Monday, September 3

There was low lying fog out in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and so the decision was made to head East towards San Juan Island in search of any of the 3 resident pods of Orcas. When we arrived on site at Hein bank it was easy to spot the blows and dorsal fins of the Orcas spread out across a wide area. Almost immediately there was activity with a small juvenile tail slapping continuously. The individuals were identified as belonging to J pod, we saw Ruffles, a fully mature male and Blackberry and Mike, two sprouting males. A small juvenile was observed within a group, and on noticing the redish tinge to the white areas on the body, we realised we were watching the newest addition to this pod, J42 (female), and her mother Slick. Over the course of the trip we observed many behaviours on the surface, including breaching and even a juvenile spy-hopping!