Orcas make rare visit to Port Angeles Harbor

PORT ANGELES — A pod of three orcas made a rare trip Tuesday afternoon into Port Angeles Harbor, trailed by about a dozen boats of whale watchers.

The marine mammals arrived at about 2 p.m. and were headed back into the Strait of Juan de Fuca two hours later.

Observers on land called the Coast Guard Group/Air Station Port Angeles and the Port Angeles Police Department, concerned that the boats had driven the orcas into shallow waters or had trapped them there.

But Coast Guard Operations Specialist 1st Class Ian Banks said the crew of a helicopter that was detoured over the area saw no boats within the 100-yard no-encroach zone set by the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act.

A Coast Guard patrol boat also was sent to the area off the Rayonier pier to enforce both the no-encroach zone and a 400-yard no-wake zone that requires boats to reduce speed.

Hunting fish or seals
Most, if not all, the boats were operated by professional whale tour operators from Canada, Banks said.

Rich Osborne, former director of the Whale Museum of Friday Harbor, now a Clallam County employee, said the orcas could have been hunting fish or seals.

"In either case, they were probably exploring," he said.

Osborne said orcas observed on the Strait side of Ediz Hook probably are hunting fish.

Closer to shore, they may hunt weaner harbor seals, animals newly independent of their mothers and easy prey for orcas, also called killer whales.

Orcas are either fish eaters or marine mammal eaters, according to Howard Garrett of Whidbey Island, co-founder of Orca Network.

Garrett said a pod of orcas had been spotted near Port Angeles on Saturday and near Dungeness Spit on Thursday.

Banks said that, besides staying 100 yards from an orca, observers should approach them only from the side, not from in front of them or behind them.

He said this warning, and more cautions about observing orcas and other marine mammals, can be found in the pamphlet, "Be Whale Wise."

It and other information about orcas can be found at the Orca Network Web site, www.orcanetwork.org.

The site includes both a link to report orca sightings and accounts of recent sightings, plus links to photos, books and other marine mammal organizations.