Members of T36 & T37 Biggs orca pod in Bellingham Bay on the evening of 7/30/26 by Lincoln Humphry
July 27 – Naturalist Lauren
It was the perfect WA day, just warm enough with some interesting cloud coverage and whales close to home!! We had a great sea lion cuddle puddle of 5 lions on the Sinclair marker, some fun looks at harbor seals, eagles and turkey vultures at Peapod rocks, and 2 humpback whales in Rosario! We spent a good chunk of time with Bandit (BCX2081), a 6 year old, and Monsoon (BCY1289), a 5 year old. These unrelated individuals enjoy vacationing in Baja, Mexico during the winter breeding season. We are very fortunate they enjoy the Salish sea during their feeding season. Monsoon was fluking all over the place, Bandit was a bit more shy, only showing their fluke near the end of our encounter. Just enough to get the ID!
After departing those two gentle giants, we headed north and caught up with the T100’s; Hutchins, Laurel and Estrella. This pod was swimming southeast towards Matia. We got some beautiful looks at the size difference between Laurel and his mom/younger sibling and a great pass before a deep dive. They are always a fun pod to encounter.
July 28 – Naturalist Lauren
What an epic day! We had a double header with humpback whale Billiard (BCY1335). We caught up with them north of the Anacortes heading towards Bellingham channel. They were fluking almost every surfacing which may indicate they were feeding. It’s always fun to see humpbacks. This individual has been seen since 2022, but only in the Salish sea, we don’t know where they migrate to.
We headed back south and caught up with a proper T party just south of Anacortes. 11 whales were present. Members of 36/36B’s(all), 69E, 137A, 135, 135C, 135F. The 135s are most commonly seen in California which is super cool to see this pod. They made quite the journey north.
The T-party headed east on Guemes Channel, definitely finding some food. They grouped together and were participating in a behavior called moon walking, when a whale comes up backwards with dorsal first and spout second. This is a behavior specific to the Bigg’s when hunting. They pushed east and we headed back west to find some smaller marine mammals. We checked out the Cone island, Peapod rocks and the Sinclair channel marker.
On the way home, no one had seen the HB we saw earlier in the day for roughly 1.5 hrs, surprise to us, they ventured into the bay! We got to encounter Billiard for a few more surfacings before heading into the dock.
July 29 – Naturalist Lauren
Orcas in the bay! It was flat calm, perfect conditions to find the T36/36B’s and T137A hunting and playing swimming south in Bellingham Bay. We spent a good chunk of time with them this morning seeing a few spy hops, some proposing behavior, a baby breach, and some orca belly.
We departed for lunch and found some sea lions on the Sinclair Channel marker. Three large sleepy sea lions were having a snooze while one in the water decided it was not worth the effort to join the cuddle puddle.
We heard all the boats had left the orcas so we went in search of them again. We caught up to them north of Huckleberry and Saddlebag island. They were pretty surface active when we first got on scene with some tail and dorsal lobs, a cartwheel from Jack T137A, and some plafyful behaviors form the kiddos AukT 36B4 and Maple T36B1A.
It was a glorious day on the water with so much time spent with orca whales, a perfect Salish Sea adventure.
T36/36Bs: Flapjack, Tattertip, Bhotia, Greenfelder, Auk, Maple
T137A: Jack
July 30- Naturalist Kara
Early whale reports this morning for close by Orcas! We meandered casually throughout the bay looking at all the highlight species, stopping for harbor seals, cormorants and other marine birds. After eating our lovely lasagna lunch, we came upon the Bigg’s orca whales that had been casually riding the ebb tide just outside of Anacortes. This group consisted of the T36’s (Flapjack and family) and T37A Volker with T37A2 Inky.
The Bigg’s were casually moving through the current line, busy surfacing very tight together and all at once. This behaviour can often mean resting, but with the strong current for the low tide, it’s possible they were just in slow travel mode. The T36’s have two tiny little babies, that are 1 year old Maple and 2 year old Auk. With this family socializing with the T37A’s today, we got to compare the itty bitty babies to 17 year old Inky with his mature dorsal fin! The size comparison is so impressive, and we especially got a close look today as they changed up direction and went under our boat!
Moving on from our time with the orcas, another PWWA boat found a Gray whale just 15 minutes south of us, so we went to go check out this different kind of whale! The gray was very consistent, and the water was just the right conditions where it was swimming, allowing us to see it underneath the water a good amount of time before it surfaced. It was interesting to follow it along its journey even while it was under water! We finished our day meeting back up with the same group of orcas, because they went right back toward home base!
July 31- Naturalist Kara
What a spectacular day! The Biggs orca family, T36’s, stayed in the bay overnight and were found this morning near Eliza Island, so our whale watch started just 15 minutes off the dock! This family was having playtime with their two littlest, Auk and Maple, constantly breaching out of the water. We saw jump after little jump while the adults circled around and played with them by tail slapping, rolling around on their bellies and nudging their juveniles around at the surface. It was so much fun to watch these whales today, and they still hadn’t left the bay by time our trip was over!
We took a break from whales to eat lunch, and found Stellar Sea Lions on the buoy by Sinclair Island. The buoy was busy today too, with 2 sea lions in the water trying to gain some space for rest on the nautical marker. There was a really large sea lion holding his ground and kept kicking them off the buoy. So much jumping action today. After spending some time in a few different waterways looking for other wildlife, we headed back into Bellingham Bay to meet back up with the T36s. Our second time with them, the orcas were taking a well deserved break and were quite relaxed and spread out over a half mile. We saw the whole range of orca behavior today from Flapjack, Tattertip, Bhotia, Greenfelder, Auk and Maple.
