Members of all three Chinook salmon eating Southern Resident orca pods have still been hanging around San Juan Island but a few different marine mammal eating Transient orca matrilines have been sneaking around too. On this day, some Transient orcas just happened to be closer to us than the Southern Residents. The "Odyssey" of San Juan Excursions was soon with the eight Transient orcas at Mandarte Island as they celebrated killing a harbor seal. The eight orcas were members of three different families:
| T012 matriline T012A, M, 1982 *Only living member left in his family. | T041 matriline matriarch T041, F, 1973 T041A, F, 1988 T041A1, unknown, 2011 T041A2, unknown, August 2013 | T109A matriline matriarch T109A, F, 1990 T109A2, unknown, 2005 T109A3, unknown, 2009 T109A4, unknown, 2012 |
As they were playing and socializing after their meal, they went into a bull kelp bed off of Mandarte Island and began rolling around, dragged the kelp around with their bodies and poking their heads above the water.
Somebody does an aerial scan while a young one tail slaps.
Somebody breaches!
T012A does an aerial scan in the bull kelp bed.
After a good half hour of playing in the kelp, all the orcas formed a line and slowly moved on to another small island nearby called Halibut Island.
T041A with her new calf! This little one was born in early August of 2013.
Adult male T012A. He may have been traveling with the T041's and T109A's for mating purposes or maybe he's in search of a mother figure.
T109A's son or daughter T109A2.
 Matriarchs T109A and. . . |  . . .T041. |
T041A with her new little calf again.
 T109A between her offspring T109A3. . . |  . . .and T109A4. |
T041A tail slaps.
T109A2 does an inverted tail slap.
T109A2 does an inverted tail slap again.
T109A2 rolls on his/her side, showing of a nick in her pectoral fin.
One they got to Halibut Island and hit some of the kelp beds around it, they stopped to play and roll around some more.
T012A with kelp draped over his dorsal fin.
T012A, T041 and T109A4 surface in another kelp bed.
We left them a little while later as they continued to fool around in the kelp. Besides this encounter being super sweet with active Transient orcas, it was also very exciting to me because I had never seen any of these orcas before and got to see a T041As new calf! Extraordinary!
Please do not use my photos without permission. Just ask :)
Please do not use my photos without permission. Just ask :)
