4-8-15 T49As Playing With Crab Trap Buoys

Wednesday afternoon, April 8th
...the T49As who we had seen a couple days ago over near Anacortes, showed up today over on the Canadian side near Sidney...
...so after we left the J16s, on Maya's Westside Charters, we headed over to see this group of Transients who were evidently being quite 'roudy'...
...when we saw them T49A1 and T49A3 were traveling together and mom, T49A and her other three kids T49A2, T49A3, and T49A4...wait a minute...T49A2 travels with his/her mom's sister - T49B, and has for a couple years...but not this time!...T49A2 was back with the family!
...a tug had just passed them...T49A1 began surfing the wake of the tug...

...

...but that was about it for 'roudiness' from this group...they were just moving along at a steady pace...
...in the afternoon, we came back over to where they had been and 'oh, boy' were T49A1 and T49A3 having some fun...
...T49A3 is a male...not sure if he had been sexed before, but today there was not doubt about it!- something pink sticking out :)

...and now for that buoy...

...as interesting as it was to watch as the buoy would disappear and then pop back up...were they pulling the rope down with their teeth, dragging it with a pectoral fin, or something else?...just glad none had any rope wrapped around their tail...to the owner of crab trap buoy #124 - if you see that your rope was messed with, it was the whales who did it!

...the T49As were the most 'fun' I've ever seen them...they hung out for the afternoon and headed back down Haro Strait later in the day...