[6/30/17- M/V Kestrel- 2:00PM]
It’s always nice to have options, particularly when whale watching. And today, we had several! With 3-4 groups of whales to choose from, we departed Friday Harbor on M/V Kestrel first in search of a group of transient killer whales in Garrison Bay, maybe a 5-10 minute boat ride from the harbor! We approached the scene to see about 5 orcas travelling and being a bit playful with tail-splashes, spyhopping, and cartwheeling, not very common behavior for transients who usually have to be quiet and stealthy so that their acoustically-aware marine-mammal prey can’t hear them. This group may have just finished a kill or may have just simply been bonding and socializing in their spare time between travels. The group was full of adult females and some juveniles, not an uncommon sight when viewing transient killer whales. Just a few hundred yards away we then noticed a group of about 6 orcas, including a young sprouter male. These guys were taking longer dives, and were splashing and spyhopping, too, most likely in response to the first group of orcas. After one of their deeper dives, they popped up right next to our boat, “mugging” us!
After some awesome looks at those guys, we departed and decided to hear north to some more transient killer whales, who we soon found to also be acting particularly playful and social for a transient orca group. A group of about 6, there were some teenagers, a juvenile male, and some adult females, and they were having a blast! We were able to turn our vessel off and just observe them as they spyhopped, cartwheeled, breached, and pec slapped. There was even a pod member who was comically moon walking, swimming backwards at the surface of the water! This group was a joy to watch and see so lively, a fairly rare occurrence.
All-in-all, M/V Kestrel had another fabulous trip to conclude the month of June. On to July and more orca whales!