Humpbacks, Transient and Resident Orcas

What a day. We started off the morning with 3 Humpback whales in Blackfish Sound. The water was calm and the blows of these huge animals were quite loud, carrying for some distance. We know these 3 animals quite well (X22, X81, and 22's calf) but were horrified to discover that half of the tail of Houdini's (X22's) calf has been shredded, most likely from the propeller of a vessel or possibly from transient Killer Whales. We can only hope that this young animal will be OK. By this afternoon SV Tuan and MV Cetacea both headed out on the water to find lots of Orcas that had come into the area. The first Orcas that we saw from SV Tuan were Transient's T11 and T11A as they quickly transited the area away from the residents. The Resident Orcas we saw soon after were all busy foraging on salmon and vocalizing with each other. We saw the A12 and A11 pods and many moe in the distance. Both Cetacea and Tuan had very nice encounters with animals before making their way home towards the brightly shining falling sun.

T11 & T11A