Orcas aren’t called killer whales for nothing. But sometimes they come across other sea creatures that wouldn’t go down without a fight.
Members of the Pacific Whale Watch Association (PWWA) saw a fascinating battle in nature when four transient orcas or killer whales attacked a pair of 40-ton gray whales in Puget Sound.
“It was a clash of titans out there,” says naturalist Tyson Reed of Island Adventures Whale Watching, recalling how the killer whales set out to scour some “unlucky” marine mammal off Gedney Island’s west side but was actually headed for something far more eventful.
The team was off the Whidbey Island shore when the four killer whales headed north into Saratoga Passage and encountered a pair of adult gray whales. They thought the orcas wouldn’t take on the grays, but they were wrong: young male orca T137A split off from his group and ignited the battle, with pectoral fins flying left and right as the grays gave him a couple of blows.
“They were definitely not happy to have the orca intruding on them and they were prepared to fight him back,” shares Capt. Michael Colahan of Island Adventures. “Soon T137A was circling the grays weaving in and out of their peck slaps and all around creating havoc!”
When T137A found himself amid the two giants, he enlisted the help of his mother orca who, while with two younger kids in tow, plunged into the unfolding chaos and put up a fight against the grays. The mom then joined her offspring that headed to safety north, leaving the battleground.
“It was the most amazing thing I have seen in all my life and my mind spent the rest of the trip in an adrenaline-fueled cloud,” adds Colahan.
The two gray whales identified as #56 and #531 survived the attack with no visible injuries.
Gray whales are dubbed as “devil fish” by whalers because they are the kind of whales that will fight back during hunting, whether by humans or killer whales.
Their yearly migration from Southern California to Alaska is well underway, the massive creatures traveling constantly at around 5 knots and at an average of 75 miles a day, according to the PWWA. These grays make a pit stop in Puget Sound to feast on shrimp.
T137A apparently didn’t know this, finding himself overmatched and in need of help. Like any dutiful mom, however, T137 came to his rescue.
“[T137A was] probably with a scrape or two to remind him to pick on something his own size next time,” says PWWA executive director Michael Harris.
