June 18th 10:30 AM - Orca in Howe Sound!

Our T-party Continues for the third day, this time near Howe sound! Eider, Hutchins, and Sabio were touring around with their kids again. Lots of traveling and porpoising as they circled Keats Island at the mouth of Howe Sound.

Eider and her family showed up for the first time in 3 years back on May 6th outside Crofton. Since then the family has travelled with T018’s, T023’s, 36Bs, T063, T065, T071B’s, T087, T090’s, T100’s, 101s, 137’s, 124D’s, 124A’s. That’s a total of 43 friends that the T086A’s have hung out with during the last month! Keep in mind, that these are just the whales we have seen them with. Clearly, Eider is making up for lost time and reconnecting with all the whales in the southern Salish Sea. The longest-running travel companies were the T124A’s, which have since separated except for T124A4 Sabio and her first calf who are still traveling with Eider and her daughters.

For everything we know about orca we still don’t understand much when it comes to their social dynamics. All we can do is watch from the surface and hope for little glimpses into their complex lives. How many of these friends are actually distant family? How many of them have known Eider since she was a calf? Have any of the boys fathered her daughters? There are so many questions we have about our whales and their lives. We will likely never know the answers to these questions, but that is what makes these animals so fascinating. There is so much mystery surrounding them, and until we can learn to speak orca, their lives will always be shrouded in a little mystery.

Enjoy the photos below taken by senior Marine Naturalist Val Watson.

T100 Hutchins

T100 Hutchins (front) and T100F Estrella (back)

T124A4 Sabio and her new calf T124A4A

T124A4 Sabio and T124A4A.