Transient orcas T124A's near Sooke, B.C. Dec. 28, 2009 Photo by Mark Malleson
Dec. 28 Found 7 Transients on the afternoon of December 28 near Sooke east bound which included the T124A's. Thanks to Sooke Auxilliary Coast Guard for the tip. Mark Malleson, Prince of Whales
Tranisent orca T10B Race Passage, B.C. Dec. 23, 2009 Photo by Mark Malleson
Transient orcas T10's and T26's near Race Rocks Dec. 23, 2009 Photo by Mark Malleson Dec. 23 The T010's and the T026's were west bound off of Victoria on the morning of December 23rd. Jared Towers and I left them in Race Passage at 11:30 west bound. Ken Balcomb and Dave Ellifrit relocated them at 1300 off Sooke Harbour still headed west. Mark Malleson, Victoria, B.C.
Dec. 23 Ken Balcomb of the Center for Whale Research called to report Transient orcas - the T10s and T26s headed west past Victoria, heading through Race Pass at 11:40 am.
Transient T74 Pt. Wilson, Pt. Townsend, WA Dec. 18, 2009 Photo by Frank White
Dec. 18 Orca Network received a call from Jim Whicker, reporting 7 orcas, including 1 male, a little north of Port Townsend, near the buoy 300 - 500' from shore (48 7.180684 N, -122 44.507595W) from 11:10 - 11:30 am Dec. 18. This was the Transient group with T74 (see photo) and friends.
A few more details on the Transients and Steller sea lions in Admiralty Inlet Dec. 18th: Transient orcas (T73- female w/notch in fin, w/T73C?) Pt. Wilson Dec. 18 Photo by Robert Whitney
Dec. 18 When the orca first appeared, surfacing less than 200 feet from where Frank and I were at Point Wilson. The two females moved swiftly and silently to the north where the remainder of the other orca were, three males and one female quickly grouped up with the two females. What it looked like to me was a team effort to drive any seals or sea- lions that were near the point towards the four orca who were waiting in the direction of where any pinniped might flee. It was interesting to see the close team work of the seven orca. Robert Whitney, Port Townsend
Dec. 18 Over at Ft. Casey (Whidbey Island) the Steller sea lions started bunching up about the time we got there at 1220 or so. At first there were only 2, then 3 or 4, but slowly more appeared until there were 13 or 14 (see above photo of the day) . As the group grew it got more agitated and started swimming back and forth along the beach, spyhopping and growling all in one direction and then in another direction. At one point they freaked completely when they saw a little black and white cocker spaniel on a leash a couple hundred yards away. It seemed like a delayed response to those killer whales rounding Pt. Wilson. We don't know if there was another case of a sea lion becoming lunch for the orcas, or the sea lions just heard the transients and got spooked. There were a couple of others around that didn't join the tight bunches, or hadn't yet when we left. The reactions seemed to be building the whole two hours that we were there so I don't know how long it went on. Howard Garrett, Orca Network, Whidbey Island
From the excellent photos taken by Robert Whitney and Frank White from shore at Pt. Wilson, some ID's of these Transients have been made - the male has been confirmed as T74 (very distinctive dorsal fin!); likely IDs are T73 with1 notch in fin, possibly w/T73C?, and T73A1, and possibly T73A - but we are waiting for confirmation on these possible IDs. Orca Network
Transient orcas T68s? Ft. Flagler Admiralty Inlet Dec. 12, 2009 Photo by Garrett Bradford
Dec.12 I was in the white Glasply (Quya) that you saw over by Marrowstone. We were heading towards Port Townsend when I saw a huge splash way off in the distance. I saw just enough black and white to know it was an Orca. I started to see more fins coming out of the water and I thought they might be headed right at me. I killed the engine and raised the outdrive hoping they'd pass right by me. I don't know if that is necessary but I'm a hunter, so I'm thinking smaller and quieter. In hind sight I guess I should have turned the depth finder off. Do they hear that thing? (most likely!) It was quiet for a few minutes until a large sea lion appeared just to my stern. It was acting strange, doing a lot of rolling and figure eights. We watched that lone dance for a few more minutes and then all of a sudden, Orcas everywhere! There was one very large one, two or three smaller adults and at least two very small ones. I snapped a lot of shots (see photo) when it dawned on me that my camera takes video ( click here for two great videos). At first I thought the sea lion and the whales were sharing the same bounty (our whales don't eat mammals, right?). My girlfriend thought they were all playing but I started thinking that we might have lucked into some transients preparing a family meal. I never saw a kill, but they all took turns coming up right next to the poor sea lion, even the babies. I don't know how long they usually take to make the kill. I know it only takes about a minute on NatGeo. Could we have been watching a hunter's education course for the youngsters? Eventually it quieted down and since we were drifting toward shore, I fired the boat up and headed towards Port Townsend. I looked back about the time we got half way across the harbor to see a lot of splashing. Maybe we missed the final kill? We saw no sign of them on the way back to Everett. We did see two or three porpoise around Mutiny Bay though. Garrett Bradford, Everett
Dec. 12 Roger, Heather and Kelli responded to report of orcas near Admiralty Head (as part of the Admiralty Inlet Tidal Power marine mammal monitoring project).We made contactbetween Marrowstone Pt. & Lagoon Pt.. 5-6 orcas, including: a grayish calf and its mother (completely closed and smoothly round saddle); adult male with nicks on upper part of trailing fin (similar position as J1) and tip of fin tilted to left; an adult female with a sizable nick (like J28) in the mid portion of trailing edge of fin; and at least one other juvenile. Orcas were moving slowly in a group, in no consistent direction, with long (4-6 minutes) dives. After about 1/2 hour of this behavior, we made a set for hydrophone deployment and observed in the distance the orcas becoming surface active, probably attacking a Steller Sea Lion, which is concurrent with later close-up observations. We heard no vocalizations in two hydrophone deployments. We approached surface active orcas and saw a Steller Sea Lion in their midst, moving slowly back and forth on the surface. We observed the orcas lunging over the sea lion, coming up onto from below numerous times, appearing to be striking it with their bodies. The sea lion stayed on the surface, rolling around, moving back and forth in a small area. After about 20 minutes of this, the sea lion found our boat and stayed very near it (within 50 ft. and closer at times) while the orcas circled the area. We observed no blood or obvious injuries on the sea lion. We left the scene to deliver Kelli to shore and returned 45 minutes later with Roger Slade's camera and large video camera. The orcas were milling a few miles away, near Fort Flagler on the north end of Marrowstone Island.We photographed them with the point and shoot camera and the video camera. We did a transect on our way to the Marrowstone haul out, where we counted 12 Stellers. We saw two more Steller's near the orcas in the vicinity of Fort Flagler. Heather Harding, Chimacum
Dec. 12 Tonight (12/12), I went down to Marrowstone Point. From about 3:30 to 4:00 pm there were four Stellers spy hopping just west of the point. I was sure they knew an orca was around. I watched and waited and watched the sea lions, they were apparently nervous, judging from the constant checking of surrounding waters. I've seen this behavior before. Five more sea lions came in from the Whidbey side, over from about Partridge Point. All of the sea lions kept spy hopping, stretching out as far as you can imagine a sea lion can get up out of the water to look around at stuff.The water was pretty calm. I just knew some whales would show up - dang. Nope. None. As it grew darker, the sea lions milled around off the north end of the island, joining up. I imagine others, on seeing them might have thought they were whales from a distance. The sea lions, sticking their heads way out of the water looked like male whale dorsals. Think whales ever confuse these as other whales? How would we ever know. How could we ever know. Whaleless on Marrowstone, Ron Hirschi
Dec. 12 We arrived at Ft Casey at about 3:45, already getting dark. Boy those Stellers were noisy! I have one photo with 13 in it, we were able to count two other groups to total at least 18th. If there'd been nobody on the beach, I wonder if they'd have hauled out. There were a few people by the water's edge watching/listening to them. Quite a sight. We looked for blows to the west, but didn't see anything, but with such a steller smorgasbord, perhaps they'll be back. Jill Hein, Coupeville
Dec. 12 2040: Transient calls in the dark, dark night on OrcaSound hydrophones (NW San Juan Island). Val Veirs, OrcaSound/The Whale Museum, San Juan Island
Dec.12 We received a call that the Victoria Clipper had sighted orcas off Admiralty Head, 9:30 am, possibly J pod. We headed out to Admiral's Cove, then Ft. Casey, and found orcas at 10:45 am, between Lagoon Pt, Whidbey Island, and S. Marrowstone Island, milling back & forth. We counted what looked like ~5 orcas. They ended up heading over to Ft. Flagler, then milling back and forth just N. of Ft. Flagler for over 3 hours. We watched them from Ft. Casey, While Roger Slade, Heather Harding, & Kelli Stingle from Pt. Townsend responded in a boat. They observed the orcas tossing a Steller sea lion around, the Steller using their boat for shelter for awhile, making things pretty exciting! We'll hopefully have a more detailed report from them later - but we observed 12 - 14 Steller sea lions right next to shore at Ft. Casey, behaving very defensively - lots of heads up and roaring going on, and mainly staying in large groups (I can't blame them)! We watched the orcas from our distant perch - milling back and forth, a lot of lunging and splashing going on from noon - 2:15 or so, then more milling. We left at about 2:45 pm, Roger called at 3:15 pm to report the orcas were in Port Townsend Bay, still milling around.
Dec. 12 We received a call from Steve Holmes at 10:55 am, reporting ~9 orcas sighted off Ledgewood Beach, W. Whidbey Island, first heading north, then milling.
Dec. 12 After earlier helping us try to find the orcas from Admiral's Cove, Sandra Pollard & Dick Snowberger called at 11:15 am from Lagoon Pt. to report they had spotted the orcas between Lagoon Pt. & Marrowstone Island, heading north.
Dec. 12 We received a call at 11:10 am from Greg Davis, on S. Admirals Cove, reporting 3 orcas - 1 large fin, 1 med. fin & 1 small fin, between Ft. Flagler and Marrowstone Pt, heading north.
Dec. 12 We were standing on the beach at Ft Flagler State Park, facing northwest. An orca pod - we estimate 7-8 whales, one very large male with a skinny pointy back fin. - appeared at the southern end of Whidbey Island. traveling south from Whidbey into the Port Townsend bay,Saturday, Dec. 12 approx 3:00 pm. It appeared they were feeding as they remained stationary for about 20 minutes. There were dozens of birds around the pod - we guessed the birds were scavenging fish from the feeding frenzy in the water. Three photos are attached! Wendy Ayres
These are the Transient orcas that we believe are the T68s - sb
T68C and T68C2 Encounter 58 was conducted by Ken Balcomb with transient killer whales spread out near the Victoria waterfront on 10 December 2009. The high points of this encounter were: photo-documentation of a young "white" killer whale that Ken considers another case of Chidiak-Higashi Syndrome that has appeared episodically in transient killer whales of this region; and, photo-documentation of the condition of a satellite tag applied to T36A on 20 September 2009. For more information about Chidiak-Higashi syndrome in killer whales see http://www.rockisland.com; and, for more information about satellite tagging killer whales see http://www.cascadiaresearch.org. T36A has apparently gone out the Strait of Juan de Fuca and is headed along the coast toward California.
Dec. 10 After a preliminary viewing of Ken (Balcomb's) and my transient shots from December 10 it seems as though the inshore group contained T036A, T036A1, T137, and T137A. The group offshore which had the grey orca (most likely Chediak- Higashi Syndrome) contained T068, and T068A. Will wait to get confirmation from G. Ellis and J.Towers of P.B.S and D.Ellifrit of C.W.R. to confirm if it belongs to T068C and rest of ID's. Mark Malleson, Victoria B.C.
This is the same pod that has been in Admiralty Inlet today - will share any further info. and confirmation on IDs as we get them -
Dec. 10 I always call Ron Bates when heading out on a trip, like today. We were headed off to see Speiden Island, since the earlier sightings of Residents going north had turned into Residents going south near Whidbey. Ron didn't have any news, but called back in a few minutes to let me know that some Transient orcas had been sighted off the Victoria waterfront. Off we zoomed. I called Goldwing on the VHF as we got close, about 5 miles south of Trial Island, (3:15 today) and were told that one of the Orcas had a gray dorsal fin. Gray fin? It was the whole Orca that was gray and white, not just the fin. It's a calf and one of the T11s. In over twenty years of viewing Orcas in this area, I've never seen a gray Orca. I was flabbergasted! Here are some pictures of the calf. (All of the pictures have been cropped.) I think Ken Balcomb also got some shots.
Several small transient groups have been making their way through Blackney Pass toward Johnstone Strait. The groups were spread out across the Pass. The last group which includes a young male is off Parson Island now slowly following the other two groups. They are vocal. Lots of birds have been following them. A seal has been keeping an eye on them while safely hauled out on rocks this side. Helena 10 Dec 2009 12:44:19 PST
Orcas near mics.
The transients, possibly the same groups as earlier, sound like they are now closer to Robson Bight. The Critical Point hydrophone battery is low so the signal is not very stable. Helena 10 Dec 2009 14:52:50 PST
No calls but orcas nearby
for the record: Jared Towers went out and found the whales (still in small groups) between Cracroft Point and Swain point (Boat Bay). Jared identified 16; the T77s, T23s,T18s,T2s and the T55s. There were two new calves (T23C3 and T77D). Five members from these various groups were missing and Jared wondered if yet another group was further ahead. Generally, the whales were going eastward very slowly. Jared heard calls as well and noted the groups were very social. Helena 10 Dec 2009 16:07:53 PST
Transients U38 & U39 Victoria, B.C. Dec. 7, 2009 Photo by Mark Malleson, Center for Whale Research
Transient orca with seal in mouth Victoria, B.C. Dec. 7, 2009 Photo by Mark Malleson
Dec. 7 U38 and U39 were back off of Victoria today hunting seals Mark Malleson, Centre for Whale Research
Dec. 7 Had Transiets U38 and U39 Off Victoria this afternoon, I thought I had at least 1-2 females as well but boat on scene and other spotters only had 2. Ron Bates, MMRG, Victoria, B.C.
Dec. 7 At about 3:30 pm Dec. 7 I watched 2 large male killer whales (U38 and U39) from Dallas Rd in Victoria. I saw them pass in front of the Canadian Navy ship which makes for a nice photo. Then saw "Mallard" CWR / DFO on scene documenting the two transients (see photos and report in our Dec. 7 Whale Report). I noticed the animals went down on a very long dive because I didn't see anything after a while. My guess is they were in predation mode as the research boat remained on scene and attentive. After getting a coffee to warm up my freezing hands, I changed my location and returned to find the animals and the research boat further away towards the Metchosin shoreline . Thanks to MMRG for the heads up. Chantelle Tucker, Victoria, B.C.
Transient orcas U38 & U39 with Navy ship off Victoria, B.C. Dec. 7, 2009 Photo by Chantelle Tucker
