Lauren | M/V Sea Lion | April, 5 2025 | 12:30 pm
The spring equinox is always welcomed here in the Pacific Northwest. The long winter nights spent dreaming of daylight, warmer days and clearer skies are suddenly behind us. This year, the equinox brought us something even dreamier than a season change, it brought us a baby whale. On March 20th, 2025 the T046B’s were seen travelling in eastern Juan de Fuca Strait with a new calf in tow. In every encounter, the calf was seen surfacing in the slipstream of T046B3/Sedna. At 14-years-old, this is T046B3/Sedna’s first known calf.
On April, 5th my passengers and I got the chance to meet little T046B3A in San Juan Channel. Our Classic Whale Watch & Wildlife tour left the dock and immediately got word that the T046B’s had been sighted near Cattle Pass. So south we went. We caught up with the T046B’s off the southeastern coast of Lopez Island. It seemed like Sedna and baby were having some mommy and me time. When we first got on scene the new duo were traveling several hundred yards away from the rest of the family. We watched as little T046B3A surfaced right next to mom. This little tyke is thought to be less than a month old, as they are still sporting their fetal folds. Fetal folds are creases in the calf’s skin that are formed from being all scrunched up inside its mother’s womb. We observed these two whales as they slowly made their way over to the rest of the family. In total there were 8 killer whales present, 3 of which were all under the age of two.
The T046B’s are made up of:
T046B/Raksha — female, born in 1988
- T046B1/Tread — female, born in 2003
- T046B1A/Tsakani — female, born in 2015
- T046B1C — born in 2022
- T046B2/Akela — female, born in 2008
- T046B2B — born in 2023
- T046B3/Sedna — female, born in 2011
- T046B3A — born in 2025
- T046B4/Quiver — male, born in 2014
- T046B6/Sol — female, born in 2019
- T046B7 — born in 2023
The T046B1’s were not seen travelling with the family today. Often when females have 2 or 3 offspring of their own, they break off and start traveling as their own matriline.
We left the T046B’s and headed to Speiden Island to take a look at some Mouflon Sheep, Bald Eagles and Steller Sea Lions. We cruised back down San Juan Channel and got one last glimpse of the whales, as they were passing right by Friday Harbor. Goodbye winter blues, hello Bigg baby!