A truly awesome showing from the T109A2 pod in San Juan Channel on 7/10/24

 

July 7

 

Second day Of T65Bs, but we had to travel all the way to Saturna for them!

It was a rough day for whale reports with no sightings until 1pm. We had headed north in the morning to try to find them based on their movements yesterday, so we were in the right area when the report came in.

When we arrived on scene, the T65Bs were traveling but quickly changed their behavior and started back breaching and full body lunging out of the water. There was a bit of hunting that they picked up on at Java Rocks and got a bit serious again. As we left the scene, the male started swimming on his back and gave us a good tail wave goodbye! Lovely calm waters with this pod.

 

T65B – Chunk, T6562 – Nette, T65B1 – BirdSall, T65B3 – 2023 calf

July 8

 

Today was almost a no whale day. We decided to go through the middle of the islands and then head up north. It wasn’t until about 3pm that Cpt Cassidy on another cruise spotted whales at Sucia.

When we got there, they were being pretty squirrely and not choosing a direction, and they popped up right by our boat! It was so calm and quiet that we could hear their breath.

They started to hug the Shoreline and came across a seal hauled out, which they hunted for a while.We then got to see some tail slaps and almost a lunging motion.

Having Sucia as a backdrop was just lovely. We also saw some kelping: One whale draped kelp across its dorsal. So cool to see!

 

July 9

 

We had a long haul journey today out past Kelp Reef to D’Arcy Island. The original plan was to catch up with the T99s that were cruising Haro Strait along Vancouver Island. When we were about a mile away, the T36B’s popped up right in our path!

Cpt Jeff slowed down and angled our boat just in time to see one of the whales do a headstand! We got a great look of the tail before they started to porpoise away.

After the whales sped up a bit, they cruised towards James Spit and very shallow water. They started to slow down and we got a great look at the baby of the group, riding off of mom’s pectoral fins.

We left them behind a little early to make the long haul home.

 

July 10

 

It was a very active day for the orcas!

We made our way over the top of Orcas Island today to make our way into San Juan Channel.

We came on scene with the T109A2s being incredibly active and playful. The two young whales in the group were breaching over and over! Eventually the adult whales of the pod even joined in.

We saw dozens of breaches, tail slaps, and cartwheels today, with a few lucky double breaches! Some passengers were riding with a previous bummer card for not seeing whales on a previous cruise, and wow did today’s show make up for it.

 

T109A 2 – Fuser 2005

T109A 2B- Macoah 2018

T109A 2D- 2023 calf

T109A 2A – Seekah 2016

T109A 2C- 2021 calf

 

July 12

 

The water was absolutely beautiful today! The T65B orcas were at Iceberg point this afternoon and were circling a rock. We think they must’ve been on the hunt because they were in very shallow water, about 10 ft deep.

After they were done with the rock, we saw them show their tails and they were so easy to hear. I love slowing down and just listening to them breathe.

After a while, T65B and her youngest calf went off on her own, while

T65B1 was being spunky and spy hopping!

 

July 13

 

Today was completely mind blowing! A T-party report took us all the way down Past Smith island. No one was quite prepared for what we encountered.

There were 38 – 40 whales onscene with us, grouped so closely together. Just the sheer amount of whales we saw was astonishing.

On top of that we saw full body breaches, peduncle throws (a sideways throw of the tail using the section of their body connecting their tail fluke), upside down swimming, showing pectoral pins, and tail waves.

We were at a complete loss of words. At one point a small calf came out of the water completely vertically, then proceeded to breach consecutively. It seemed like they were all surfacing on top of one another.

A truly unforgettable moment, down to hearing all of them breathing together when they surfaced.

 

Members from:

 

T345, T35As, T36As, T37s, T38As, T38Cs.

T46Bs, T49As, T49Cc, T65As, T75s, T75As, T75C’s