Whidbey whale watchers watch whale feeding frenzy

— from KOMO News —

A family of four transient orcas was spotted feeding on a gray whale Saturday in the waters off Whidbey Island as passengers on two nearby whale-watching boats looked on in stunned amazement.

“This, in my opinion, is one of the most unusual events I can recall with a killer whale in 34 years of whale watching in the Salish Sea,” said Pete Hanke, owner of Puget Sound Express, which operates the boats.

He said the two boats, the Saratoga and the Red Head, came across the orca pod off South Whidbey Island at about 3 p.m.

The orcas – a mother and three large adult sons – were circling around some kind of prey about an hour and a half after they were seen spread out in a typical hunting pattern, Hanke said.

He describes what happened next:

After watching the family circle around for quite a while, we eventually saw a flurry of activity at the surface with the pod and then the body of a gray whale came up. The killer whales circled around the body as it floated.

Shortly thereafter a bunch of air with fresh blood bubbled out of the gray whale carcass and then the whale slowly sank under the water again while the (transients) continued to work on their meal. Killer whales usually only eat the tongue on a gray whale.

This is an unusual occurrence in our area to see a killer whale family feeding on a gray whale. We have witnessed half-hearted attacks of transient killer whales on some of our regular “Sounders” in the past but never have we seen an attack succeed.

Hanke said it’s unlikely that the gray whale can be identified from photos taken of the feeding frenzy by naturalist Bart Rulon because so much of the skin was peeled off the gray whale. But he said he doesn’t believe it was one of the regular “Sounder” gray whales who hang out in Puget Sound from time to time.

READ FULL ARTICLE: https://komonews.com/news/local/orcas-devour-gray-whale-in-stunning-attack-off-whidbey-island