New calf in the Bigg’s population

EncSummary: After hearing about a group of a dozen Bigg’s at the top of President Channel, the team headed down to Snug Harbor and left in “KCB3” sometime a little after 1135. The group of Bigg’s included the T36As and T65As, two family groups who we needed updated photos, surprisingly. T36A2 was also reported to have a new calf. We stopped at Roche Harbor to top off with fuel before heading east in Spieden Channel and then up President Channel. The whales had moved northeast and were on the east side of Sucia Island when we arrived on scene at 1240.

Several whales were in the process of attacking a harbor seal east of Echo Bay. Other whales could be seen spread out to the north of us, and two young whales were porpoising that way. We went ahead to the lead whales, who began to mill and group up on the east side Ewing Island. This group had the three T65As present, T65A, T65A4, and T65A6, plus the T36As minus the T36A1s. T36A2 did indeed have a new calf. This group traveled west in a tight group along the north side of Ewing Island. The T36As and T65As began to mill off the west end of Ewing Island and appeared to be waiting for the other whales. The T36A1s, T38C, and T38E soon came around the corner after their seal kill and headed quickly west towards the rest of the T36As and T65As. The two groups met up and began heading east in one tight, slow-moving group. We were able to get some good right-side shots on them, including T36A2’s new calf, T36A2A. The whales appeared to be resting, so not all the whales were arching as much as we would have liked, but we updated some right sides for our T catalogue. After we were satisfied with our ID photos, we got the drone up for one flight before ending the encounter at 1340 about halfway between Sucia and Matia Islands, with the whales still heading slowly east-southeast.