09/01/17- M/V Kestrel- 2PM
M/V Sea Lion departed from Friday Harbor and headed South to go find one of the best-known transient orca families in the area.
The T65A’s are a family consisting of a 31-year-old female and her four offspring. This family is considered one of the most successful transient families in the Salish Sea because of the reproductive success and varied prey choices. T65A, theoretically, still has 15+ years of reproduction left and she already has four surviving offspring, making her get an A+ for her abilities as a mom. Not only that, her family has been seen eating the whole gamete of marine mammals in the area including seals, sea lions, porpoises and even minke whales (yep, they eat 35ft long whales).
We were lucky enough to get to spend some time with these animals on our trip and even watched them snack on a harbor seal. Whenever orcas hunt they work together in order to kill their prey and then will share their reward once the hunt in complete. The ‘prey sharing’ process is when we usually the most social activity from the transients. They combine the process of ripping that carcass apart with a variety of different social activities including spy hoping, tail slapping and breaching. Watching these animals eat is one of my personal favorite things to see out on the water and our guests were lucky enough to see that today.
Naturalist Rachel