Monday, May 26
A very lucky day with J’s

Today was probably one of the best experiences I’ve ever had watching the wonder that is orca. The afternoon trip left the dock with a report of J-pod way out west on southern Vancouver Island, and they were heading in a westerly direction towards the Pacific Ocean. Oh no we thought! They were leaving us after being around for over 2 weeks! As we headed west in some choppy seas we got a report that they had in fact turned around and were heading back east to where we were coming from. Woohoo! Upon arrival on scene we observed that all
25 individuals were within a couple of mile radius of each other and being quite active. The larger sprouter males J26 and J27 (Mike and Blackberry) were observed surfing the waves, as all you could see was the tip of their fin cutting through the water and water spraying off either side of the leading edge. I’d never seen this before, nor had passengers of course, so it truly was a special sight. There were numerous tail slaps, pec slaps, rollovers, and the elusive “elf shoe” or “sea snake” was also observed (I’m sure you can guess what that is…). Passengers were absolutely stunned, as was this Aussie naturalist, to be able to witness these behaviours all happening together by about 15 of the 25 members of J-pod. The other 10 members of J-pod were further into the Strait but we could see their blows and porpoising at times off in the distance. We had a great pass-by of the J16 (Slick) matriline with oldest son Mike (J26, 17 yrs), Keet (J33, 12 yrs), Alki (J36, 9 yrs) and newest member to the family, J42, who has just turned one year old. As they passed by our stern Keet (J33) rolled over slightly to take a look at us. “G’Day Keet, how’s it goin’ mate?” I thought, not expecting a reply of course. It was absolutely fantastic! Passengers were certainly excited to see this family unit cruise on by, as they really got an appreciation of the social cohesion that these large dolphins have with one another. Although seas were a bit rough it didn’t deter the passengers from getting some awesome photos and thoroughly enjoying their time with our local resident J-pod. As we were quite a ways west we had to make our way back to Victoria, but on the way back had just enough time for passengers to check out Race Rocks, where we saw a lone male Stellar Sea Lion and some juvenile Northern Elephant Seals hauled out on the centre rock. As we cruised from Race back to Victoria the skies opened up and the sun beamed down on us, to cap off what was truly an amazing afternoon out on the water. It truly is rewarding to have the passengers step off the Orca Spirit with grins from ear to ear, feeling truly thankful and lucky that they got to see these highly social cetaceans in action.

Now for the evening trip. Well, I thought to myself as we were heading out of the Harbour, it’s going to be pretty hard to top the trip we had this afternoon. Didn’t I eat my words! We took the Pacific Explorer out with a boat load of passengers that had no idea what they were about to witness. As we approached on scene, J-pod had made quite a distance in the few hours we were gone, and were almost to Race Rocks on the southern-most tip of Vancouver Island. We were the only vessel out there and so were keeping ours eyes peeled to catch a glimpse of the black dorsal fin and blows off in the distance. Next thing we knew… 2, 4, 5, 7, 9 dorsal fins surfaced off our port stern, all close together! Then another 5 or so behind them! J-pod were in tight travel mode and on a mission it appeared. J16 (Slick) and her offspring were again travelling tight close together and were joined by the big male J1 (aka Ruffles) and what appeared to be J2 (aka Granny that is over 90 years old!). It was hard to get an ID on all of the individuals as I’m still only learning and because they were all soo close together you don’t know where to look! Nor did the passengers! Then all of a sudden, tail slap, tail slap, tail slap by one of the males! I could tell it was a male as their tail flukes tend to curve downwards when sexually mature. All 25 members passed by so we re-positioned ourselves to catch another glimpse of them. It was amazing to see them all so close together as when we normally observe them they are typically 3 - 5 miles apart. As they were quite close to shoreline we had to keep our distance. Next thing we knew a few individuals had veered off to check us out and then all of a sudden… cartwheel! And again! It was one of the sprouter males as the splash was bloody huge! Cameras were going crazy, and Sheenah and I just looked at each other thinking how awesome it was to be witnessing all this. We decided to leave J’s to check out Race Rocks, and there we saw some California Sea Lions hauled out, some noisy juvenile Northern Elephant Seals and an abundance of Harbor Seals (aka rock sausages). As we left Race on our way back to Victoria J-pod were ahead of us so we decided to show our delighted passengers one last time. As we slowly approached them while the sun was setting, J27 (Blackberry) and younger brother J39 (Mako) left the pod and veered towards the Pacific Explorer. They surfaced right off our port stern, went down again then just as we were waiting for them to surface again… breach! Blackberry brought his whole 5-6 tonne body out of the water and the splash was almost enough to wet the passengers! I love chorus of “oooh” or “wow” that the passengers make when an orca breaches. It truly is a special and spectacular moment. Blackberry and Mako then tail-slapped a few more times and re-joined the rest of the pod. Check out the pics below of Blackberry and Mako surfacing off our stern, the splash of Blackberry’s breach, and members of J-pod cruising along as the sun sets.

With the sun setting as we headed into the harbor, and passengers sipping on their hot chocolates and coffees, we reflected on what was a truly magical and lucky experience this trip was. Days like today make me realise how hard it is going to be to leave this place at the end of the season.