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I (Monika) first met the T60s in 2009 while working as a naturalist aboard the Western Prince. At that point in time they were a group of 4: mom T60 traveling with her three sons, T60C, D, and E, with the youngest being just a year old. Seeing Bigg’s killer whales was still uncommon for me at this point in time, with very little context as to who was who and what their family histories were. Despite not knowing the whales very well, this encounter was still a very memorable one for me, as it was the first time I ever had a close pass from Ts. We were able to look directly down and see one of the juveniles cruising alongside the hull underwater, an image I will never forget.

It wasn't until 2021 that I started seeing this family with more regularity. Despite having had two more offspring, the T60s were still a core group of four. By this point in time, after the birth of T60G, the brothers T60D and T60E had started traveling mostly separate from their core matriline. Oldest son T60C still remained with mom, alongside her two youngest T60F and T60G. T60G was a particularly memorable calf, being the first one within the population to receive a "G" alphanumeric. The "OG", if you will.

With T60 being named Panthera, the genus for big cats, most of her offspring have common names that follow suit:

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T60D - Onca, from Panthera onca, the scientific name for jaguar
T60E - Lynx, another wild cat genus name
T60F - Tigris, from Panthera tigris, the scientific name for tiger
T60G - Uncia, from Panthera uncia, the scientific name for snow leopard

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The exception is her oldest living offspring, T60C, who is named Yelnats. As a doppelganger for T123A Stanley, with both whales having a notch in the same area of their dorsal fin, the nickname caught on for being the inverse of Stanley, and also as a reference to Stanley Yelnats from the movie Holes.

One of the most remarkable things about the T60s is that T2B, an unrelated adult female with no living offspring of their own, often travelings with them. One has to wonder if they are distant relatives, or what the relationship is for a roving female like T2B to hook up with this particular family so much of the time. Other individuals have also been documented with the T60s, including T59 (thought to be T60's mother), T65A5, and T69D2, but only for brief periods of time. T2Bs's association with them is for longer periods, occurs pretty much every year, and extends back well over a decade.

In 2023, OBI made our first visit up to Johnstone Strait off the northeast side of Vancouver Island, hoping to spend time with Northern Residents. It ended up being a very usual July, with almost zero NRKW around. As a result, we ended up spending more time than we expected with Bigg's killer whales, specifically the T60. Over the course of our time up there we had nine encounters of them. It started raising some interesting questions for us about how Bigg's behavior might vary based on location. For instance, foraging strategies might be very different in the Broughton Archipelago, where seals aren't nearly as abundant as in the Salish Sea. Indeed, we saw the T60s engage in a Dall's porpoise hunt, an extremely rare sight in more southern waters where Dall's have become less abundant. On one particularly memorable day, we also saw T60 and T60G go into a thick kelp bed in very shallow water to procure a harbor seal. It appeared the whales were having difficult maneuvering through the kelp, and we estimated that given the tide they were probably only in about 8 feet of water!

While the T60s area bit more of a "low key" family in that they aren't particularly known for their surface activity, other circumstances often seem to make their encounters memorable. They often visit the San Juan Island region in August/September, and on more than one occasion have been here during periods of wildfire smoke. It has made for some otherworldly lighting when we've seen them, particularly off the west side of San Juan Island.

Finally, you can't talk about the T60s without also talking about the brothers T60D and T60E. It's been fascinating to watch two young brothers disperse together, and seemingly permanently so, though they do meet up with mom and the rest of the family briefly throughout the year. In 2022, we had other young males traveling together around the Salish Sea as well: T49A2 and T65A3. Since they were notorious for all the seals they killed, they became known locally as the Butcher Boys. Around the same time, the two T60 brothers were doing much the same thing, but also made repeated visits to the recovery barge that was on site in Haro Strait to respond to the sinking of the F/V Aleutian Isle. As such, we thought it appropriate to nickname them the Barge Boys. While the T60s proper have usually departed the Salish Sea for waters unknown by the winter, the T60 brothers have on multiple occasions been either the last whales we see of one year or the first whales we see in the next.

Now over 45 years old, T60 has likely given birth to her last calf. It will be fascinating to see how their family dynamics change as her adult sons continue to grow up and her daughter T60F starts having her own offspring, which could be any year now. And we still aren't certain on the sex of T60G! We affectionally call this whale Li'l G, since it's the youngest and thus smallest member of its family, but at six years old now, they are growing up fast!