FRIDAY, MAY 8, 2009, T-10's TRANSIENT KILLER WHALES & ONE LUCKY HARBOUR SEAL!!!
A beautiful day and T-10, T-10B & T-10C Transient (Marine-Mammal-Eating) Killer Whales greeted passengers on Five Star Whale Watching's "Fast Cat" today. It was one of the few days so far this year where it actually felt like Spring and it gives us hope that Summer may at last be on the way to the Pacific North West.
As big and powerful as the male T-10B is, it is often 46-yr-old female T-10 that allows us to identify this group as she has a distinctive notch near the bottom of the trailing edge of her scythe-like dorsal fin.
And what a lucky pup this Harbour Seal is! Literally just metres (or a few yards) away from being Supper for the T-10's, he was able to hide in the Bull Kelp.
Bull kelp (Nereocystis luetkeana) is one of the largest brown algae. It grows attached to the sea floor by a specialized rootlike structure called a holdfast. From this, a long stemlike stipe extends to the surface of the sea, terminating in an enlarged, spherical, hollow float from which the linear leaflike blades emanate. It occurs on rocks in the upper subtidal zone to a depth of up to 10m (35 feet) throughout coastal British Columbia.
Photos by Ron Bates of Marine Mammal Research Group (MMRG)
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