Biggs orcas T49A2 with T49C and Southern Resident J Pod Orcas

October 14, 2022 – We rushed out of the harbor in a hurry with news of orcas coming down Upright Channel. We caught up with two male orcas, T49C with T49A2, as they were close to the San Juan coastline heading towards Griffin Bay. There was occasional milling indicative of hunting. After the orcas rounded Cattle Pt we said bye to the orcas and sailed over to Whale Rocks to see the Steller sea lions and Brandts cormorants. Cruising through the islands we spotted harbor seals and various sea birds as we worked our way around to the bottom of Lopez Island. There are many loons in the area. Our Southern Resident orcas from J pod had come south down Rosario Strait and were continuing south a few miles away. We decided to head that direction to get a distant view. We found the J19’s and the calves in the group were being very playful. It was adorable to watch them pushing each other up, rolling around, and many half breaches. We watched as distant groups filed by as they continued on their way to the south towards Puget Sound. On our return route we did a sweep by Smith Island and over MacArthur Bank. Despite lots of huge bait balls in the area east of Smith Island and tons of bird activity we didn’t find any minke or humpback whales. Seemed like a perfect place for them to pop up with so much bait fish in the area. We stopped to see the sea lions again before checking out the seals by Deadman Island before returning to Friday Harbor. Note: Photos of Southern Resident Orcas are heavily cropped to show details. Viewed over 1/2 a mile in accordance with State and Federal regulations