4-10-14 This Killer Whale Family Needs a Nickname

Thursday, April 10th
...out on Maya's Westside Charters for an afternoon trip...shortly after leaving the dock we got word of whales sighted in the Strait of Georgia...

...

 ...

...it wasn't until I was looking at my images from the day that I noticed something very unusual on T123...
...at first I thought my focus was off, until I zoomed in...

...'wrong'? well, only because her smooth skin just wasn't...
...then I looked back at the last time I saw her...

...I only got one other image that showed more of the markings...

...I sent the images to the Ken Balcomb and Dave Ellifrit of the Center for Whale Research, and to Jared Towers of the DFO Biological Station at Nanaimo..it will be interesting to hear back as to what these markings are from...
...there are so many marks...and they all appear to be horizontal lines...there is one section (bottom arrow) that even has a small divot out of it...and the other 2 arrows point to where it there are other small divots...

...well, she seemed just as normal as can be with her oldest, T123A and young one, I think about 2 years old,...

...T123A has had a skin issue for a while now...aside from the tagging remains, notice how patchy his dorsal fin is...it is like that on both sides...

...now both mom and oldest offspring have skin issues...

...it's just

 'begging for a nickname' 

for this family...