||| FROM KUOW.ORG |||
Beachgoers and whale researchers were excited to spot a newborn calf swimming with the Northwest’s endangered orcas on Tuesday near Seattle.
“Oh my gosh,” schoolteacher Neil Davis said, standing on the beach at Fay Bainbridge Park on Bainbridge Island as a group of southern resident killer whales sliced through the glassy water just offshore.
With the snow-covered Cascades on the horizon, the afternoon was quiet except for bursts of air from the marine mammals’ blowholes and the oohs, wows, and other excited exclamations bursting from the mammals standing on shore.
Davis had alerted his husband’s family and a friend’s family that the orcas were nearby. About 15 people gathered on the beach to watch the orca families swim quietly by.
“Look at ‘em!” one beachgoer said.
“They’re really close, huh? You don’t need binoculars for that!” another said.
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