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[8/1/17 5:30 Sea Lion]
Yesterday morning a family group of transient killer whales was spotted on the east side of Cypress Island heading south towards Anacortes. Identified as the T37's, this group was tracked as they hunted and milled slowly towards the south end of Rosario Strait. Fast forward to noon today, and a group of orcas is spotted on the northwest side of San Juan island. Our 1:30 departure catches up with them as they're approaching Salt Spring Island, identifying them as, yet again, the T37's. Fast forward again to our 5:30 pm whale watch, where this family has picked up another family group (the T34's) and has made progress north, entering Active Pass well into Canadian waters by the time we part ways with them.
Orcas are known to travel up to 100 miles a day, easy. This family group, not counting however many miles they put in milling, hunting, or zig-zagging, traversed 60 miles of water between their first spotting yesterday afternoon and when we left them this evening. And that's not even a long travel day for them!
Most of the time that we watched these two groups today, somewhere among the Canadian Gulf Islands, they were playing and socializing and just having a whale of a good time. We watched them breach, tail slap in synchronization, cartwheel, handstand, and roll over on their backs. These were the happiest whales to ever be observed. The T37s often travel in three separate groups for better hunting success, so when you have the entire family together it can get kind of wild. Add in another family group, the T34s, and it's complete pandemonium!
We watched this uncharacteristically ruckus group of mammal-eating orcas as they continued to trend north into the Strait of Georgia. We then had to turn around and head back to Friday Harbor, catching a spectacular sunset through the distant wildfire haze on our way back.
Check out photos from today's encounter (plus bonus sunset photos!) below.
Naturalist Sarah C.
See all 8 photos
