San Juan Whale Watching

All three pods, with all members of the Southern Resident Orca Population were found coming in from west of Victoria this morning. This is the first time this season we have had a Superpod that actually included all of the whales. Here are some of my shots and a great report from JB:

Well, this summer has seen a lot of interesting orca behavior. We’ve had days go by with only half a pod in the area, only to be replaced with the other half a few days later. I think it may be a sign of the decrease in prey availability, but no one really knows. Well, today was definitely different than this years’ norm.

For the first time, we had a COMPLETE SUPERPOD! That’s right, all of J’s, all of K’s, and ALL of L’s came in this morning. We viewed whales coming in about 4 miles east of Race Rocks, and it was so nice to see whales that I haven’t seen yet this year—L41 Mega, L73, J1 and family (too far to ID, but a group of 8 whales surrounded the big guy), J28 Polaris, L67 Splash, and so many more that were also just a tad too far to ID. Whales were coming to the surface in groups of 10- 16, and it was so amazing to see so many whales again. Pages in my ID guide that had sat gathering dust all summer were being used again. As the whales came in, they were doing a lot of spyhopping, breaching, tail slaps and other surface percussives. It was so amazing. It was a long trip, but definitely worth it!

John Boyd (JB), Marine Naturalist, Western Prince