Western Prince Whale Watching

Written by Alison
on Jul 25, 2023

Whale Report: July 5, 2023 PM – Hunting with the T99s

Whale Report: July 5, 2023 PM – Hunting with the T99s

July 5, 2023 PM – We left the dock and headed south.  It was a gorgeous sunny day with a huge flood tide coming in.  We stopped in Cattle Pass to check out the Steller Sea Lions.  The water was wild with upwellings, standing waves and rapids as it made its way through the pass.  On the other side of the pass it was flat calm and gorgeous and we had two family groups of Bigg’s (marine mammal eating) Killer Whales to choose from.  We headed to Hein Bank to check out the T37A’s.  This family of 6 was very spread out, but we got some nice looks at the 14 year old male and his 10 year old sister.  We also were alarmed to see a fire on Protection Island which, with the exception of one resident, is a designated seabird sanctuary.  I later read that is was caused by a spark from a mower and that it was thankfully put out after a few hours.  Next we headed NE to see if we could hook up with the T99’s.  We encountered them just 10 minutes away.  The T99’s are a family group of 5 with mom bing 39 and her 4 offspring ranging in age from 2 to 16.  They were all together and shortly after we arrived they spread out a little and all were going in different directions.  There was one quick lunge at the surface by the 14 year old male. Although there was no obvious signs of a kill the behavior that followed indicated it was a possibility.  The kept circling close together, went on a longer dive and then the activity began with two breaches by one of the young calves, lots of pec slaps, tail slaps and one big beautiful spy hop by 16 year old T99B who is named “Holly!”

 

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 Jul 25, 2023

Whale Report: July 5, 2023 PM – Hunting with the T99s

Latest Blog ...