Wednesday, June 11th

J-pod had left us on Monday evening to head out west to the Pacific Ocean, and we were unsure as to exactly when they would return to these waters. Little did we know that it would only be just over 24 hours before they graced us with their presence! The morning trip (with Captain Brad and marine naturalist Tim) headed out with a report of J’s up past Turn Point on Stuart Island. They had made their way in last night and were northbound towards the Fraser River.
Could we get there in time before they got too far? That was the question Brad and I asked ourselves… Bugger it, let’s go for it! We made the long journey north up through the calm waters of the Haro Strait, through Johns Pass (between Stuart Island and Johns Island), into Boundary Pass and headed north-west to East Point at the south-western tip of Saturna Island. Here is where we found J-pod, very spread out, all still heading north towards the Fraser. We managed to find J1 (aka Ruffles, ~57 yrs) as he was travelling solo like he typically does. Passengers got some great shots of this ‘Free Willy’ movie star (look for that ruffled dorsal fin of the wild shots of orcas next time you see the film). After seeing this old guy cruise along doing his thing we headed over to check out the J16 matriline (aka Slick and her four offspring). Big brother Mike (J26) was cruising by himself, Keet (J33) and Alki (J36) were travelling together and the little calf J42 was with mum Slick (J16).
All of a sudden we saw J42 and mother Slick porpoise out of the water! When orcas porpoise they can reach speeds of up to 50km/h, so it was awesome to see mother and calf travelling at great speeds. Perhaps they were foraging? It appeared more so that Mum was testing the calf’s ability to accelerate, as she is going to need to get pretty fast to chase those salmon when she’s a bit older. After seeing this family unit pass-by, it was then unfortunately time to head home. On the way back though the Haro Strait we were very luck to observe half a dozen Dall’s porpoise, including a calf, foraging in the deep waters.
Upon arrival into Victoria Harbour the decision was anonymous… it was a fantastic trip!