May 30, 2024: T Party | San Juan Island

Jun 4

Date: May 30, 2024
Location: Cattle Point, San Juan Island, WA
Weather: Mostly sunny, 57 degrees Fahrenheit, with 9mph winds from W
Tide: Ebb
Pods/Individuals: T49As, T19, T19B
Total whale count: ~8
Behaviors: Traveling
Boat Count: ~4
Observer: Tamara Kelley

T49A2 Jude with T19B Galiano (Photo by Tamara Kelley)

After viewing the Pacific White Sided dolphins at Jackson Beach for a while, a friend we were with at the beach tipped us off to a pod of orcas making their way south through Cattle Pass. We set off along with our friends and stopped in a couple of locations to track down the unidentified group of orcas.

Based on their location, we had suspected these were transients (mammal-eating killer whales), and we were correct. We first stopped at the marina but didn’t have a good enough vantage to see out into the channel, so we then made our way to to the Cattle Point Interpretive area. We didn’t have to wait too long before the whales came into view.

At the time, myself and my peers weren’t sure what matriline we were looking at. After the began getting closer, eventually passing Goose Island, I was able to get a good look at them and instantly recognized the infamous underbite of the calf T49A6 and was able to quickly determine one of the groups was the T49As.

Traveling along with the 49As was T19B Galiano, and presumably his mother T19 Nootka. It did not appear that the eldest male offspring T49A1 Noah was not present. However, the biggest surprise was that the second eldest male of the 49As, T49A2 Jude was traveling with this group. 49A2 typically does not travel with his family and often associates with his uncle, so it was pretty interesting seeing him with his family.

Both T19B and T49A2 have floppy dorsal fins, T19B’s dorsal fin leans to the left while T49A2’s leans to the right. The two were traveling together and it was fun seeing their floppy fins side by side. T49A2’s dorsal fin has been sprouting and growing in height quite a lot, however next to T19B he still looked quite small in comparison, showcasing how large T19B is.

The whales continued their way south through the channel, exhibiting some hunting behaviors, then traveling together tightly grouped. As the exited the channel they appeared to head up island, however when we changed locations we were unable able to find them again.