Incredible Activity from the T99’s and Crinkle on 8/29/26 by Lincoln Humphry
Aug 31 – Naturalist Lauren
The perfect last day of August with pristine weather in the bay and in the strait of Juan de Fuca. Couldn’t have asked for better water conditions. We headed west in search of some Bigg’s orca whales. We caught up with the T36’s, a unique pod consisting of 4 generations which you don’t typically see in Bigg’s as they live in fragmenting social pods. We got beautiful looks at some of the ladies and the two young ones, Maple and Auk. Auk got his scrub on playing in the bull kelp.
Near the T36’s were three mature males. The boys were hanging out together and what a sight to see three big boys. T49A2, T65A3 and T137A showed just how different dorsal fins can be. We got a perfect line up of Jude and Amir with Mount Baker in the background. It was an incredible encounter.
On our way home we went through Cattle Pass, stopping at Whale Rocks, a sea lion rookery. We saw all sorts of behaviors from proud chests, vocal battles, lots of splashing in the water to snoozing, sleep sea lions.
T36s: 36 Flapjack, 36B Tattertip, 36B1 Bhotia, 36B1A Maple, 36B2 Greenfelder, 36B4 Auk
T49A2 Jude, T65A3 Amir, T137A Jack
Sept 1st- Naturalist Kara
The wind started to roll in this morning, but we still had beautiful conditions on the water as we headed north toward Point Roberts. Our journey had us cruising by large rafts of birds all throughout both Rosario and Georgia Straits. The mix of bird species were busy fluttering and diving over schools of forage fish, in very large numbers! We kept our eyes out for potential larger wildlife in the middle of all the bird activity, but ended up pushing north for reports of Biggs orca whales.
The T123’s (Sidney, Stanley, Lucky and Darcy) were joined by T46B3 & T46B3A (Sedna & Munro) on a hunting expedition! These orcas were busy zig-zagging and had at least one successful catch while we were on scene today, with a potential for two others. Quite a fun experience to see them all work together to catch some harbor seal or harbor porpoise in some very wide open water. Stanley did a few tail slaps and a little upside down swimming, while we also got a close pass from Senda with her yearling, Munro!
Sept 4 – Naturalist Lauren
We headed northwest for the day with stunning water conditions, one passenger equated the sea state to that of a lake. We caught up with the T49A pod near John’s Island. Beautiful scenery and beautiful whales! They were traveling south when something caught their attention. Many harbor porpoise were in the area, a few harbor seals on the rocks, even one in the water. We observed lots of direction changes, some stealthy maneuvering through narrower channels, and some tail slaps!
T49A, Nan, is quite the matriarch and a skillful hunter, so much of the hunt typically happens under water. After departing this pod, we headed back east going through President’s Channel. Traveling solo we saw T65A3 Amir. His towering dorsal fin the sight to see being a mature male. He took us east, giving us beautiful looks at his floppy fin and his massive eye patch. All in all, an amazing day with seven orca whales total!
T49As: Nan, Nat, Neptune, Nebula, Charlie II, Nimbus
T65A3: Amir
Sept 7- Naturalist Kara
We journeyed north today to escape the rain this morning, and it turned into beautiful blue skies! We managed to find T65A3, Amir by himself up by Sucia, and watched him zig-zag through the current lines looking for food. He was a bit unpredictable in his overall movements, so he surprised us when he popped up next to the boat! We switched into idle and were able to experience some awesome close surfacings, before he tucked back into the waves and dove under our boat.
A call came in from some friends that there was a pod of Biggs orca whales nearby, so we left Amir to continue over to Waldron Island. There, we picked up the T49As looking for their lunch. The whales were milling, a big circling behavior, and disappeared for a bit. There were suddenly a ton of bubbles at the surface, so we knew where the whales were under the water, on a pretty active hunt. The next time they surfaced, one had a seal in their mouths! Overall, it was an exciting day that had started off with a thunder storm, but ended with two great whale interactions.
Sept 8- Naturalist Kara
Pushing the distance today, we took our trip further than we’ve ever been! Deep into Canadian waterways, we found ourselves in Trincomali channel, after scouring the waters on the way north. Whales were nowhere to be found, until some Canadian whale boats called in that the T19’s had been found up their way. The trip was a lovely, flat and calm journey and the T19’s (Nootka, Galiano, and Spouter) graced us with many surfacings against the shoreline of Galiano Island.
Sept 9 – Naturalist Lauren
What a day! We circumnavigated the majority of the San Juan islands, a route I don’t think I have ever done in one day. We headed south into the strait of Juan de Fuca with glass-like conditions. Harbor porpoise and sea birds galore! It is always fun to get into the main branches of the Salish sea. We ventured to the west side of San Juan Island to catch up with T60D/E; Onca and Lynx, The Brothers!
Whale watchers in Victoria, BC saw six whales early this morning, assumed to be all the T60’s. The brothers went north while the rest of the family continued south.
It was a beautiful encounter with the brothers. They were changing speeds, creating massive bubbles with their flukes, two spy-hops and many direction changes during our time with them. Incredible to see their massive dorsal fins as well. With all these unique behaviors, I can only assume they were on the search for food and were quite successful in their hunts although we did not see any carnage at the surface.
Sept 10 – Naturalist Lauren
Another beautiful day heading south into the strait of Juan de Fuca! We caught up with the T65B’s, Chunk, Birdsall, Nettle and Rook, at Smith Island. It was so good to see Nettle back in this area because in July he became stranded on the shallow bank of Minor island, just east of Smith. He thankfully was able to free himself after a few hours of being stuck on the rocks. Obviously that event has not stopped him from utilizing those shallows as prime seal hunting grounds.
The pod took us west. They had a split in the group with Chunk and Rook hanging out a bit further south than Nettle and Birdsall. Very fun to see all the dorsal fin variety of the three boys of varying ages. After our beautiful encounter with them we pushed north into Rosario stopping at Bird Rocks. Many cormorants, gulls and harbor seals hanging out on the rocks!
Before getting back into the bay, we stopped with some very entertaining Steller sea lions. Four lions fighting for real estate on the channel marker made for some good giggles. It’s always impressive to watch them launch their massive bodies out of the water. September brings great wildlife looks throughout the Salish Sea.
