T77 C&E siblings being playful along the shore of Blakely Island by Lincoln Humphry
August 3rd – Naturalist Elliot
T100’s & T101 & T101B’s
It’s rare seeing the T100’s traveling with any other groups, but with T101 theorized to be the mother of T100 Hutchins, it made more sense. In any event it was cool seeing them together. Seas were glassy calm today, and the whales were in a typical travel pattern, but all surfacing together which is always impressive, and helpful for viewing and photos.
August 4th- Naturalist Kara
A bit hazy with the wildfire smoke in the air today, but perfect conditions on the water to start our whale trip. We cruised through the center of the San Juan Islands, tucking in through all the fun, narrow passageways before coming on scene with the Biggs orca whales of the day. Our sibling group, T77C and T77E (Neftali and Misneach) were back in our range.
These two siblings have been separate from their matriarch quite a bit this season, roaming the waterways and finding food on their own. Neftali, a fully grown adult male, spending time with their still maturing, and still unknown gender sibling. They took us up the west side of the Lopez Island shoreline, where we watched them hug the shore on the hunt for food. They were super successful!
They managed to find a harbor seal and make quick work of it, with lots of tail slaps at the surface to stun it. This led to a pretty large celebration from 10 year old Misneach, with spyhops, cartwheels and a little bit of a moonwalk! We ended our trip today seeking out harbor seal haulouts, and Stellar sea lions, and managed to find a fully mature bald eagle snacking on something at Peapod Rocks.
August 5th – Naturalist Kara
Very smooth seas on our journey, even with the hazy skies again today. We made our way out to the west side of San Juan Island for an earlier report of a humpback whale. We were the only eyes in the area looking, and one of our awesome passengers spotted a spout! Its super important that we all keep an eye out for wildlife. It is a whale watch after all, and today was a great example.
As we got a handle on what this humpback’s activity was looking like, we were surprised by a second humpback! These 2 were travelling very close together, which made some great surface looks, with just one whale fluking. Longer dives had these whales down for 8-10 minutes at a time, but each surfacing was a lot of breaths as well.
BCX1920 Octo, BCY1274 Seltzer
August 6th – Naturalist Elliot
We had a great day watching T36 Flapjack, and the T36B crew: 36B Tattertip, 36B1 Bhotia & new calf 36B1A Maple, 36B2 Greenfelder, and B3 Auk) so cool seeing four generations of whales together! We got mobbed by lots of whales we couldn’t even identify as well. We also got time seeing T137A Jack cruise off the south coast of Spieden and then Stuart Islands. We were in whale soup today!
August 7th – Naturalist Elliot
After heading north to see what we could find, hearing no reports today: we got a late report of orcas down Rosario Straight so we made a U-turn and headed for it. We caught up with T77 C & T77 E (brother and younger sibling) travelling together. It grew into a fairly active enounter with one of the individuals swimming upside down for a minute, and a nice long spy hop, and a few other tail and fin waves, as well as a rare “sea snake’ glimpse. They were definitely excited.
August 9th – Naturalist Emily
We had heard an early morning report of whales in Canada, so we made no stops on the way north and made some headway. We were worried that they might turn around and head away from us, so we got there fast.
We got on scene with members of the T36As and T137s. They continued south and were on the surface a lot. At one point they were circling a small rock with harbor seals on it. They kept going and we got some neat behavior like tail slapping.
After a while, another boat called us saying another group was heading south and we went and found the T100s. They eventually met up with that first group and we had 10 whales at once! There was breaching, rolling, upside down whales, tail slaps, all of the activity. They all seemed so happy to be together! We even saw a small breach from T137A “Jumping Jack.”
When the whales turned the corner at East Point, we decided to head back home. We tried to find a baleen whale but they weren’t hanging around today. On our way home we stopped and saw some funny sea lions on a marker. Of course they were cuddling and making their silly vocalizations. It was a great day on the water!
