September has arrived, and with it the chaos of busy Labor Day weekend. I was delighted to hear that the Salish Sea was matching the hustle and bustle energy of downtown Friday Harbor. Before leaving the dock, we knew of several whale reports in the region. M/V Osprey departed Friday Harbor and went north in San Juan Channel. We went to follow up on a report of Bigg’s Killer Whales that were heading southwest in Presidents Channel. Normally when we encounter our marine mammal eating killer whales they are just traveling in their matrilines (mom and her immediate offspring). Therefore, it is always a treat when we get the chance to see multiple families linked up. When we have members of at least three different matrilines traveling together we call that a “T-Party.” “T” stands for Transient. A Transient Killer Whale is the former designation of our Bigg’s Killer Whale eco-type. After further research, biologists realized these whales weren’t as transient as we once thought. Technically both our Southern Resident Killer Whales and our Costal Bigg’s (or transient) Killer Whales can be found along the coastline from northern California to southeast Alaska at any time of year. Researchers chose the term “Bigg” to pay homage to Dr. Michael Bigg, the late Canadian researcher who helped start to photoidentification log of these whales.
We were lucky enough to see members of the T046’s, T124A’s and T124D’s all swimming together. We spent most of our afternoon with this “T-Party” of whales. We planned to end our trip with a wildlife stop on Spieden Island. As we headed that way, Captain Vaun got a call from our sister vessel the Sea Lion. They had just found another group of killer whales near Roche Harbor. How unbelievably convenient! We cruised over to Spieden Channel and met up with the T101’s, a family of Bigg’s made up of a mom and her two adult sons. What a spoiled start to our September tours!
Interested in seeing pictures from our tours? Check out our SmugMug to see photos from our trips aboard M/V Osprey at https://sanjuansafaris.smugmug.com/.