We've had surprisingly many different killer whale reports (for November, anyways!) this past weekend. Five transient (mammal-hunting) Orcas were sighted in Satellite Channel, near Salt Spring Island in the Gulf Islands north of San Juan Island. These killer whales were later identified as the T034A, T034A1, and T038A family group.
Like our Southern Resident Orcas, transient Orcas also are identified by the alpha-numeric system, starting with "T" for transient. Transient Orcas are first identified with "T" and then a number. Lets use T034A as our example. If T034 has an offspring (which she did) her first offspring is named T034A. If she has additional offspring, they will be identified alphabetically: T034B, T034C, and so on. In this family pod, T034A also had offspring, which was identified as T034A1. If she has additional offspring, they will be identified in numeric order: T034A2, T034A3, and so on. This identification system will go on & on as needed. Pretty cool, huh?
Back to the sightings report! Transient Orcas were also sighted outside of Friday Harbor, San Juan Island this afternoon near Turn Island. Turn Island State Park is a 35-acre marine park with 16,000 feet of shoreline. The island is part of the San Juan National Wildlife Refuge. The island was originally mapped as a point of land on San Juan Island by the Wilkes Expedition in 1841 and was named Point Salsbury. It was later found to be an island at a turn in San Juan Channel and was named Turn Island on British Admiralty charts of 1858-59.
Brittany Office & Reservations Manager San Juan Safaris