Monday, September 1st

First day in September, to a T…

Well, what a day on the water. We ended up having an abundance of orcas out there today in the Salish Sea; several groups of the mammal-eating orcas (T’s) as well as all three pods of the fish-eating orcas (residents). Unbelievable!
Very rarely do we get to choose which group of orcas to see, and today there was certainly plenty to see!

This morning’s trip headed out with Captain Brad, Aussie naturalist Tim, and newcomer naturalist to the Orca Spirit crew Cassie. We had gotten a report of T’s off the northwest side of San Juan Island so went to investigate and approaching on scene we came across 7 T’s, identified as the T41, T41B, the big male T44’s and the T101’s. We followed these two groups as they travelled close together across the Haro Strait to Sidney Island, where they split around Mandarte Island (a bird sanctuary with an abundance of cormorants and gulls perched on the rocks). At the northern end of Mandarte we saw the T41’s and T44 lunge and splash around, then out of nowhere a harbour porpoise leapt out of the water with T44 hot on it’s tail, then BOOM! T44 leapt out of the water upside down with the harbour porpoise perched upside down on its rostrum. It was absolutely incredible! A passenger was quick enough (and lucky enough!) to get a photo of this. I asked him to email it to us and so hopefully in the coming weeks I will post it up for you all to see. It was truly spectacular to see the top predators in the ocean display their dominance. Nature at it’s best. It literally was the coolest thing I have ever seen! A phenomenal trip, with passengers certainly stepping onto the dock with a memory to last a lifetime.

The afternoon trip headed out with reports of a few groups of T’s and the resident orcas in the Haro Strait and surrounding Gulf Islands, so Captain Brad made the decision to check out a large group of T’s (8 in total, which is large considering T’s generally only travel in groups of 1-6 individuals). We first saw these mammal-eating orcas heading south down the west side of James Island and looking closely at them they were identified as the T46’s and the T100’s.
There was a new calf within the T46 group, and based on its size it looked less than 12 months old. There were actually a few juveniles within the group, and all 6 animals in the group were travelling very close together, as calves do with their mothers. Passengers were lucky enough to witness a few spyhops, tail slaps, and even a jump out of the water by the big male as he lunged for what appeared to be a harbour seal. Most of the time when these top predators are feeding it happens underwater, but occasionally we get lucky and witness some surface activity. It is the time of the year in these waters where life is most abundant, and lots of marine animals are giving birth, so there is plenty of food for these orcas. It’s feeding time in the Salish Sea!

Another great day on the water with Orca Spirit. I’m certainly going to miss it when I leave this beautiful part of the country at the end of the month.