Transient orcas
U38 & U39
Constance Bank
Sept. 4, 2009
Photo by
Marie O'Shaughnessy
Sept. 4
Apparently these two Transient Orca (see photo) seen by the 3.30pm Ocean Magic trip out of Victoria, Friday Sept 4th, were labelled as 'unknown' until at a later time last evening, when Mark Mallard from POW was able to identify them, as U 38 and U 39. They were seen 2 miles south of Constance Bank, Strait of Juan de Fuca and heading even further south when we left them at 5pm. We had spent time with a Humpback Whale south of Constance Bank that was foraging before we got word that the Transients were out there too. A nice surprise and the first sighting for me of 'exotics'.Everyday out on the water holds so many surprises. It is awesome to see all this wildlife in these waters. How fortunate we are to live on the west coast.!
Marie O'Shaughnessy, Orca-Magic. Prince Of Whales, Victoria B.C.
Since I'd never run across any "U" Transients before, I asked for clarification from the Center for Whale Research as to what a "U" (rather than a "T") Transient means - here's Dave's answer - sb:
It means Graeme (Ellis, of Canada's DFO Pacific Biological Field Station) is not willing to call them transients yet since (probably) no one has biopsied these two, there are no recordings of them, and/or they have never been sufficiently associated with known west coast transients. They do look like they came out of a slightly different mold and may have moved into these waters from somewhere to the south of here or from offshore.
Dave Ellifrit, Center for Whale Research
