Rare killer whale visitor!

07-04-22

Anacortes Location

We got off the dock today and headed south out of Burrows Bay. We took a left turn and went under Deception Pass bridge. We found two mature bald eagles perched in the trees along the Whidbey Island shoreline. We cruised south through Saratoga Passage. Then, we spotted a gray whale! We had a couple of great looks before we moved on to find the killer whales that were just beyond our gray whale friend! It was a nice group of Biggs killer whales: T34s, T37s, T65A5, and T72! T72 has quite a distinct dorsal fin. The top few inches of his fin are bent over, making it look like a hook from the front and the back. We had some amazing looks as they cruised north along the Whidbey shoreline. We left after some amazing looks and cruised north to try and reacquire our gray whale friend. We were searching and searching to the vicinity of where he was last spotted with no luck. It turns out the one of the other boats in the fleet was headed to the killer whales we had just left and the gray whale was headed in a direct path to them! I haven't ever had killer whales and a gray whale cross paths within half of a mile before. At the surface we saw no interaction, but it was nerve-racking for a few minutes as the killer whales hadn't resurfaced for a few minutes. It appears that the killer whales weren't interested in taking down a gray whale tonight. We headed home after an incredible encounter with our whales.