We had a very interesting group of whale watchers for Five Star Charter's 1000 whale watch cruise...a group of women and men affiliated with the Imperial Order of the Daughters of the Empire. This great organization's mission, as a Canadian women's charitable organization is to improve the quality of life for children, youth and those in need through educational, social servic and citizenship programs...a very important group indeed.
They were a very enthusiastic group and taught me some interesting stuff too. As part of their convention in Victoria they learned about seahorse research through talks they given by two UBC PhD students they provided support to. These students did their work under the organization Project Seahorse. This group is an international team of biologists, development specialists, and other professionals committed to conserving and managing seahorses, their relatives and habitats, while respecting human needs. Sounds like an awesome group to keep an eye on!
Fortunately, the group's good deeds must have brought them good whale karma because we ended up going into the Strait of Juan De Fuca and there was a big group of 'Transient' mammal eating killer whales (Orcinus orca)! There were two groups the first of which was a huge, a group of approximately 20 animals!, milling near Hein Bank. They were hunting and we identified the members of the T100s, T101s, T30s, T124s and T90s.
Awesome group of Transient 'mammal eating' killer whales in the Strait of Juan De Fuca
Members of the T100 and T101 Transient killer whale groups travelling together in the Strait of Juan De Fuca
After watching the first group for a while we departed to head to another group of transients we could see further west of us with some other whale watching boats. This was a much smaller group of animals and included the male T12A travelling with T109A and T109A2. The three animals were travelling west away from the larger group. We also saw, Ken Balcomb and Emma Foster, staff members from the Center For Whale Research conducting photo-ID research on this smaller group of animals. Ken is the director of the Center and has been studying these pods for over 30 years and Emma is currently a PhD student at the University of Leeds looking at the social structure over time of the Southern Resident community.
Center For Whale Research staff Ken Balcomb and Emma Foster doing photo ID of the Transient 'mammal eating' killer whales T12A travelling with T109A and T109A2
T12A, 27 year old male
T109A, T12A and T109A2 (T109As second offspring) Transients travelling west in the Strait of Juan De Fuca
T12A and T109A travelling
T12A, T109A and T109A2
T12A travelling in the Strait of Juan De Fuca
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