PORT ANGELES — Two orcas who made a rare appearance in Port Angeles Harbor last week are transients known to the Center for Whale Research in Friday Harbor.
T73B, the larger male, and T73C, his smaller companion, probably were seeking a harbor seal meal when they were spotted off the Port Angeles waterfront Tuesday and Thursday, said Ken Balcomb, senior scientist with the Center for Whale Research.
Balcomb identified the orcas from their dorsal fin markings in images taken by Peninsula Daily News photographer Keith Thorpe.
“The young male is T73B, and I photographed him on Feb. 23, 2003, in Hood Canal when he was still a youngster,” Balcomb said in an email Friday.
Some observers among the crowds who watched the animals said they saw three orcas in the harbor, but photos were taken of only two.
Balcomb said he guessed from the size of T73B’s dorsal fin that he began reaching sexual maturity about two years ago when he was about 14 or 15 years old.
Balcomb gave no more information about T73C.
Neither is a pod orca, such as the Southern Residents of pods J, K and L which congregate much of the year near the San Juan Islands, or those of the Northern Residents, seen in Canadian waters.
“Transients tend to stay in open ocean but do come periodically” into the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Hood Canal, said Ed Bowlby, research coordinator with the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary, based in Port Angeles.
“It’s uncommon for them to come into Port Angeles Harbor,” Bowlby said.
Transients, pods
Transients and pod orcas differ in appetite, appearance and vocalization habits, the scientists said.
Pod orcas eat fish. Transients eat sea mammals such as seals, sea lions and porpoises, Balcomb said.
The saddle — the grey area behind the dorsal fin — tends to extend far forward on a transient, Bowlby said.
Transients also are quieter underwater, Bowlby said.
“People who are specialists can listen to vocalization and tell you which they are,” he said.
“Those that prey on fish are talkative underwater” because the fish don’t hear them.
“Those that prey on mammals don’t talk as much,” Bowlby said.
“So transients tend to be very silent.”
Both types of orcas tend to travel extensively.
Transients roam from Haida Gwai — an archipelago of more than 150 islands off the Northwest coast of British Columbia — to central California, typically in coastal waters, and they usually do not linger long in one area, Balcomb said.
Prolonged visits
“The Hood Canal transient visits were prolonged because there are so many seals there,” Balcomb wrote.
“It was easy hunting, compared to open water hunting off the coast or in the Strait.”
Although the Southern Residents are known to hang out around the San Juan Islands much of the year, they leave in the winter and have been seen off the coast of California, Bowlby said.
Orcas are matriarchal, with females who are fertile longer — that stops at about age 40 — leading pods.
Males attain social maturity — meaning they are acceptable to reproductive-age females — sometime in their early 20s.
The average lifespan of male orcas is about 29 years, Balcomb said, with the oldest living to be 55 or 60 years old.
The females tend to live longer, having average lifespans of about 52 years, with some living to be 80 or even 100 years old.
“The beauty of this photo-ID stuff is that virtually all of the whales are now known,” Balcomb said.
“I was interviewed in the Port Angeles paper in April 1976 when we began this study. The headline went something like ‘they will no longer be unknown.’ That is true.”
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Managing Editor/News Leah Leach can be reached at 360-417-3531 or leah.leach@peninsuladailynews.com.
