May 12, 2023: T Party & Gray Whales | Possession Triangle/Sound
Date: Friday, May 12, 2023
Location: Possession Triangle and Possession Sound (Hat Island).
Weather: Sunny, 79 degrees Fahrenheit with 9mph winds from NW
Tide: High to ebb
Pods/Matrilines: Orcas: T124A2s, T71Bs, T87, T65, T63, T124C, and T124A4s | Gray Whales: CRC-531, CRC-2440
Total Whale Count: 12 orcas (estimated based on individuals present), 2 gray whales
Behaviors: Traveling
Boat Count: 6+ (1 whale watch boat, 2 ferries, 3+ recreational boats)
The day prior to this trip, there were reports of multiple transient/Bigg’s killer whale (mammal eaters) matrilines entering Puget Sound proper, including one of the most well-known transient killer whales, T63 Chainsaw. After a few years (and continuous misses) of attempting to see Chainsaw, we took the gamble that he would still be in Puget Sound by the next day, and so we booked a trip with Puget Sound Express for the following day in hopes to get our first looks at this iconic whale.
Our gamble paid off, and as the crew was getting ready to make way, reports from ferry captains and shore-based whale watchers were already coming through of two separate groups of transient killer whales making their way north from Seattle. Within 5 minutes of leaving the marina, we were already with the first group of killer whales, which consisted of the T124A2s, T71Bs, and T87. The group started out traveling grouped up together and disappeared for a few minutes on a long deep dive. Upon resurfacing, they were much closer to the vessel, so engines were shut off until the whales moved safely away.
After the whales passed, T87 Harbeson broke off from the group. The other orcas began to trend Northwest towards the direction of Admiralty Inlet, while Harbeson remained close to the vessel, slowly trending north towards the south end of Whidbey Island. Harbeson is another exciting whale and is, in a way, an anomaly. He is a loan male and one of the oldest living males that we know of, which is quite unusual as in most cases males have shorter life spans than females. We stayed with Harbeson for a few minutes before slowly motoring to the other group, which at this point had broken out into two smaller groups.
After viewing the other groups for a few minutes, the captain started heading north towards Possession Sound to go see a couple of gray whales in the area. We asked the captain if we were going to see the second group of orcas, now reported outside of Kingston, the captain discussed with the naturalist and decided to turn back south to see the second group prior to seeking out the grays. We were very relieved about this since it was confirmed that Chainsaw was in the second group.
Within a few minutes, we were just north of Kingston with the second group of orcas which consisted of the T65s, the T124A4s, and T124C. The T124A4s were grouped up together, with T63 Chainsaw trailing behind, followed by his mother T65 and T124C. Chainsaw was easily recognized by his tall, wide dorsal fin that has two large notches missing at the top trailing back edge that resembles a chainsaw (where the nickname comes from). The notches are scars from an injury that could have been caused by a stellar sea lion, another killer whale, or a boat prop.
T63 and his mother T65 (what makes up the T65 matriline) historically range further north in the Salish Sea, around the north end of Vancouver Island, and all the way up into Southeast Alaska. It has been within the last couple of years that the T65s have been seen regularly in the Salish Sea. To our knowledge, 2022 was the first time the T63s were documented within Puget Sound proper. We had attempted to see The T65s April of last year from shore but were on the wrong side of the channel and couldn’t see them. They made a repeat visit to Puget Sound close to a year after the previous visit. It will be interesting to see if this trend continues next year and if we can expect to see Chainsaw and his mother Whidbey II in April or May of next year.
After spending a little time with the second group of orcas, we made our way into Possession Sound and went to Hat Island where we saw the gray whale CRC-531 Gretchen (female). Gretchen is one of the “Sounders”, a group of gray whales that regularly return to Puget Sound during their migration to Alaska to feed on ghost shrimp prior to returning to their migration. The designation of a Sounder is that the gray whale returns to the area for two consecutive years. When we saw Gretchen she was spending much of the time resting near the surface, indicating that she may have been sleeping.
We watched Gretchen for a few minutes before making our way up to another gray whale, CRC-2440 Tahoma (sex unknown). This gray whale is quite special to us, because we got to see him frequent our local beaches in Mukilteo and Everett throughout the summer, including one of our favorite gray whale encounters where Tahoma passed feet away from us on a pier. CRC-2440 first appeared in the Salish Sea in February of 2022, appearing malnourished and thin. This gray whale eventually made its way into Puget Sound and never left to migrate to the Alaskan waters to feed, or to Mexico or warmer waters to breed. Tahoma has become an unofficial resident gray whale. As this was the second year that 2440 was in Puget Sound, it got the official designation of being a Sounder and received the name Tahoma through a public vote hosted by Cascadia Research and Orca Network.
After spending a brief amount of time with CRC2440 we made our way back to port. This was certainly a trip for the record books. Most whale watch trips require time to travel to the locations of whales, as they are wild animals and move around a lot. On this trip we had whales right out of the gate and within minutes of port, allowing us to spend the majority of the 5 hours viewing multiple whales. And we finally got to see Chainsaw, our unicorn.
Individuals:
T87 Harbeson (male est. birth 1962)
T124C Cooper (male b. 1992)
Matrilines:
T65s: T65 Whidbey II (female estimated birth 1968), T63 Chainsaw (male b. 1978)
T71Bs: T71B Hood (female b. 2000), T71B1 Zeng (sex unknown b. 2013), T71B2 Tasli (sex unknown, b. 2018)
T124A2s: T124A2 Elkugu (female b. 2001), T124A2A Agafia (male b. 2019), T124A2B Litton (female b. 2016)
T124A4s: T124A4 Sabio (presumed female b. 2010), T124A4A (female b. 2021)
Gray Whales:
CRC-531 Gretchen (female)
CRC-2440 Tahoma (sex unknown)
Learn more about the matrilines on our Transient killer whale page
Download the free Department of FIsheries Canada Bigg’s Transients ID guide
