Commuters on the water got a rare bonus Monday morning when a group of orcas slipped past West Seattle, angling toward the Fauntleroy ferry lanes and stealing the spotlight from the usual boat traffic. Along the west-facing shoreline, onlookers and ferry passengers stopped what they were doing to watch dorsal fins and spouts surface in the channel as the whales continued steadily south.
Local naturalist Kersti Muul told West Seattle Blog that the whales were transient orcas headed south and approaching the Fauntleroy ferry lanes. The brief Monday morning update pulled together reports from people on shore and aboard ferries who spotted the pod moving through the lane. Those quick hits from West Seattle Blog have become a go-to alert system for boaters and beach-watchers trying to time their whale viewing.
These visitors are likely transient orcas, also known as Bigg’s killer whales, which prey on marine mammals and often cover long distances, rather than the salmon-focused Southern Resident orcas. Earlier this year, researchers and NOAA crews followed a small group of these mammal-eating whales through Elliott Bay and attempted biopsies to determine where they came from, as reported by KUOW. By matching photos and distinctive scars, scientists have linked some of these passing transients to Alaskan populations…