Biggs Orcas T100's and a minke whale in Griffin Bay

October 1, 2022 – We headed north after leaving Friday Harbor with the hopes of encountering a pod of orcas that were reported coming Southwest down Presidents Channel. As we cleared Spring Pass the family of orcas known as the T100’s were found near White Rock milling. It wasn’t long before they began their southwesterly course towards Green Pt which is where we got our first looks. It looked like they were going to take Spieden Channel, but they made a course change and headed toward San Juan Channel stopping briefly for a bite to eat by Limestone Pt. A harbor seal was quickly taken according to the Center for Whale Research who had a drone over them observing the hunt. The orcas passed very close by a Steller sea lion in Spieden Channel but they kept on going. We had some beautiful views of the orcas with their blows backlit against the dark San Juan shoreline all the way passed Friday Harbor. As the orcas neared Pear Point they looked like they were on the look out for prey as they swam by the harbor seals on the rocks. The orcas continued deep into Griffin Bay passing some harbor porpoise and we sailed over to see a minke whale nearby – one that we had been seeing for a couple weeks hanging out near Griffin Bay and Turn Island. The minke traveled fairly close to the orcas and we were hoping it would go the other direction as not to be hunted and cornered in the bay by the orcas. This type of event has been documented before and they can get themselves into trouble. In fact this particular minke whale happened to have orca teeth rake marks on her right side. It wasn’t long before we lost sight of her and she moved on elsewhere in the opposite direction. The orcas did some hunting at the bottom of Griffin Bay close to Fourth of July Beach and then again in Cattle Pass north of Goose Island. We said good bye to the orcas as they rounded Cattle Point out towards Salmon Bank and we made our way to Whale Rocks to see the sea lions. On our way back we saw lots of harbor seals near Deadman Island and a great blue heron on the bull kelp bed. A bald eagle watched us sail off into the sunset.

Some sad news to report about the minke whale: We said farewell to the minke on our sail not realizing it would be the last time we’d see her. She was killed by a ship strike and washed up on Lopez Island 4 days later on October 5th. She was a 24 ft female nicknamed “Al Pacino” by scientist Jon Stern because of scars from orca teeth rake marks on her right side. She was first documented in this area in 2010. A tragic end for this beautiful whale. We’re thankful we had the opportunity to spend so much time observing her in recent weeks. She will be missed. RIP