Humpback Whale Lunge Feeding -and T46's Orca

An exciting day we had today. I headed south with the report of a Humpback Whale south of the islands. We stopped off to see Seals and Bald Eagles along the way. When we arrived, we saw the Humpback Whale lunge-feeding and putting on a good show. He was going after bait balls of fish that seagulls were also feeding on.

After a bit, we decided to move on to a Gray Whale that was nearby. However, a pod of Orca had been spotted even closer to us. It was the T46’s minus the T46B1’s.

We viewed the Orca for a while then backtracked a bit to see Tufted Puffins before heading back to Friday Harbor.

The second tour started with Bald Eagles, and then at the bottom of the channel, I saw something and was looking closely to see if it was what I thought I saw. A Steller Sea Lion popped up several times, and I thought it could have been his flipper I saw. Then, I saw it again and knew I had a pod of Killer Whales with me.

This pod turned out to be the T46B1’s that includes Casper as I call him or T’Luk as others call him. His Identity is T46B1B. He is the little guy with the pigment disorder.

We spent a good bit of time observing them and making little side steps to see other things. I shared the enormous Bald Eagles nest that was nearby and the Stellar Sea Lions that were also close by. We also saw Black Oystercatchers.

Then we caught back up to the pod as they were now charging up the channel. I hailed the USCG Cutter Sea Lion that was coming right at them at high speed and asked if he could slow and alter course around the whales. He replied that he was responding to a SAR (Search And Rescue) and would not be slowing down. There had been a report of a person in the water three hours earlier, but maybe he had something more recent SAR.

We stayed with the pod until someone else came along to keep watch over them in the channel.