June: A Month Full of Bigg's Killer Whale Encounters

It still feels very surreal that we've just had our first June on record with no Southern Resident killer whales in inland waters. June used to be a highlight of the year because of the abundance of sightings of all three pods on the west side of San Juan Island. Yet here we are, 58 days without any of them in the Salish Sea. The silence created by their absence is deafening.

It's been an interesting process to hold on to that loss and that grief while simultaneously celebrating and reveling in the mammal-eating transient or Bigg's killer whales, which continue to set records year after year for their presence in the inland waters. It's equally bizarre to think I was here for years before I ever met any of them, and now I'm beginning to know them as families and individuals, too. The encounters I've head with them over the last month or so have been awesome - though there have been multiple occasions where I've had an unexpected moment of heartache when I think to myself, "The Southern Residents used to do this": a large group of whales swimming spread out up Swanson Channel. An early morning report of vocals on the Lime Kiln hydrophone and a surprise close pass of a tail-slapping whale through the kelp. Getting off work and watching two mothers with calves round Edwards Point and swim past Land Bank. I never thought I would see Bigg's killer whales doing those things.

I've been negligent in posting my sightings and photos here, so this post will serve as a quick recap to share a few memorable moments leading up to my next installment about an encounter that deserves its own post.

June 6 - The T65Bs and T137s in San Juan Channel

June 11 - The T49As in Wasp Passage

Having our boat in a new location this year has meant whale encounters in new locations, and Wasp Passage between Orcas and Shaw Islands has quickly become a new favorite spot to see whales.

We even got to see the T49As go through narrow Pole Pass, a channel between Orcas and Crane Islands about 250 feet across and 12 feet deep at low tide. Fun fact: apparently it's so named because, as the story goes, Native Americans would stretch fish nets on poles across the pass to catch migratory waterfowl.

June 12 - The T123s pass Friday Harbor

I lucked out with a close surfacing by the whole family from my shore-based perch.

June 20 - The T46s and T46Bs in Swanson Channel

On this truly memorable evening we headed out with some friends aboard a Maya's Legacy trip out of Snug Harbor. While there was another whale report in the area, we stopped to scan where an additional group of whales had briefly been spotted a short time before. We stopped several times and looked in all directions, but didn't see or hear anything. Then our captain caught sight of a fin 2 miles away, and it turned out to be a group of 13 whales that had gone undetected all day!

The two family groups were the T46s and T46Bs, such a storied group they deserve a longer treatment at some point, but this day it was all about getting to meet T46B1B, a little calf nicknamed Tl'uk ("Moon" in the Bella Coola Coast Salish language) who has made headlines for his very pale appearance.

He had periodically been around for a couple of weeks, but it was my first time meeting him, and I was very excited! We can't say for sure what is causing him to look so light. He's not albino (he doesn't have red eyes), but other conditions are difficult to assess without genetic sampling. Some are calling him leucistic (a condition that prevents pigments from functioning properly), but it's also possible he has another genetic condition called Chédiak–Higashi syndrome. Some whales who have looked this way haven't lived very long, while others have darkened up with age. One thing that's really striking about this little guy is just how different he looks in various lighting conditions - sometimes almost white, and other times just a shade of dark gray instead of black!

We left them heading up Trincomali Channel (my first time in this waterway!) and were treating to a stunning sunset on the way home.

June 21 - The T75Bs and T75Cs at Land Bank

June 21 - T124C at Land Bank

June 23 - The T46Bs and T77A on the west side of San Juan Island

Following this last one I would go a week before having another whale sighting, but it turned out to be well worth the wait! Stay tuned....

July 12-17 with Js and Ks

After another nearly two week absence, some of the Southern Residents returned to the Salish Sea on the morning of July 12. It was all of J-Pod, and this time they brought K-Pod with them for their first visit to the Salish Sea since March! I saw a few Js in the morning head north then south off Land Bank.

There's been a lot of focus in the region on whale watch and private boats, while the largest and noisiest vessels (one of which is shown here beyond J19 Shachi on July 12) fail to get as much attention

That evening, most of whales somewhat bizarrely headed north up San Juan Channel towards the Fraser, a route I'm not sure I've seen them take in that direction before! A mixture of Js and Ks stayed on the west side, but were mostly too far away to view from shore. On July 13, the whales that had stayed south snuck north in the early morning to meet the others, and over the course of 10 hours all the Js and Ks came down in three very, very spread apart groups. Most of the whales were in the first group which I missed, but that's okay, because the later groups were the K13s and then the K14s, which gave me a chance to get my first good look at members of K-Pod in 2018!

K27 Deadhead heading south past Lime Kiln on the afternoon of July 13

In the evening, the K14s came down, and we heard some great vocalizations from them. You can listen to a clip of their chatter here.

K26 Lobo heading south on the evening of July 13

The Js and Ks did more west side shuffling on July 14, and we spent three hours in the evening watching the J16s, J17s, and K12s go back and forth off Land Bank. It truly felt like one of the "good ol' days" with playful whales just hanging out and going back and forth on the west side. The J17s gave us the closest and most active pass of the night:

Ahhh....sunset whales.

K33 Tika

One of the J16s in the orange glow of a San Juan summer sunset

The only thing that compares to sunset whales is early morning whales, which we were lucky enough to get the very next day! When calls were heard on the hydrophones by friends of ours, we headed out to Lime Kiln, expecting to see Js and Ks again. Most of them had actually headed back out west, and it turned out just the J16s and J17s had stayed! But they took their sweet time going slowly north past Lime Kiln against a strong ebb tide, so we got several hours of viewing time.

J26 Mike

J36 Alki

J17 Princess Angeline

From left to right: J44 Moby, J53 Kiki, and J17 Princess Angeline

J35 Tahlequah and J47 Notch

You can see a video clip I took of the J17s passing off the Lime Kiln Lighthouse here.

Interestingly, J46 Star was not with them. After the tragic death of her mom and little brother in 2016, she's started spending a bit less time with her closest living family in the J17s. I was a little worried until other whale watchers confirmed that she did indeed go west with the rest of J-Pod! She has been spending a lot of time with J31 Tsuchi and J40 Suttles, two other young females who have lost their mothers, a fact which really pulls at the heart strings!

After spending the day up north on the 16th, the J16s and J17s were back to doing the west side shuffle on July 17th. When in the evening I heard that they had gotten up to County Park and flipped back south, we decided to head out to Land Bank to try and catch them. I was very surprised when we got there to instead see the K22s foraging off Land Bank! We ended up seeing the K12s and K13s head back south, with many more fins and blows way offshore in the middle of Haro Strait, so it looked like the rest of J-Pod and K-Pod had snuck back in undetected!

K37 Rainshadow on the evening of July 17

Right as the trailing orcas were heading south, we were surprised by a humpback whale heading north!

It sure has been great having Js and Ks around daily over the last week; we just hope they're finding enough salmon to keep sticking around!

July 23rd: Epic Day With Js and Ls

On the morning of Sunday, July 23rd, word came in that some residents were inbound from Sooke. Then, we heard about whales off the south end of the island - some of them were already here! It turned out that the same 19 whales from L-Pod had snuck in overnight, while all of J-Pod was heading east in to join them. L-Pod hung out near False Bay until J-Pod made their way across Haro Strait around noon. Then, in the early afternoon, they made their way north far enough that we could see them from the shores of San Juan Island.

We've all been curious who might take the "leader" role for J-Pod with the passing of J2 Granny at the end of last year. So far, it looks to be J19 Shachi, who has not only regularly been in the lead, but does it in Granny-style, far out ahead on her own in a no-nonsense kind of way.

J19 Shachi leading the way

Everybody else wasn't in such a hurry, and in fact they spent the next hour and a half basically milling right off Land Bank.

The largest group was a ways offshore, seeming playing around in a tide rip, but suddenly a group of half a dozen whales popped up closer to shore.

This close group then made a turn to come even closer - this is the kind of surfacing I just love to see!

Incoming!

Eventually even J19 Shachi came back to re-join the party, passing right along the rocks as she headed back south again.

A bit later it seemed like the whales had finally decided to go north, as they grouped up into two large groups and rode the strong flood tide up the lighthouse. We were just getting ready to leave Land Bank and try to catch the tail end of them at Lime Kiln when a splash to the north caught our eye. There was a porpoising whale - coming back south again! We ran back down the hill, this time right to the waterline as ALL 35 whales came back south close to shore. I like this shot (click to see a larger view to do it justice) that shows three lines of whales approaching. Talk about excitement!

A pec wave from J27 Blackberry with Whale Watch Point in the background

It's an incredible sight when the whales tuck into the little coves along the shoreline. We were almost looking behind us to the right to see these whales on the rocks!

The most magical moment occurred when a mom and juvenile stopped right in front of us. I didn't even know the water was deep enough this close to shore, but they turned upright and had just their rostrums above the surface for several moments. I can only imagine that underwater they must have been eye to eye. Why they stopped to do this, and why it happened right in front of us, I will never know, but it was a once-in-a-lifetime moment for me!

The day had already earned "epic" status by this point, but it was not over! We had just enough time to grab a bite to eat, download photos of the SD cards, and put on a layer of suncreen before running back out to the west side, this time heading to Lime Kiln and getting there just in time for another close pass by all the whales, going north this time.

Incoming again!

Sometimes it takes a wider angle shot to really capture just how close these whales come to the rocks. That's my husband Jason, and there were more whales around the corner to the left IN Deadman's Bay.

It all happened so quickly because they were almost all in one big group, but for a moment there were whales everywhere, all of them just a few yards away!

L92 Crewser

Conditions were too perfect not to head north and hop into our boat, and we met up with the same large group right off Henry Island.

 It's just indescribable to see that many dorsal fins all together...

....andwhen they're in a playful mood it becomes even more magical...

I just love this shot of the whales in front of my friends Barbara and David's sailboat! Check out the special whale-watch sailing trips they offer at All Aboard Sailing.

And I also love this one, with perfect evening lighting off of Spieden Island:

As good as it felt to have them here, and while they did go north to the Fraser River, their stay was also short. The next evening the Ls made their way back down, heading through Haro after dark and back out the Strait. Js would follow two days later, also bypassing the daylight hours of Haro Strait on their way out and leaving on the 26th. Here's hoping their couple of recent visits are a sign that the second half of the summer will be full of more Southern Residents than the first half was, and that there's plenty of salmon to keep them here!

Next up for me, however, is a trip north. I've long wanted to make a summer excursion to the north end of Vancouver Island, and this year it's finally happening! Fingers crossed I get to hang out a bit with the cousins of the Js, Ks, and Ls I know so well - the Northern Residents!