PORT ANGELES – September 30, 2022 – The Pacific Whale Watch Association (PWWA) witnessed a rare event unfold on Thursday as a large group of Bigg’s orcas and a pair of humpback whales harassed each other during a dramatic hours-long encounter.
The incident began shortly after 11:00 AM near the US/Canada border in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, roughly 25 miles west of Port Angeles. Crew members saw a group of about 15 killer whales being unusually active at the surface. Not long afterward, another whale watcher spotted two humpback whales in their midst.
According to observers who came and went throughout the day, the encounter included three hours of breaching, tail-slapping, and loud vocalizations before all of the whales disappeared into the fog, keeping the final outcome of the encounter a mystery.
PWWA naturalists identified some of the orcas by name, and even know the identities of the humpback whales involved. One humpback is a male known as Reaper, who spends his winters in Mexico. Hydra, an adult female, spends her winters off the Coast of Maui, where she’s given birth to at least three calves in her lifetime.
Bigg’s orcas feed on marine mammals such as seals and porpoises, but have been known to hunt larger prey like humpback whales. And, while the PWWA has not documented any fatal orca attacks on humpback whales in the Salish Sea, with the number of both Bigg’s orcas and humpback whales in the region increasing, they think interactions between the adversaries might become more common.
Whale watchers hope to relocate the two humpback whales involved in Thursday’s encounter before the whales swim south for their annual winter migration.
(Photo: A Bigg’s orca agitates humpback whale “Hydra”, by Mollie Naccarato, Sooke Coastal Explorations, PWWA)