Maxx K. | M/V Kestrel | 06/21/2022 | 10:00am
I love a morning tour, for a lot of reasons really, but also because there is a real sense of urgency and tension. Being a part of the PWWA is such a great tool, not only are we able to collect and share data about whale behavior but we’re also able to stay up to date on where they’re being located. Given that none of the whales seen out here are tagged, we're reliant on spotting them ourselves!
At 10:00 in the morning, it’s easy to assume there are indeed whales in the area but where are they? We must find them!
Kestrel flew out of Friday Harbor and headed north towards the Canadian Gulf Islands. We stopped first at Java Rocks where we both admired a shoal of Harbor seals and scanned for cetaceans. No whales here. We bobbed for several minutes in the morning sun before carrying on, wrapping ourselves around Tumbo Island where we then picked up chatter on our radio: Whales had been spotted moving eastward from the Java Rocks.
These whales must’ve been right underneath us, or at least in our vicinity a few minutes before! After watching them for a few moments I understood how we could have missed them:
These were the T049A’s, a family of six Biggs Killer Whales that typically stay quite close to one another. This morning however, they spread out significantly, surfacing individually briefly every few minutes. We spent most of our time with T049A1 (“Noah”) as he split away from his family and slowly meandered south towards Patos Island. We moved with him for some time, as he slowly surfaced and dove. What was he thinking?
After a little while we circled back towards the rest of the family that continued on northward. They displayed the same patterns: the family was split and each whale seemed to surface with irregularity and infrequency, some over here, some over there. Again, typically when I see this family they are on top of one another, in a tight whale squad. It makes you wonder, what was this family going through right now? Perhaps we were witnessing the aftermath of a family squabble. Maybe each whale needs a bit of space, a break from one another for a little bit. Maybe they were just split to forrage! Until we can think like whales, we will never truly know and THAT'S why I’m obsessed with them.