Transient Orca Superpods May 15

May 15, 2011 — issue No. 2011-045

Another day with even more Transient (meat eating) Killer Whales grouping up. Today’s finally tally was Over 30 whales together. Absolutely Amazing! There are still large groups of Transients in Washington State too.

Then there’s the debate of the identified whales T20 and T23 that were in two places at once! Many nicks look very similar, but the photos of T23 below show just how difficult getting the correct ID can be.

In other sad news – the rescued Harbour Porpoise at Vancouver Aquarium died today.
Susan MacKay, Whales and Dolphins BC

May 15:
20+ Orca were spotted just above Discovery Passage in Johnstone Strait by Chatham Point at 12:15 pm. By 1:45 pm the count had reached just over 30 Whales that had gone in behind Turn Island and then slowly worked their way up Nodales Channel.
From various radio calls from Whale Watching Tour boats.

May 15:
Last report was a call from Aaron, Campbell River Whale Watching who was with the over 30 Transients as they headed up Frederick Arm. T20 and T21 were two of the whales he identified.

May 14:
Jack and Aaron left with the 20 to 25 Orca by Sonora Island around 7:30 pm.

Following three Photos by Jack Springer, Campbell River Whale Watching

May 14 by Marina Island around 1 pm

Unidentified whales – possibly T68A or T72

T20

T23 and Friends

Close up of T23 from Jack’s photo above.

The next photo is of T23 taken May 12 from Jeanne Hyde in Washington State.

Jeanne has other great Orca photos on her blog.

These photos were taken a couple of days apart, but reports had them around Friday Harbour, US at 3 pm on the same day (no photo) that they were by Campbell River at 4 pm. Susan MacKay

2011