Whale Watching Report

We headed north this morning and had our first wildlife viewing at Peapod Rocks where we spotted eight bald eagles, several turkey vultures, and about fifty harbor seals. It was obvious that the vultures and eagles were working on some kind of a kill but we couldn't see what it was. We also spotted several harbor porpoises in the same area. Next we worked our way southward until I spotted orcas off Washington Park on Fidalgo Island. It was the transient orcas T40, T86A, and T86A2. T40, Captain Hook, has a very prominent hook the the top of his dorsal fin. The three orcas were swimming very slowly together. Eventually they worked their way in between Burrows Island and Allen Island. They went down for a long dive and the next time we saw them they had trapped a harbor seal against the rocky shore on Burrows Island. It was very obvious that the two adult orcas were training the calf T86A2 to hunt because they hung around and watched while the young orca worked on catching the seal. We could see the seal attempting to get away while the youngster chased him. Eventually the orcas must have eaten the seal because they all moved off shore together. During the next fifteen minutes we saw Captain Hook spyhop four times!! Next we decided to move off and take a look at Castle rock for some sightseeing. We saw some very active harbor porpoises and a few harbor seals there. After that we cruised over to look at the orcas again for another fifteen minutes before heading back to the dock. The transient orcas gave us a great show today. Naturalist Bart Rulon.