Lauren | M/V Kestrel | Wednesday, July 23rd 2025 | 2:00 PM
Today’s tour was not for the easily squeamish. Several Bigg’s Killer Whales were out and about and they were hungry! Getting the opportunity to witness a predation event on a whale watching tour is rare, but seeing two on the same trip is almost unheard of. The M/V Kestrel departed Friday Harbor and headed north in San Juan Channel. Our first stop was to White Rock to get a glimpse of some harbor seals. July is one of the most exciting times to see harbor seals as it’s pupping season. There were several mom and pup pairs scattered across the rocks. After we admired the newest additions of the Salish Sea pinniped population, we continued Northeast headed for the waters between Eastpoint lighthouse and Patos Island lighthouse. We cruised into the Strait of Georgia and caught up with a group of five Bigg’s Killer Whales. These whales are known as the T046s’ and they were traveling with T037A1/Inyo, an 18-year-old female that often travels away from her own family. Inyo has been a busy girl lately. I’ve seen her traveling with at least three different families over the last couple weeks. What a little social butterfly! Right as we were getting on scene, we noticed that T046D/Strider, the eldest male in the group, made a swift change in direction. Suddenly we saw a harbor porpoise surface right in front of Strider. This porpoise was moving FAST, propelling itself away from the huge male. The hunt was on! We watched as T046D/Strider with his perfectly unique dorsal fin, circled this harbor porpoise for several minutes. We saw several surfacings of this prey and predator duo, then suddenly it became still on the water. Was Strider having a snack underneath the surface? The commotion ended and Strider made his way back over to the rest of the group. It seemed like he was in fact snacking and he must have saved some pieces for his siblings because once he got back over to them, they all started circling each other. It was such a treat to see the T046’s, as they are one of the few families with multiple large males, which is always really impressive to witness. We decided to leave these whales and headed for Java Rocks off the coast of Saturna. We went to follow up on a report of another group of Bigg’s Killer Whales known as the T065B's.
The T065B’s have been spending a lot of time in the interislands this summer. Due to all of these recent encounters, Captain Vaun has developed a theory that matriarch T065B/Chunk likes to ring the dinner bell around 4 PM. We have had several tours this month where 4 PM rolls around and the T065B’s decide to head over to a haul out site for dinner. Whether Captain Vaun‘s hunch is correct, or we’ve found ourselves in a series of coincidences, just as we were getting on scene with these whales we started to see quite a bit of surface activity. In particular, little T065B3/Rook was frequently tail slapping. These whales then beelined over to Java Rocks, clearly looking for a snack. This family of four circled Java for 5 to 10 minutes, sometimes splitting up and sometimes working in pairs. Suddenly we started to notice some splashing near 14-year-old T065B1/Birdsall and two-year-old T065B3/Rook. These two were working as a duo, and it became clear that they had spotted something. Rook and Birdsall began circling each other, creating quite a bit of commotion. Suddenly Birdsall propelled the front part of his body, from his head to his pectoral fins, up out of the water with the HARBOR SEAL ON HIS HEAD! It was absolutely incredible. This hunt went on for several minutes, then all four grouped up again and started prey sharing. It looked like Rook was extremely proud of himself as he was non-stop tail slapping post hunt. At age two, Rook is old enough to start participating in hunts, but he is likely still in the training stage, learning how to be a successful apex predator. I would imagine he gets very excited anytime he is successful.
I always love to speculate the reasons behind certain whale behavior. Do we think Chunk likes to keep a tight dinner schedule? Does Rook have a strict 4 PM daily training session? Has this all just been a big coincidence? Regardless, getting the opportunity to watch this young family at work has been nothing short of incredible.