Laura / M/V Kestrel / 5/19/2022 / 2:00PM
Our whale watch and wildlife tour was filled with fun adventure today! Our vessel Kestrel headed out of Friday Harbor with the plan of looking for a humpback that was spotted north near Boundary Pass. As we were making our way out of the harbor everyone was thrilled to hear our Captain Brian had just received a tip that orcas were spotted from land near Anacortes! Passengers immediately got ready to pick up speed and we cruised though the inner islands and Peavine Pass to make the most direct route to our orca report. We started scanning along the shoreline once we made our way closer to Anacortes and Fidalgo Island, when suddenly orcas surfaced near our vicinity ahead of our bow. Captain Brian immediately shut off our engines and passengers had an amazing encounter of these whales swimming right along our vessel, starting from our bow and circling around our stern! This was such an incredible encounter, and no one expected to have such an intimate and sudden orca encounter around our boat!
These orcas were identified as four Bigg’s killer whales, later known specifically as the T75Bs. The matriarch was born in 1995 and known commonly as “Pebbles”, with three offspring in tow. The youngest was born within the past year, and it was so exciting to get an up-close view of this little one when compared to his/her full-sized adult mother. There was also a younger sibling born in 2017, and then one in 2015, so “Pebbles” has her hands full!
We followed this family northbound and saw a lot of behavior changes. We started noticing a lot of harbor seals around us in the water as we coasted along Cypress Island in Bellingham Channel, and one went right up to our boat! All of a sudden we saw hunting activity! The family of killer whales started deep diving and circling in a small area around one another, and a harbor seal popped up right in the middle of all the orcas! Our passengers had an outstanding view of a live hunt! The seal was held under the water and was seen in the mouth of one of the orcas, then three lobtails on top of the seal ended the hunt. As sad as it was to see the seal’s last breath, it was incredible to see such predation by killer whales.
We continued our journey to Blakely Island to check out the rock structures, growing kelp forests, a bald eagle, and over fifty harbor porpoises foraging around the current exchange. This was such an incredible day out on the water and I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as the crew! I will never forget this hunt by the 75Bs!