You know it's going to be a good day on the water when you have three naturalists, but it's an even BETTER day when you also have three TRANSIENTS! Naturalists Sarah, Sarah 2, and Rachel set out on the water today with the wonderful Captain Pete in pursuit of the best wildlife that the Salish Sea had to offer today. What started out cold and rainy quickly turned sunny, bright, and calm to boot as we approached the north side of our neighboring Orcas Island. In a few short minutes after pausing in neutral, we were greeted by three distinct blows directly off the shoreline of Orcas Island. We had orcas!
What we soon identified as the T-123's, a small family unit of transient killer whales that frequent the San Juan Islands, are a prime example of transient social structure. Characterized by a large male, a dainty female, and a young calf, this group is commonly misconceived as the traditional (human) family of mom, dad, and baby. In fact, male orcas do not travel with their offspring or help raise them at all, instead investing all of their energy into their own family, helping their mom and sisters raise their own offspring. This male, T-123A, will travel alongside his mother and his sibling for the entirity of his life.
Shortly after we finished up watching the T's, we moved westward to catch a glimpse of some common prey items of theirs - namely harbor seals, harbor porpoises, and Steller's sea lions. We even spotted a few mating pairs of bald eagles on the way, which at one point were bordering us from all sides, soaring high above the surrounding islands.
As we motored back to Friday Harbor, we were happy to find that our ever-roaming T's had traveled almost all the way down San Juan Channel towards the harbor! We were lucky enough to catch one more final, final look at this quaint little family as they changed direction northward before returning home to soak in the rest of the sunshine from shore.