Whale Watching Log. I have not yet blogged about the Transient Killer Whale Encounter we had a couple weeks ago, May 22nd I believe. We had a late afternoon tour, and we were fortunate that some Transient Killer Whales were in the area. A friend who operates tours from Victoria, stayed with them until we arrived in their vicinity around 5:00pm. We were then treated to one of my top 5 Killer Whale shows of all time.
First let me briefly tell the newbies about Transient Killer Whales. Unlike the Southern Resident Killer Whales we see most often, who eat primarily eat Salmon, Transients primarily eat other marine mammals. This includes Harbor Seals, Harbor Porpoise, and Dalls Porpoise in our region.
The transients were swimming in small groups socializing, until they encountered a group of 20-30 Harbor Porpoise. They began to spread out and clearly hunt. If you are squeamish, stop reading here.... As the hunt continued, a mother, teenage offspring, and 1 yr old lunged after two porpoise only 150 yards from our vessel, and that's all we though we were going to see. Watching transients after all is not like watching lions hunt zebra. Most of the carnage occurs under water as they finish off their prey, and nourish themselves. Tonight however was a different story. More pod members closed in on the prey and they were obviously sharing the killed porpoise with others. After some time, we observed the porpoise lungs bobbing around, and occasionally getting pulled under the water (we assume they were picking the carcass clean). This was certainly the case. After the whale left, we took a vote and closed in on the porpoise remains. The whales had very neatly cleaned everything away except the lungs, stomach, rib cage, intestines, and spine of two porpoise. Amazing!! Amazing how they were able to so neatly separate their prey, considering the tools they have to work with. I cannot wait to talk with my friend Dave, who studies Killer Whales and has seen this behavior before.
I hope this gets you excited to come see us for a tour this summer. Transient sightings are most frequent in the spring and early summer, when our residents are not around as much. This applies to the fall as well.