What an amazing trip we had today! We left our dock today in Friday Harbor without any whale reports once again, so Captain Mike and I decided we were going to head north to see what we could find in that region. We were looking for transient killer whales; this kind of killer whale hunts marine mammals. There is ample food for them north of San Juan Island including harbor seals, harbor porpoise, Steller Sea Lions (the largest in the world), and even Dall's Porpoise! What we found just as we entered into Boundary Pass was completely unexpected!
As I was talking to a guest I saw a black dorsal fin slice through the water effortlessly. I knew at once what it was, and as I was about to tell everyone else Captain Mike turned the boat in the direction of the killer whale as he had seen it too. What we stumbled onto turned out to be a grand total of 14 transient killer whales, the largest group traveling together that I have ever seen! We all watched in awe as these whales proceeded westward through Boundary Pass breaching, tail slapping, spy hopping and just carrying on in incredibly social behavior.
Guests on board got a real treat today, as the big male Orca that I had originally seen was the one and only T063, otherwise known as “Chainsaw”. T063 is legendary in these waters and only comes south into the Salish Sea about once a year; he spends most of his time in southeast Alaska! T063 was traveling with his sister and family group T065 and T65B. There were also other family groups of Transient Orcas that were traveling with them including the T036s, T086s and the T124s!
This was easily my top three best experiences with Transient Orcas. We counted 106 breaches in all! What an incredible day!
Heather, Naturalist, M/V Sea Lion
San Juan Safaris