I woke up on Saturday morning to hear reports of Transients in the area. Luckily, I was working on the San Juan Excursions whale watching boat called the "Odyssey" that day so I hoped we would be able to catch up with them. We departed Friday Harbor, San Juan Island, and headed North East through Peavine Pass and popped out between Orcas, Cypress, and Blakley Island and that is where we found the whales. Transients, unlike salmon eating Resident orcas, eat marine mammals and these two matrilines were working their way around two rocks covered with harbor seals. The seals had hauled out on the rock to escape the jaws of the orcas. As we made our way over to the orcas, a few harbor porpoise sped past us, fleeing the area.
Two harbor porpoise flee the scene. They would not be lunch today!
Harbor seals haul out onto one of the rocks for safety.
The two matrilines, with seven animals altogether, are made up of these individuals:
| T065A, F, 1986 T065A2, unk, 2004 T065A3, unk, 2007 T065A4, unk, 2011 | T075B, F, 1994 T075B1, unk, 2007 T075C, F, 1998 |
The orcas made their way around the two seal covered rocks and then headed for the shores of Cypress Island. Once at the island, they found what was probably an unlucky harbor seal and ate it. There was a short celebration by T065A, who did an inverted tail slap, but after that, the orcas went silent again to continue hunting.
Adult female T065A tail slaps.
T075B1, T075B's first born.
T065A.
 T075C, T075B's young sister. |  T075C, T075B's young sister. |
T075B.
 T065A2, T065A's second kid. |  T065A2, T065A's second kid. |
T065A4, T065A's fourth kid, with T075C in the background.
T065A3, T065A's third child.
We left the orcas as they heading down Rosario Strait in search of more prey.
Please do not use my photos without permission. Just ask :)
Please do not use my photos without permission. Just ask :)
