2-10-15 They Ate a Harbor Porpoise

Tuesday, February 10th
...after hearing Pacific white sided dolphins again in the early morning hours, for at least two hours, I thought scanning might be a good thing to do...
...and then the phone rang and off to the boat...Capt. Jim got word of orcas in San Juan Channel...
...Deer Harbor Charters and the Western Prince zodiac were already on scene as we arrived...one group was making a kill or already had...

...another small group was halfway between this group and the others, who were on the far side of San Juan Channel...
...the group we stayed with most of the time was the moms and kids who were having a meal.

...not a pretty picture, but a proof of what they were eating picture...

...it looks like that since the whales' 'dinner plate' moves about and since the whales don't have 'hands' of any sort...they use their teeth not only to chomp down but to hold onto so others can get a bite... 

...so who was there...well, there were all of the T124s and that's a big family who doesn't always travel together...the T86As, and the T100s, and we discovered there was a new to us baby - T100F (I think)...the calf looked to be a few months old.

...I transferred to the Center for Whale Research boat and continued on with Dave Ellifrit and the whales...see the CWR Encounters page for that post...it may not be up just yet, but it will have some really nice group images...they had grouped up and were traveling at a slow and steady pace, more like they were resting which made it exceptionally nice when they were surfacing in unison too!
...counting them all up there were three family groups, totaling twenty-one whales! Now that's a transient encounter we always look for in February and March and April and even sometimes in May...or maybe that's just wishful thinking!