Friday, September 29th
A possible sighting of Orcas off San Juan Island had been called in so we headed East. Off the South Coast of San Juan we encountered Orcas, in small groups of one to 4 individuals. Almost as soon as we arrived a juvenile breached twice beside the boat! The spouts from the blows could be seen off into the distance. We identified a female from J-pod, Slick, and a male from L-pod, Mega, and later found out that all 3 pods were present over the wide area we had observed them in, so we had been watching a super-pod, even if the range of the whales was so wide it was difficult to tell. We also observed a little bit of tale slapping at the surface, but mostly encountered general feeding behaviour.
The boat turned East coming out of Victoria Harbour and stopped off at Trial Island to look at harbour seals hauled out on the rocks. We carried on East towards San Juan Island and the Orcas had moved South into the Strait towards Hein Bank. We first encountered small groups of whales travelling together, and then we came across J pod who seemed to be in a resting phase and very densely packed. Ruffles was very distinctive with his wavy dorsal fin. We moved away from this group and further in to shore off San Juan where we watched small groups of Orcas moving from East to West. We had some good passes on the boat, and even spotted a couple swimming underneath us, their white markings giving them away. One of the males came out of the water upside down with a big tail slap and the ends of his flukes curled under, a nice way to say goodbye at the end of our trip!
A possible sighting of Orcas off San Juan Island had been called in so we headed East. Off the South Coast of San Juan we encountered Orcas, in small groups of one to 4 individuals. Almost as soon as we arrived a juvenile breached twice beside the boat! The spouts from the blows could be seen off into the distance. We identified a female from J-pod, Slick, and a male from L-pod, Mega, and later found out that all 3 pods were present over the wide area we had observed them in, so we had been watching a super-pod, even if the range of the whales was so wide it was difficult to tell. We also observed a little bit of tale slapping at the surface, but mostly encountered general feeding behaviour.
The boat turned East coming out of Victoria Harbour and stopped off at Trial Island to look at harbour seals hauled out on the rocks. We carried on East towards San Juan Island and the Orcas had moved South into the Strait towards Hein Bank. We first encountered small groups of whales travelling together, and then we came across J pod who seemed to be in a resting phase and very densely packed. Ruffles was very distinctive with his wavy dorsal fin. We moved away from this group and further in to shore off San Juan where we watched small groups of Orcas moving from East to West. We had some good passes on the boat, and even spotted a couple swimming underneath us, their white markings giving them away. One of the males came out of the water upside down with a big tail slap and the ends of his flukes curled under, a nice way to say goodbye at the end of our trip!
