Sunday, June 19, 2011

Evening encounter with unidentified Transient Orcas! June 18th, 2011.


The male in this photo has now been i.d. as T170 and the female T171, both rare visitors to the Salish Sea! The Orcas were identified by Dave Ellfrit of the Center for Whale Research and confirmed the initial i.d. by Ron Bates, MMRG.





















This evening we had a delightful and surprising encounter with a group of 15 Transient Orcas near Beaumont Shoals. At the moment these Transient Orcas have not been identified and may be new visitors to the Salish Sea:) Within he group there was two large males one of which had a very distinctive dorsal fin. We followed the group as they moved swiftly north in Haro Strait and were nearing Lime Kiln Lighthouse when we left them.


UPDATE! Two of the Orcas were i.d. as T170 & T171, rare visitors to our area, and also the T12's.

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