Top two rows: T124D’s and T65A5 west of San Juan Island on 8/30 by Kurt Leipold
Bottom Row: T75B’s off of Sucia Island on 8/31 by Lincoln Humphry
Aug 25
We hauled all the way to meet up with the T49A’s on the west side of Samuel Island, losing cell service as we arrived. The pod went through Georgeson Passage, which is too small for the 100 foot Victoria Star, so we turned around and headed north to Active Pass to catch them. We got waked by a couple of ferries, then headed south to catch up with them by the Bell Chain Islands. We stayed with them for about 30 minutes, and got to see them catch a harbor seal, before we had to head back, since we’d gone so far.
Aug 26
We found the 75Bs off of Waldron Island, followed them around White Rock (the small outcropping near Waldron, not the city in Canada), and into President’s Channel. The Center for Whale Research was out that day flying a drone, taking pictures to try and determine the sex and parentage of their brand new calf which was still orange (newborn orcas’ white patches are orange because they don’t have enough blubber and the color of their blood vessels shows through). The CWR figured out that the newborn calf was the matriarch T-75B’s, Pebbles’s 5th calf rather than T75B2 Jasper’s 1st, which was a running theory. They found out the calf is a female.
Aug 27
Wow, what a day! We had a beautiful cruise across the bay seeing lots of harbor porpoise. We ventured towards the south side of Lummi and then headed north from there hugging the eastern side of Orcas Island. It was absolutely beautiful out today going north. Little wind, blue skies, sunshine and orca whales!
We made our first wildlife stop to Skipjack Island and saw lots of harbor seals hauled out and just around the corner we came on scene with the beautiful T49A pod of orca whales. They slowly started pushing northeast from the east side of Waldron island. We got accustomed to their zig-zagging behaviors and dialed in watching them.
Nan (49A) was accompanied by 4 of her 6 children, Nat (49A3), Neptune (49A4), Nebula (49A5) and Charlie II (49A6). Charlie is a well recognized whale in this population as they have a very dramatic underbite which the Orca Behavior Institute believes came from a rostrum injury when Charlie II was young. Obviously, this injury did not have any major impacts on the health of this young whale as they are thriving out here in the Salish Sea.
We got great looks at this pod and they even came to check us out giving us incredible perspectives on just how large these mammals are. A day to remember for sure. As they continued NE, we slipped off scene and continued onwards. We came around Sucia Island to Clements Reef where we were happily surprised with 4 massive sea lions! We haven’t been seeing many sea lions in the past few weeks as they are moving out west towards rookeries so seeing these four hauled out with their flippers to the skies was quite a treat. We cruised home via Hales Passage back into the bay.
Aug 28
We started our long journey today at Peapod Rocks to find some wildlife. We were not disappointed to find harbor seals, cormorants, vultures, eagles, and a few more species! It was a great start to a beautiful day. We kept trending west by going through Obstruction Pass and Pole Pass, which both have a unique history.
After we left the inner islands we headed north by Stuart Island where we met up with a pod of killer whales directly in front of the lighthouse! It is always fun to see whales in lineups with the numerous lighthouses in the Salish Sea. The orcas were identified to be the T49As, a fun group who were a little squirrelly today. They decided to not keep a direct path and popped up close to our boat, allowing us to see all of their features closely!
On our way back Casey spotted a humpback blow in the distance and we had just enough time to go see a couple surfacing events. We were all pretty stoked about scoring a double species day. We were a little late, but we had to go check out the big stellar sea lions on Clement’s Reef on the way home. I love this spot because both the sea lions and harbor seals haul out here.
On the final bird watching cruise of the season we were lucky enough to spot a horned puffin! It’s presumed to be mating with a tufted puffin, so we’re excited to see the mixed breed baby next year.
Aug 29th
T75Bs with a two week old baby off of Sucia Island. We got to see some breaching activity as the whales circumnavigated the island. This was super lucky for today’s Sucia picnic passengers, who got to see the whales up close from land at Johnson Point!
Aug 30th
We caught up with the he T49A orcas, and a humpback on the west side of San Juan Island toward Spieden Island and the T124Ds off of Sucia: T124D/Field — female, born in 1996, T124D1/Salish II — born in 2014, T124D3/Lupine — female, born in 2021, T124D4/Dune — born in 2024, plus Indy-T65A5.
It’s been a busy week at Sucia, with whales spending a lot of time combing the Clements Reef area for a harbor seal lunch.
Aug 31st
The T75Bs were Sucia again with that brand new baby.
