It’s hard to believe that as of the 1999 publication of Ford and Ellis’ book Transients: Mammal-Hunting Killer Whales, the T36s were still a poorly known group of whales, and this extended to probable older offspring of T36 Flapjack: T99 Bella and T137 Loon. The T36s, T99s, and T137s are all now among the most commonly encountered Bigg’s in the Salish Sea, but even just 20 years ago that was not the case!

I met the T137s for the first time in April of 2010 when I encountered them NE of Dungeness Spit with the T36As and T65As. At this point in time, T137 Loon was traveling with her son T137A Jack, her eldest daughter T137B Tempest, and newborn calf T137C. Looking back, it’s hard to believe I didn’t see them a second time until September 2013, as nowadays I see the T137s multiple times each year. By 2013, T137C was deceased but T137D Wright had been born and was about a year old. I saw them traveling with theT185s (who I had no idea at the time I wouldn’t see again over the next two decades!) off Reuben Tarte County Park, and my notes from the day exclaim that it was my “best shore-based transient encounter ever, by far!”.

In 2019, T137A Jack suffered a gruesome looking injury to his tail stock (the region between his dorsal fin and tail). While we don’t know what caused it, we do know it was hampering his ability to keep up with his family. For weeks he was seen trailing behind, and the others would have to stop and let him catch up. He was also unable to participate in the hunts, so his three family members took it upon themselves to provision him with food during this time. Thankfully, Jack made a full recovery, and by 2020 he was back to his usual self.

Beginning in 2020, the T137s started occasionally splitting into pairs; sometimes it was T137A who stayed with mom, and other times it was T137D. In 2023, T137D Wright (now age 11) spent some time early in the year dispersed from the rest of her family on her own. Later in the year, it was T137B who left with mom as Jack and Wright went off on their own adventure, pairing up with juveniles T37A3 Spindrift and T37A4 Crinkle for a month-long Salish Sea tour that we affectionately dubbed “Jack’s Summer Camp”. While Wright, Spindrift, and Crinkle appeared to be having a grand old time, Jack appeared very much like the bored chaperone monitoring from afar, only coming in when he wanted to steal a bite to eat from the young hunters.