Maxx | M/V Kestrel | September 8th 2024 | 2:00pm
The T018s and T049s are the most frequent of flyers this summer, hands down.
T019 “Nootkah” is a mother assumed to be born sometime before 1965. She travels with her sons, 29 year old T019B “Galiano” and T019C “Spouter,” born in 2001.
They traveled with the T049As, led by mom “Nan” and accompanied by four of her youngest kids T049A3 “Nat,” A4 “Neptune,” A5 “Nebula,” and A6, little “Charlie II.”
The took long dives initially, surfacing in unison for several breath cycles before taking another set of deep dives, trending north. We admired them for most of the tour as they traveled between Shaw and Orcas Island.
I’ve mentioned this in blogs prior but still I’m deeply curious how these whales are associating with one another. From our best understanding, these are unrelated families. However, paternity is very difficult to determine without ample genetic testing. Is Galiano a father to one of these smaller whales, Charlie II? Nebula? Are these families just friends? Maybe long time Salish Sea associates?
They continued northbound, hugging the Orcas Island shoreline until reaching Deer Harbor. Now, this small harbor on Orca’s southwest coast has been a major hotspot for the last several days. In fact, whales have traveled through this harbor the last three days in a row. Yet another coincidence I’m just baffled by.
We stayed long enough to witness little Charlie II and his older sister Nebula get the zoomies, porpoising upside down and weaving through their much larger relatives. It was the perfect way to complete an otherwise already pretty perfect whale watch.