Minke whale mugging and sailing with Biggs Orcas T123's

October 2, 2020 – After picking up our passengers on the Lopez shoreline south of Big Rock we continued heading south on the ebb tide. Areas of patchy fog rolled in creating a thick blanket over the islands. As we sailed close to shore we spotted bald eagles in the trees, harlequin ducks in the kelp beds and a parent black oystercatcher with their growing chick as they flew by. Deadman Island had many harbor seals hauled out and the bald eagle perched above in the dead tree was in his usual place. Great blue herons stood on the bull kelp waiting to spear a fish as ribbons of fog floated in the air above.The Steller sea lions were either resting or rambunctious on Whale Rocks and the cormorant population seems to keep growing each day.

Off we went to Salmon Bank to look for minke whales. There were a couple boats already there who found two of them about half a mile apart. We sailed alongside one who was traveling north and came about to go see the other. The second minke was one we recognized whom we had seen back in July. He/she has a stubby fin with a white half moon marking on the left side of the dorsal fin. As we were drifting, the minke whale surfaced very close to our bow and continued to circle our boat repeatedly. The outline of its body was visible underwater as were the white patches on the pectoral flippers. This was one of the best whale encounters we’ve had and brought much delight to everyone on board.

In the distance a little further south we could see lots of birds actively feeding on bait fish so we headed that way to check out the scene. It was incredible to see all the bait fish swimming tight together in bait balls. The birds were having a feeding frenzy. There were loads of gulls, common murres, grebes, loons, cormorants, and several harbor seals in the mix. Surprisingly no minke whales were feeding at that time.

With news that a family of Biggs/Transient orcas known as the T123’s had crossed into the US over the Canadian border headed for the west side of San Juan Island we left Salmon Bank and went north quickly. Enroute we spotted another minke whale, several harbor porpoise and many Dalls porpoise. We heard over the radio that the orcas came upon the Dalls porpoise and made a very fast kill on one of them. Boaters spotted a pair of lungs floating at the surface after they finished eating.

The T123’s turned south along the San Juan shoreline as they reached Pile Pt. We observed several predation events which looked successful as indicated by the gulls flying in for scraps. There were no vocals picked up on our hydrophone when we dropped it in the water during our sail. The orcas made their way down the coast giving us some awesome views. We all enjoyed the many spy hops – especially from the 20 yr old male, T123A aka “Stanley”. There were many Pacific loons, rhinoceros auklets, surf scoters and white winged scoters in the vicinity as well.

When the whales reached Eagle Pt they branched offshore in serene, glassy calm seas. It was time for us to make our way back towards Lopez so we continued our journey around the bottom end of San Juan Island passing Cattle Pt Lighthouse and Goose Island. With light winds we unfurled the head sail for a tranquil wing on wing sail back. This was an epic day!