Sightings Report: T018s and T123s October 12th
Date: Tuesday, October 12th, 2021
Location: Sucia Islands
Weather: Raining 48 degrees Farenheight with 12mph winds from SE
Tide: Ebb
Pods/Matrilines: T018s & T123s
Total Whale Count: 8
Behaviors: Hunting and foraging
Boat Count: 5 (2 whale watch boats, 1 kayak, 1 tug, 1 recreational vessel)
It was quite a rough and choppy day on the water. We left the Skyline marina in Anacortes and started heading out to the Strait of Juan de Fuca near Victoria after following reports of humpbacks in the area. As we set out in the direction the wind and the waves were too rough so the captain decided to head north in hopes of locating two different matrilines of Transient/Bigg’s (mammal-eating) killer whales. After a slow trek up north we were successful in finding the T018s and the T123s.
Our encounter first started with the T018s along the northwest shore of Sucia Island where we saw them hunting and foraging The T018s include T018 “Esperanza” (estimated 66-year-old female), T019 “Nookta” (estimated 56-year-old female), T019B “Galiano” (26-year-old male), and T019C “Spouter” (20-year-old male). The T018s happened to be hunting near a bait ball, likely pursuing any seals, sea lions, or porpoises that may have been feeding on the bait ball. There were also quite a lot of sea birds feeding on the bait ball and scraps leftover from the T018s which made for a really cool experience with multiple types of animals. At one point as we were watching the T018s a harbor seal pop up right next to our boat to check us out. It would go underwater and then pop up at another part of the boat, observing all of us humans. We did our best to try and “shoo off” the seal who was not far from some hungry killer whales nearby.
After about thirty minutes of viewing the T018s, we left and headed to the southeast side of Sucia Island to find the T123s, who were also hunting and foraging. The T123s consist of T123 “Sidney” (36-year-old female), T123A “Stanley” (21-year-old male), T123C “Lucky” (9-year-old female), and T123D “Darcy” (3-year-old female). The conditions were a little more choppy with the T123s since we had lost some of our wind coverage and the rain also started to pick up which made it a little more tricky to photograph and film. We were able to confirm a kill when one of the females porpoised with something red in her mouth (as seen in the video clip).
During this encounter, there were only a few boats on the scene, including two whale watch vessels (Outer Island Adventures who staggered their presence so only one was there at a time), a kayak, and a few distant vessels and tug boat that were passing by the area. All vessels remained over 300 yards distance and followed Whale Wise guidelines. No research 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.
