Lauren | M/V Kestrel | Monday, June 11th, 2025 | 2:00 PM
We were spoiled today. There were whale reports galore, and the Salish Sea was booming with wildlife! Our Adventure Whale Watch & Wildlife tour ended up seeing three different Bigg’s Killer Whale families in three different bodies of water!
We began our tour by heading east on an inter-island cruise. Our destination was to Rosario Strait to catch up with a family of Bigg’s Killer Whales known as the T123’s. This family of four was taking long downtimes and moving pretty slowly. It seemed like they were snoozing. When killer whales sleep they tend to group up tightly and continue swimming slowly. They usually take longer than average downtimes and will surface altogether at the same time. We got some great looks at these whales while they napped. Eventually the T123’s woke up and started heading further east. We took this direction change as an opportunity to go follow up on a different whale report.
We got word that the T046B1’s were in the area. This was extremely exciting news for me as I haven’t seen this family yet this year! T046B1C is a calf that was born in 2022, and he is very special to me. Although I have met little T046B1C before, this is the first time I’ve seen him since getting the opportunity to name him! I suggested the name that was most voted on amongst industry professionals. T046B1C’s official nickname is “Tide.” I came up with the name Tide as a tribute to his late older brother T046B1B/Tl'uk" (pronounced tuh-LUKE). Tl’uk was famous for being a white whale. He unfortunately passed away before T046B1C/Tide was born, and before I became a naturalist. So I too never got to meet this legendary whale. T046B1B was given the name “Tl’uk” which translates to “moon” in the language of the indigenous Coast Salish people. He was given the name for his lunar-like appearance. I thought “Tide” would be the perfect name to pay tribute to his brother “Tl’uk” (moon) as a representation of the gravitational pull we feel for our ancestors gone before us, like the gravitational pull between the moon and the tides.
We made our way northeast over the top of Orcas Island and headed towards Canadian waters. We caught up with the T046B1”s in Swanson Channel. We watched as these whales headed further north into Canada. They were quickly getting out of our range, and we wanted to catch up on yet another whale report, so I waved goodbye to Tide, ecstatic for even a brief encounter with him and we headed back towards San Juan Channel. As we entered the channel we were greeted by dorsal fins off the coast of O’Neal Island. These dorsal fins belonged to none other than The T075B’s, another family of four. We were getting great looks at these whales when suddenly their behavior started to change. We saw a lot of splashing, some tail lobbing and then a huge lunge from one of the whales! The hunt was on! I never got a good look at what it was they killed, but we watched as this family prey shared their meal. They are such efficient hunters that sometimes a predation event is over as quickly as it began. What an exciting way to end an absolutely perfect day on the water!