Written by Bethany
on Aug 27, 2023

Whale Report: August 13, 2023 – T75Bs New Calf!

Whale Report: August 13, 2023 – T75Bs New Calf!

August 13, 2023 AM – We had a two species whale trip! We started off out of Friday Harbor towards the south end of the San Juan Islands and checked out some Steller Sea Lions on the rocks. Then we headed out into the Strait of Juan De Fuca where we spotted a very cooperative Minke Whale! We got several amazing looks at the chevron stripes on the side of this whale and we were able to identify it as an animal that we call “Stubbs”. We had a report of some killer whales close so off we went. We ended up getting to watch a group of six whales traveling into Eastsound near Orcas Island. It turned out to be the T75Bs plus T77C “Neftali” and T77D “Alcyon”. Very quickly, we noticed a very small whale traveling tucked in between the various whales. It was a tiny, newborn calf! The calf still had fetal folds and was a dark orange hue which means that it was most likely less than two weeks old! Adorable! It hasn’t been determined which female gave birth to the calf but the most likely suspects are T75B “Pebble” or her daughter T75B2 “Rubble”. Either would be an incredible feat because “Pebble” only just had a calf under two years ago. Killer Whale gestation is 17 months so she would have had to give birth and gotten pregnant right away! If “Rubble” is the mother, that means she would have gotten pregnant at seven years old! That would make her the youngest killer whale in the wild to give birth to her first calf! What an amazing encounter with the newest killer whale in the Salish Sea!

 

Photographer and Naturalist: Bethany Shimasaki – Instagram @Adventures.with.Bethany – Website: www.bethshim.com

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

Written by Bethany
on Aug 27, 2023

Whale Report: August 13, 2023 – T75Bs New Calf!

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