California killer whales visit BC Saturday: rare sight! Eagle Wing Whale Watching Tours encountered a trio of "exotic" outer coastal Bigg's transient killer whales on 26 August - including three of...
From Alisa Schulman-Janiger, Eagle Wing Whale Watching Tours, and Sooke Coastal Explorations:
California killer whales visit BC Saturday: rare sight! Eagle Wing Whale Watching Tours encountered a trio of "exotic" outer coastal Bigg's transient killer whales on 26 August - including three of our California killer whales: male CA20 and females CA54 and CA177, with inner coastal Bigg's transients T60s. They were in the Juan de Fuca Strait, several miles off Jordan River, Vancouver Island. Sooke Coastal Explorations first encountered them, and then Eagle Wing came on scene - including Captain Chris Bane and Naturalist Val Shore. They were likely feeding when Eagle Wing arrived, but the trio soon split off and quickly headed west toward Cape Flattery. Eagle Wing followed them for about 20 minutes before turning back to the T60s, who had headed east. This trio has been seen previously off BC. What an exciting update for our California Killer Whale Project: we have studied these whales for 30 years!
Very cool sighting! This family group, as well as CA166′s family, are often seen in the Seattle/BC area. CA20 and CA54 are co-cataloged as T132 and T134 respectively.
Photos by Val Shore of Shorelines Photography.
