Yup! October Orcas. I know we’ve said it a hundred times before, be we are very lucky to be seeing killer whales this consistently, this late in the fall. These Southern Resident Killer Whales feed on the Chinook Salmon. Basically, the Chinook Salmon govern the SRKW movements. Remember, an adult orca needs about 400lbs of salmon a DAY! Usually this time of year, the salmon have already completed their annual runs through this area, which means the killer whales most often head towards open ocean to feed. The Chinook are still here, which means the orcas are still here. YAY!
Captain Nancy & Naturalist Kevin had an incredible whale watch trip on the Sea Hawk. They met up with the SRKWs near False Bay as the whales traveled north from the Southern tip of Lopez Island. There was breaching, and spyhops, and lots of fast surface activity. Kevin said all the guests were cheering as a big male orca breached four times in a row! As the Sea Hawk was heading back to Roche Harbor, one gusts saw something waaaay in the distance. At first, Kevin thought it was another killer whale, but after looking with binoculars, everyone realized it was a humpback! Captain Nancy motored towards the humpback, which was about a mile away. Since humpbacks can stay underwater for about 20 min, Nancy focused on the last location the whale surfaced. She shut down the engines and everyone waited. Then, all of a sudden, two humpbacks surfaced within 20 yards of the boat! It was a mother a calf pair. Kevin estimated the calf to be about 20 feet long and determined it to be about 7 months old. And this was just the first trip of the day!
We did see whales on the second trip, too! There were lots of breaching again, and Kevin identified little K44, who was born this summer. He was cruisin’ along with his mother, Deadhead (K27). K44 (who we are still nicknaming Garcia!) is still the bright orange-ish color. Calves will keep this color for about a year, but can get this color later when they get excited! How cute :).
There was a loan male killer whale swimming along mostly by himself, but he did have an escort of about a dozen dall’s porpoise. They were swarming around him like a bunch of little knats! The male orca would dive down, and they dall’s stuck with him. They would, however, have to come up and breathe more frequently. More or less, Nancy and Kevin could track the killer whales movements because of the swarming porpoise. Kevin shouted up to Nancy on the fly bridge that the dall’s porpoise “are coming our way!” Nancy quick shut down the engines and within second the big male killer whale surfaced next to the Sea Hawk and then slowly swam under the boat! And he still had all of his little dall’s porpoise friends taggin’ along.