T-124A1 + T90 (tail slapping) and offspring, as well as T49A’s, and a loan humpback on the way home on 5/16/26.
5/15 – Naturalist Elliot
Wow, quite the rainy start at the dock, so loud we couldn’t hear each other talk! Folks boarded in ponchos and rain hats, preparing for a wet whale watch.
We lucked out that the dry island weather persisted and cleared up as we departed the bay. Making our way out into the islands towards a report of transient orcas near Shaw Island. We caught up with T-124A1, T124A1A, T124A4, T90, & T90B,C,D northwest of Shaw. Interesting about T124A1 is that she travels as a loaner, but had a calf (T124A1A) and then left it with her sister T124A4 to foster!
While watching them, we spotted a humpback within spitting distance name Scuttle. It had orca teeth rake marks on its flukes, making us wonder if any conflict had gone down.
Steller sea lions piled at the red navigation cans north off Sinclair Island on our way home.
5/16 – Naturalist Elliot
We had a nice early call for killer whales in West Sound off Orcas Island, and headed out that way early.
These were the same killer whales as yesterday, but with a super cool close pass approach and tail slap from T90 Piglet right by us! Later one of the babies breached! And a lot of us missed it of course. The babies did a few extra little fun actions porposing and showing some pecs. The toddler of the group did a cartwheel and a few tail slaps. They were zig zagging all around East Sound.
We departed toward a call for another group of killer whales: the T49A’s West of Shaw, not far from Orcas and us once again. These were traveling in a pretty straight path at 6 knots. Less active than the other group, but with some decent surfacings from the young ones.
We saw a flock of bald eagles fly off from the tops of trees as we approached narrow unique Pole Pass.
We happened to catch a humpback spout right off Matia Island on our way home circumnavigating Orcas Island. The whale fluked once, with a good amount of surfacing. It was great lighting against the island to make the spouts pop.
There was a arbor seal with its pups at Eliza rocks. Always cute seeing the young ones.
Excellent diverse wildlife day today.
5/17- Naturalist Kara
Beautiful, flat calm day. Headed immediately south down Bellingham Channel. Saw birds and lots of flies at Bird Rocks.
Found a gray whale in Shoal Bight off of Lopez Island. Lots of shallow dives, where we could see the muddy water the whale was churning up at the surface, a grays method of hunting. Easy to tell where it would come up next due to bubbles, which was nice to have the sign of where to look. Saw a few roll overs and the flukes on it’s side since the water was so shallow too! Very unique gray watch.
Stellars everywhere! In the water, on the navigation markers, and on Whale Rocks. Lots of arguments, growling and posturing. They were a fun watch.
5/18 – Lauren
A beautiful and sunny day in the Salish Sea! Views of the Olympics and Cascades popped out at us from behind cloud coverage all day, a beautiful orca whale encounter and, with our luck, a humpback whale!
We ventured out of Bellingham Bay and headed north giving the south end of the Strait of Georgia a good scan. Seeing a lot of water, we continued west with hopes the reported killer whales would start pushing east giving us enough time to catch up with them. That they did. The T49A’s were happily transiting south into Haro Strait. We got beautiful looks at spouts and dorsal fins. Nan, T49A, the matriarch of this pod, born in 1986, was traveling with 5 of her kiddos. Nat, T49A3, being the oldest at 15 years old to Nimbus, T49A7, who was born just this year. Extremely exciting to see a new calf swimming along with this pod.
Just after we departed our lovely orca encounter, another whale watching boat spotted a humpback whale. We love a double-header! We spent enough time to see this whale fluke twice. Surprisingly, this is not a whale catalogued in HappyWhale meaning they may be a new visitor to the Salish sea. We hope this friend sticks around so we can learn more about them as the season progresses.
