A Long Way Gone

We made it! We got to the orcas after 26 nautical miles ONE WAY nearly to Port Angeles, WA. We encountered the T46s and T30A just outside Port Angeles and boy was it an adventure! Not only did we travel far to get to them, but when we arrived on scene we witnessed a kill.

As said in previous blogs, the Transients are a different culture of orcas and eat marine mammals as opposed to fish, like our Residents. We believe the animal they pursued and ate together was a porpoise. Chatter on the radio was that there was a rib cage and lungs floating in the area and the research vessel on site was scooping them up for analysis. It would be interesting to learn the toxin levels in the animal they consumed because the Transients have some of the highest toxin levels exhibited in examined marine mammals. Learning about what affects lower animals on the food chain will give us better insight into how to help our declining orca population.

After the porpoise kill, the Ts took their time playing, spy hopping, and rolling around each other. They definently seemed content with their meal. Again, this was another long trip, but the orcas were well worth it. Today was a true exhibit of the circle of life: the death of a porpoise and a relatively new orca calf in T46B2.

Megan Young, Naturalist