Casper and T46B's Family

T46Bs south of Victoria

The USCG was at my vessel for a quick inspection this morning and then I started figuring out where we were going to go for the first tour. Our first tour was with a family of four, who shared they enjoyed reading about and seeing pics of Casper on my photoblog. We had whales south of Victoria, and I planned to head for them. The whales were eastbound, which was great news for us.

On the way I learned, we would be seeing Casper and T46B’s Family. I am calling T46B1B Casper as a nickname. As has been pointed out previously, his name has been billed as T’luk by other naturalists, I was also told his name is Kanaka. For the purposes of my blog I will refer to him as Casper.

Leaving the harbor, I shared Harbor Seals, Bald Eagles, and Stellar Sea Lions. Then I learned the pod had switched directions and were heading southwest. Had I known that I would have gone directly to them.

Viewing Near Race Rocks

Once we caught up with them, we were very close to Race Rocks. On the way, I learned that the pod is the T46Bs. However, once on the scene, we learned that Casper, mom, and sibling were not with the pod. They were off on their own somewhere.

There were some fantastic views of playfulness, breaches, and a kill of some kind. Hundreds of Harbor Porpoise were around the whales, and they seemed not to notice. A Stellar Sea Lion showed up, and a minute later they went a little crazy. I do not know what they killed though, it was all below the surface and no blood gushing anywhere in our view.

In post-processing, I am cropping heavier than I typically do, experimenting, and taking advantage of the abilities of the rented lens I am using this week.

While there I grabbed a shot of Race Rocks Lighthouse. One of the breaches had a boat in the background, but nothing I could do about it at the moment.

Casper, Mom and Sibling

On the way back to Friday Harbor, another boat stumbled upon T46B1, T46B1A, and T46B1B (Casper), just south of San Juan Island. My next tour now has a destination. I was trying to decide about two separate groups of Orca that were both going away from us and more than an hour travel to get to either one of them.

So, back at the dock, saying goodbye to my guests and my next group were waiting. They are regulars to the islands and wanted to see whales. We were fortunate that the other two pods of Orca were around, so the fleet was spread out, allowing us to spend some good time with Casper, mom, and sibling.

Most of my afternoon shots are not as sharp as the morning tour pics. The group of three whales was very close to the west side of San Juan Island. Our viewing guidelines call for a 1/4 mile standoff from the island. That means most of my shots were from almost a 1/4 mile away. In a couple of the shots I can see that mom T46B1 has a seal or porpoise in her mouth with meat showing.

Casper stands out in almost an eerie sense against the black of mom and sibling. Notice the raking marks on Casper? It is not that other whales don’t have them too, but it seems like Casper has more than usual. It must be tough being different and being picked on. An amazing day seeing Casper and T46B’s Family even though they are about thirty miles apart.