Written by Alison
on Sep 21, 2024

Orcas and Humpbacks by Friday Harbor

Orcas and Humpbacks by Friday Harbor

August 29, 2024 PM – Well it is not every day that you can leave the dock and be with Orcas within 10 minutes, but today was one of those lucky days. We left Friday Harbor crossed the channel to Shaw Island and started our encounter with 5 members of the T49A’s Bigg’s Killer Whale family. This family is led by Nan, a 38 year old mother of 6. Her 2 oldest sons, Noah and Jude were not present but the 4 younger offspring were present. They included Nat (13 M), Neptune (10 M), Nebula (7 F) and Smoosh Face (2 M). Little Smoosh Face was surfacing nice and high out of the water so we could all get a look at his flattened rostrum with a developing underbite that is believed to from an injury when he was really little. They cruised along the Shaw Island shoreline and then eventually started to cross over to Lopez. It was time for us to look for other wildlife so we took off to the South. We stopped at Whale Rocks to check out the Steller Sea Lions warming up in the late afternoon sun then it was on to search for humpbacks. We had a report of 3 out past Hein Bank. It was a beautiful cruise in flat calm seas with lots of marine birds, Harbor Seals and a few porpoise popping up along the way, but no Humpbacks. Lucky for us another one had be spotted, guess where??? Right outside of Friday Harbor. We ended our trip with a beautiful encounter with the Humpback Whale known as “Two Spot.” He did several fluke up dives while we were with him and we all got to see the beautiful white underside of his fluke with the 2 spots!

Photographer and Naturalist: Alison Engle – Instagram: @Alisonengleart – Website: www.alisonengle.com

Western Prince Wildlife Adventures – Instagram: @Westernprincewildlife – Facebook: Western Prince Whale Watching

 

Written by Alison
on Sep 21, 2024

Orcas and Humpbacks by Friday Harbor

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