September 6th, 2022

T-Party

September 6th is a day I won’t soon forgot, nor the people I got to travel with. We saw 17 Bigg’s killer whales.

T60C Yelnats on the left, with some of his family on the right.

Of the 17 we saw, members of the T37s, T34s, T60s with T2B and some of the 109Bs were included

Orcas are scientifically numbered, it starts with a “T” for Transient, the ecotype of orca, then numerically how they were spotted. As family members were recognized they would also add an alphabetical element. For the T60 family it starts with T60 - Panthera, she was born approx. in 1980. Pantheras first two calfs, T60A and T60B did not survive into adulthood, it isn’t uncommon for a orcas first calf to not survive into adulthood. Reasoning being the build up of pollutants in the body, when a female has a calf she is able to offload some of those pollutants, with the majority going to the first calf. T60B, her second born was a grayish color instead of the normal black and white, T60Bs name was Casper and they possibly had Chidiak-Higashi Syndrome.

T60’s oldest three children are all males, with T60F Tigris being her oldest daughter. If/when Tigris has a calf, it will be numbered T60F1, then T60F2 and so on and so fourth. Chances are this will get very confusing in the coming decades but it a well known and working system for now.

The orcas began exhibiting proposing behaviors, this is a behavior seen when they are heading swiftly in a direction, up to 35 MPH.

This was the highest number of orcas I've seen in one day, our sister ships came to visit us as well

Swiftsure, Saratoga and the Glacier Spirit as well as other boats from other companies were able to enjoy this perfect day for whale watching by working together in the Pacific Whale Watch Association.