Written by Bethany
on Sep 10, 2023

Whale Report: August 19, 2023 – T37As, Humpbacks and Danger Balloons!

Whale Report: August 19, 2023 – T37As, Humpbacks and Danger Balloons!

August 19, 2023 – We headed out from Friday Harbor towards the western part of the San Juan Islands. We quickly spotted a large blow in the distance and it turned out to be a humpback whale with a calf! The two whales were surfacing together and we were able to identify the mom as BCX0158 “Kappa”. This is the first time we have seen her this year and we were surprised to see she had a calf this year because she had brought back a calf last year as well! What a super mom! It is rare for humpbacks to have calves in consecutive years but it looked healthy traveling closely next to mom. We continued and passed over the Canadian border to catch up with a group of Bigg’s Killer Whales! We had an amazing encounter with a family of four whales known as the T37As. Mom T37A “Volker” and her three kids were just traveling slowly through some glassy calm water. T37A2 “Inky” has grown so much in the past few years and is shaping up to be a very handsome boy! We even got a close pass at the end when they turned towards us. It was fun to see the head-on angle of T37A4 “Crinkle” because of her unique looking dorsal fin! Finally, we got to see some steller sea lions on our way home and a sea otter! Unfortunately, there was a large bundle of balloons that were caught in the current next to the sea lions and they were very distressed over them! We eventually managed to grab the balloons out of the water before the stellers or the sea otter got entangled! We hate balloons!

 

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 Sep 10, 2023

Whale Report: August 19, 2023 – T37As, Humpbacks and Danger Balloons!

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