Olivia Ellman | M/V Sea Lion | September 21st, 2024 | 12:30 pm
Today’s Classic Whale Watch was another perfect September day on the water! We left Friday Harbor with reports of some whale activity to the east in Rosario Strait, so began our trip by heading in that direction. After traveling interisland and seeing great views of Shaw and Lopez Islands, we soon slowed down to approach the scene of some killer whales! As we approached, we could see there was a family of five Bigg’s Killer Whales which were reported as the T049A matriline! This family consisted of mom Nan (T049A) and four out of six of her calves, which include Nat, Neptune, Nebula, and Charlie II. It’s always exciting to see these familiar dorsals and the adorable two year old Charlie traveling alongside his siblings, and we got to watch them for quite a while. The family was slowly traveling south towards Decatur Island, taking some longer dives along the way. Eventually they picked up speed and started traveling tight to shore, and soon enough it appeared that they had grabbed a seal underwater! The family was circling around a bit and we saw a brief splash before they all disappeared again under the surface. Once it seemed like the bit of excitement was over, it was about time for us to start our travels back towards Friday Harbor.
Though we said goodbye to the 49As, our time with killer whales was not quite over. As we neared Friday Harbor, we had the great luck of getting to see another individual right outside the harbor! We saw a large dorsal fin and some blows along the shoreline, and realized we were with the lone male T049C Nielson! As a 26 year old male, we had the great opportunity of seeing a much larger dorsal and to compare him with the other individuals we had seen earlier. What made this even more special was that Nielson is actually the younger brother of T049A Nan, so we got to see some of the extended family and try to understand more of the family dynamics of these whales.
While we only watched Nielson for a brief time, he definitely put on a show for us. He first seemed to be just traveling along the shore, but suddenly he raised his tail out of the water and began tail lobbing multiple times in a row! We could hear him slapping the surface across the water, and got amazing looks at him as he continued for some time. Then, just as suddenly as he started, he stopped slapping the water and continued his slow travel. At this point, we waved goodbye to Nielson and made our way into the harbor to end our beautiful, lucky day on the water.
Interested in seeing photos from our trips on M/V Osprey this season? Check out our SmugMug at https://sanjuansafaris.smugmug.com/.