The T60’s cruising past Anacortes back toward Bellingham with us. 8/12/24

Aug 11

Sealions gave us a pretty good show this morning. They were all trying to get up onto the marker, but also taking turns and playing in the water.

We saw a few surfacings of a lone female (T002B). Lone females are super rare, so it was a fun to see. She seemed like she wanted to be alone though, so we left and caught up with the T60’s. They are a group of 4 that T002B tends to travel with often. We got to see some pretty good looks at the first born male, Yelnats. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen this group too.

 

Aug 12

We went down to Deception Pass where we found 4 of the T60’s (T60, T60C, T60F, T60G).

Pretty soon after we joined them, they started hunting a harbor porpoise! We were able to see the porpoise’s dorsal as they were chasing it. There were a lot of quick movements, and then they went back to traveling before stopping to eat underwater and giving us a spy hop.

We got to stay with them and follow the whales for about 2 hours. Right at the end they came up real close to the boat, and we had to wait them out. They were circling and moving quickly, as if they were likely hunting again.

 

Aug 13

Today we saw an oyster catcher on Viti Rocks, who was nibbling on some invertebrates. They are one of my favorite birds so it was cool to see!

Then we made our way through the middle of the islands toward San Juan Channel. We caught up with the T60’s at the very tip of San Juan Island. They were surfacing in a very tight close knit line and moving pretty slowly. I was suspecting that they might be asleep. They were still showing us great vIews of their eyepatches and saddle patches.

It was an overcast day and the color saturation was absolutely gorgeous. The black and white was showing up so well with the rock and evergreen tree backdrop.

 

Aug 14

We started off with seals at Viti and then some very exciting sea lions at a buoy, there were 6 in the water doing acrobatics and two defending the buoy.

Then we went north for a big search. Towards the end of the day there was a report of two humpbacks near Waldron, so we booked it over there and found Divot and her 2024 calf. It was exciting for me, because I saw them on my very first day with SJC.

The two were surfacing together, but split up for a bit while the calf rolled around and waved their pectorals at us. The two reunited for a few more surfacings before we headed back to Bellingham.

 

Aug 15

 

We went through the middle of the islands, heading west of San Juan to find the T49A’s. We followed them up into Mosquito Pass off San Juan Island. They were hunting in super shallow waters, about 6 feet deep so wer were able to see a lot of activity.

They went into a little cove that we couldn’t follow into, so we headed over to catch a few surfacings with a humpback before heading home.

 

Aug 16

 

We saw the T49A’s on the west side of San Juan again today.

We saw some seals and sea lions on our way and met up with the T49A’s in Haro Strait. They were active and excited when we got there, with lot of spalshing and even a spy hop!

Then the T60D & E brothers joined the T49A’s coming close enough to the boat for us to have to go idle.

The two pods kept separating and meeting back up during our hour with them, which made the interaction especially interesting.