Lauren | M/V Kestrel | August 25th, 2024 | 2:00 pm
The morning fog had cleared, and we had firm whale reports in the region. We couldn’t ask for a more promising start to our 2:00 pm Kestrel tour. We left the dock and headed north in San Juan Channel. The original plan was to catch up with the Bigg’s Killer Whale family the T075B’s. While on transit to T075B/Pebbles and the gang, we got a report of a group of killer whales near Eastpoint. Curiosity got the best of Captain Eric and I, so to the unidentified whales we went. We made a quick stop at White Rock to look at some harbor seals and then zoomed up Boundary Pass. Once on scene, I was pretty sure we had the Bigg’s Killer Whale family to T049A’s. T049A3/Nat, a 14-year-old sprouting male, has quite the floppy dorsal fin. When male killer whales are in their sprouting stage, their dorsal fins tend to wobble a bit.
These whales were non-directional, milling about, seemingly sharing a snack. The vessel that found them witnessed some hunting behavior, and once we were on scene we could see birds following them around, picking off floating pieces of meat. We shut off our engines and watched these whales share their prey, while still trying to get firm IDs. The whales disappeared underneath the surface, signifying they went on a deeper dive. After a few minutes had passed I suddenly heard a “koosh” come from the stern of the vessel. I turn around to see a killer whale surfacing right next to our boat! I leaned over the port side of our vessel and looked down, and started yelling “it’s Charlie, it’s Charlie.” T049A6/Charlie II is a very famous killer whale calf. This two-year-old has a distinct underbite, making it easy to tell him apart from the rest of the whales in the population. I couldn’t believe I got the honor and privilege of seeing Charlies underbite from that angel. Watching him break the surface of the water with his lower front teeth was most adorable!
After our legendary encounter with the T049A’s, we decided to put a cherry on top of this day by seeing the T075B’s on our way home. What an insane afternoon!