Sightings Report: T-Party - September 18th
Date: Saturday, September 18th, 2021
Location: US/Canadian border in Haro Straight, near Victoria, BC Canada
Weather: Partly cloudy, 63 degrees Fahrenheit with 9 mph SE winds
Tide: High tide/Ebb
Pods/Matrilines: T018s, T065Bs, T060, T060E, T060F, and T065A5
Total Whale Count: 11
Behaviors: Socializing, potential breeding
Boats: 9 (7 whale watch boats, 1 research boat, 1 private vessel/yacht)
Another beautiful day out on the water. We had anticipated rough and wet conditions following the first major storm of the season, but we were lucky to have beautiful weather and calm conditions. We caught up to a small T-Party (Transient/Bigg’s superpod) that consisted of the T018s (which includes T019, T019B, and T019C), T065Bs, members of the T060s, and T065A5 who had separated from his family and spent time with his aunt (T065B) and cousins. Earlier that day the majority of the T065As had been sighted traveling southbound in Admiralty Inlet. (Note: since this encounter T065A5 has rejoined with his family).
The behaviors we observed were social behaviors, orcas were traveling in tight groups and were often seen rolling over top of one another. We were able to capture a photograph where you can see male genitalia which leads us to believe there were potential breeding behaviors occurring. There was a young calf present, T065B2 who was often in the middle of some of the social behaviors. At times the whales would break up into two separate groups and we would see two of the large males (T019B and T019C) traveling between the groups. At times we also noticed them swimming over top females, likely breeding.
Along with breeding and social activity we saw a few tail slaps, peck slaps, lunges, and spy hops. One of the more interesting behaviors we noticed was a double spy hop. We had observed a similar double spy hop in another T-Party encounter earlier this month. Killer whales have complex social structures that include unique behaviors like “greeting ceremonies.” We can’t help but wonder if the observation of the double spy hop is purely coincidence or if perhaps it could be part of a ritual or ceremony since we have now seen this twice during breeding behaviors.
On our way out we encountered a massive bait ball south of San Juan and Lopez Islands. A bait ball is a swarm of small baitfish that swim in a tight spherical formation. When the landscape changes and becomes shallow this pushes bait balls near the surface where they swim more tightly together. In these instances, you are able to spot a bait ball with the large gathering of birds that congregate in the area looking for an easy meal. When around bait balls it is good to keep an eye out for feeding baleen whales like humpbacks and minkes. We spent some time watching all the birds swarm several bait balls and tried to see if we could find some baleen whales, but none were sighted.
During this encounter there were a few boats on the scene, seven total whale watch boats (Eagle Wing, Outer Island Excursions, Orca Spirit Adventures, Springtide Whale Watching, Sidney Whale Watching), a private yacht, and a research vessel (Ken Balcomb with the Center for Whale Research). All vessels remained over 300 yards distance and followed Whale Wise guidelines. No enforcement vessels were present.
Please note that our videos and photos are taken with high-powered lenses that can distort distances causing whales to appear much closer than they actually are.
