San Juan Whale Watching

This morning on the Western Prince we departed from Canoe Island (with
the French Camp aboard for a charter) without an orca report - but as we
headed south down San Juan Channel, we got a report of whales inbound
from Trial Island. We headed out into the Strait of Juan de Fuca without
finding out which whales were there, since we were excited enough to get
an orca report at all. We assumed it was some group of residents, since
they’ve been split up into 4 or more groups in the last week or so. As
we approached though we heard over the radio that they had “just made a
kill” - something that definitely refers to the marine mammal feeding
transients! It turns out we were looking at a group of what us
whale-watchers affectionately call “Ts”. As the whales came into sight they were breaching and tail-slapping,
unusual behaviors for the otherwise low-profile transients and something
they usually only do after completing a kill when stealth is no longer
necessary. The one big male in the group, later identified as T20,
repeatedly raised his large, curved flukes in the air and slapped them
down on the water.

T20 travels with female T21, who was also seen in the group. There
seemed to be about 4-5 other whales, and other whale-watchers had told
us the T124s were there.

Resident and transient orcas are the same species, and to the casual
observer look entirely the same. After looking at residents day after
day for many summers in a row, however, I’m amazed at how different they
really are. Transients sound different when they breathe at the surface
(shorter, quieter breaths, probably part of their stealthy instincts).
They also have distinctly pointed dorsal fins. Look at this comparison
between a sharply pointed transient fin on the left and a rounded
resident fin on the right:

Monika Wieland, Marine Naturalist