Tuesday, September 9
T’s playing in Port Angeles
Well, what a fantastic day out on the water. Once again I’ve (naturalist Tim) finished the day seeing things I’ve never seen before, and I’m coming up to around 200 trips for the season. Awesome!
Captain Brad and naturalists Tim and Kaylin headed out on the Orca Spirit to another beautiful September day on the water. Now we had transient orcas the day before, and they’ve been sticking around this area just south of Victoria, so we figured they would have to be around somewhere. After searching and searching and searching, we decided to try something different, and so searched some more! Just when we thought that it was going to be a ‘no whale morning’, the radio went off saying “Contact, contact” and sure enough they had picked up the group of 5 T’s in the area that we had searched but apparently they had been going on long dives (6-7 minutes) and so eluded us. That’s the thing about wild animals folks, they are unpredictable and as hard as you search for them, sometimes they elude you. Not to worry, so we raced to where these mammal-eating dolphins were and upon arriving on scene just east of Race Rocks the “show” began. Now I know they are wild animals and aren’t performing for us, but really, it was one of the best whale encounters I have had all season. These T’s (T41’s and T100’s) had found a sea lion (hence the initial long deep dives) and were lunging, leaping and slapping it with their tail fluke. All of a sudden, the big male T44 breached! And again! And again! I had never seen a transient orca breach before and what a sight it was! He seemed to leap out of the water and just hang in mid air for a moment showing us his huge oval shaped pectoral fins before coming crashing down in a huge splash of water. It was absolutely spectacular! There were much more tail slaps, lunging and splashing going on, then as we had to leave to head back to Victoria it stopped. I just want to thank the T’s for waiting for the Orca Spirit to arrive before truly impressing this Aussie naturalist, (and passengers!) with their aerobatics. What amazing creatures these top predators in the ocean really are. Bring on the afternoon trip!
Leaving the dock this afternoon we didn’t think we would be heading straight across the Strait into Port Angeles harbour, and when I say into Port Angeles harbour I literally mean just that. 18 miles pretty much due south from Victoria we came across a group of 5 mammal-eating orcas (same group from this morning) just in the mouth of Port Angeles, and they were certainly a playful bunch this afternoon. I have never seen T’s behave in what can only be described as playful. Passengers were just in awe as we watched these 5 orcas tail slap numerous times, spyhop, head stand (where they hold their body out of the water looking like their standing on their head), breach, cartwheel, then out of nowhere the big guy T44 turned on his side and slapped his huge pectoral fins, not once, not twice, but five times! It was spectacular! Pretty much every behaviour you have ever seen an orca do, these orcas did it, and to have the Olympic Peninsula as a backdrop just put the icing on a cake for what can only be described in my own words as a bloody amazing trip. Passengers were literally gobsmacked to be able to witness this, and to see it all in calm seas with the sun shining made it a trip that they will never forget. September is certainly turning out to be a great month to go whale watching! Check out a few pics I took below from this afternoon. Now I know my pics don’t compare to our other naturalist Corey or Captain John, but I do the best I can with what I’ve got. Enjoy.
