quite a pleasant ride up into the waters of Canada, with a few gray harbor porpoises traveling with us and a silver harbor seal peering at us from the ocean.

Off in the distance, we spotted five vessels off Saltspring Island, Canada.  They appeared to be observing some transient killer whales.  As our boat–the Sea Lion–got closer, we were able to identify a large male orca with a hooked or oddly notched dorsal fin.  He was later identified as T87.  Other vessels identified his companions as “the T90s,” which would be T90 and a calf from 2005, T90B.  We did notice a calf with the group of five and thought that because of its small size it may be a calf younger than T90B.  The pod continued to zigzag around the boats and, at times, under the boats appearing on the other side of us after four to five minute down times.

Due to our distance covered, we had a long journey (with more wildlife to see) to get back to the harbor.  Along the way, we stopped off to see “transient orca food.”  Off Spieden island, we encountered about ten harbor seals, half of which were hauled out of the water on the rocks with the other half in the water each curled up in a U-shape trying to get their heads and fins out of the water to warm up.

Word from another vessel told us that close by there was a dead harbor seal with Bald Eagles foraging on its carcass.  Off we went!  Not too far from the live safe warming seals, we found the dead one.  At least four eagles were spotted in the trees and one bald eagle was at the carcass ripping shreds of meat off it!  No dead sea creature is wasted out here.

Along our final approach to Friday Harbor, we saw two more harbor porpoises and even in the harbor by our slip we saw another harbor seal.  Yup, another piece of potential transient orca food, but this one safely swimming about the harbor, foraging for its own meal.

Serena, Naturalist

San Juan Safaris

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Feasting Transients find Stellar Sea Lions

Saturday, May 28th, 2011

Today was the first day of Memorial Day Weekend and we celebrated it by nearly filling both of our vessels, the Sea Lion and the Kittiwake, for an afternoon whale watch.  Throughout the day, the weather went from gray clouds and overcast to nice white fluffy clouds and sunshine.  We boarded the boats and left Friday Harbor heading north towards the Canadian border.  After an hour of solid travel, several sea birds, numerous islands and a swimming harbor seal, we edged up to East point off Saturna Island.  And there they were: a pod of transient orcas!

As we approached the area, we heard through the vessel radio grapevine that the pod may have made a recent Stellar sea lion kill.  When we got to the scene, the whales were zig-zagging and milling about; no obvious foraging activity was seen.  While observing the pod, we noticed a very large adult male dorsal fin that had significant lean to the left and was very curved for a male.  The other individuals in the pod appeared to be females and juveniles.  Later, another vessel identified one of the orcas as T18.

After ten minutes or so, the pod started traveling faster towards the south, moving more erratically and then thrashing about.  The hunt was on!  And it looked like another Stellar sea lion was the target.  We saw the pod of four orcas thrashing about, throwing their bloody red tasty morsel in the air.  At one point, it looked like the sea lion had gotten away and it made some headway with about forty feet of distance from the whales.  But then the transients caught up to their meal and continued thrashing and tossing it around.  Eventually, the male and a second orca split off from the other two, leaving the latter to contend with the sea lion.  Time was running out for our whale watch and we began making our way back to Friday Harbor.

All in all, quite an exciting day.  Seeing transient orca whales feed is never a boring event, especially with the thrashing, breaching and tossing of a bleeding sea lion in the air!

Serena, Naturalist

San Juan Safaris

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