Photo of ‘staggering’ Whidbey Island orca encounter makes waves

Before moving to Whidbey Island, Cindi Rausch’s closest whale encounter was with Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick.

Since 2021, the retired high school English teacher has been following cetaceans up and down the island, fascinated by their behaviour. The self-described “orcaphile” often captures them with the 180-600 millimetre lens of her Nikon Z8 mirrorless camera.

One recent photo made waves in the local whale community. On March 21, Rausch heard that some Bigg’s killer whales – also known as transient orcas – were feasting on a Steller sea lion near the Keystone Ferry Landing.

“When they take an animal that big, they can be on the kill for hours,” Rausch said.

She hastened to the scene, rushing out to shore near the Fort Casey State Park campground. She was just in time to capture T46B4, also known as Quiver, as he breached near a paddler.

“It gives the perspective of how large these whales really are,” she said, adding that it was a humbling experience.

Sam George, the man in the outrigger canoe in the photo, said he was close enough to hear the orcas’ breath.

“It was staggering,” he said with a laugh. “That’s all I can say.”

George wrote about the experience and Rausch’s photo in The Inertia, an online publication dedicated to the great outdoors. He was a professional surfer and is accustomed to paddling with dolphins and gray whales, but orcas are a new phenomenon since his move to Coupeville about a year and a half ago.

“It happened so fast, it’s hard to really tell what’s happening,” he said. “It was just mesmerizing. They had a brand-new calf with them that was just tiny.”

As Rausch explained, the moms start them early when a kill is caught. Two separate but related pods, the T46s and T46Bs, were present for the hunt.

At no point did George worry that the black-and-white giants might overturn his canoe.

“To tell you the truth, I was sort of hoping that one of the juveniles would come over to see me,” he said.

After the impressive demonstration, he realized there wasn’t anything more he could ask for and headed for shore.

According to Rachel Haight of Orca Network, Quiver was born in 2013 to mother T46B Raksha, who has six living offspring. Quiver’s grandmother, T46 Wake, was one of the very last orcas to be captured in Washington state. In 1976, she and five others were rounded up in Budd Inlet to be shipped off to Seaworld.

The horrific captures were witnessed by Ralph Munro, the late secretary of state, and his actions led to the release of Wake and the other orcas, ensuring no more would ever be rounded up again.

“T46B4 Quiver is a descendant of a very special whale and a testament to how actions can shape the future, as T46B4 Quiver is only here today because actions were taken to free his grandmother decades prior,” Haight said.

This particular matrilineal line of Bigg’s orcas has made headlines with the recent birth of T46B3A, the first calf of T46B3 Sedna, Quiver’s older sister.

Quiver and his family are a special group of whales for Haight, as they gave her one of the most memorable orca encounters of her life when they hunted under her feet at the dock by Holmes Harbor Golf Course in April 2020.

Just this week, Haight observed the family in Saratoga Passage, the young calves playing together and spyhopping.

“The T46Bs have been documented in inland Puget Sound 16 days so far in 2025,” she said.

For Rausch, the moment with Quiver was one of many she has experienced over the past few years. In 2024, she spent over 170 days watching whales.

“We’re lucky here on the island,” she said. “Admiralty Inlet is sort of a whale highway.”

And with how advanced technology has gotten, anyone can follow the whales, such as through the Whidbey-based Orca Network, and take their own photos for identification purposes.

“Back in the time of Michael Bigg, you had to be on a boat and you had to be right on top of them to get these pictures,” Rausch said. “Obviously, an English teacher from Texas who never saw a whale until three years ago can do this.”

To view more of her photography, visit cindirausch.smugmug.com.