It was another great week of adventuring in the Salish Sea this week. Killer whale sightings did finally slow down a little bit this week, we saw them on 6 out of 12 trips (only in the pacific northwest would seeing killer whales on 50% of trips be considered a slow week for orcas!). I have no doubt this will pick back up next week, history is on our side. Not to worry though, we still saw whales on all of our tours, with some wonderful humpback whale and minke whale encounters.
This week we had visits from the T034, T037, T075B, T036A, and T117 families of orcas. The week was highlighted by an encounter with the T117 and a couple of members of the T036A families of killer whales. We caught up with them on Saturday afternoon’s tour up near Matia island. On the way to the whales I got the call on the radio that they had quickly dispatched a steller sea lion. When we arrived, we could see quite a bit of commotion in the water from the start. The whales were enjoying themselves, doing some prey sharing, and doing some celebratory behavior including breaching, and spyhopping. It was very cool to witness.
We had some awesome minke whale encounters this week with some great lunge feeding behavior. Some of the “banks” (underwater plateaus) out in the strait of juan de fuca have been loaded with baitfish, attracting these baleen whales for a nice meal!
We can’t wait to see what another week of whale watching brings! Hope to see you soon!
