The last day of August was filled with sunshine, crisp cool air, plenty of salmon leaping from the water, and of course orca whales!  With so many salmon in the area, it’s no surprise that the whales don’t seem to be in a hurry to go away.  Today we started the day on the west side with sunny skies, while the eastern side of San Juan and the Strait of Juan de Fuca were pretty socked in with fog.  I watched from shore as purse seiner after purse seiner plied the west side of San Juan in search of salmon.  But they had plenty of competition as whales from J Pod, K Pod, and L Pod worked the same currents as the fishermen.  By afternoon, it was time for us to leave the dock, and we had a choice of seeing the L2s and L12s down at Hannah Heights, or go north towards Turn Point and see Js, Ks and the rest of Ls.  No brainer to me–so off we went up north.  And what a great decision it was–as we waited patiently offshore and ahead of whales, we could see their breaths hanging in the air.  The whales were traveling a bit more slowly at this point, so it gave me plenty of time to talk about orca life histories, feeding patterns, and of course the guidelines.  Soon the first whales were close enough to ID, and it was none other than K21 Cappucino and K40 Raggedy.  Soon there were dozens of dorsal fins at the surface as the first half of J Pod swam by.  J1 Ruffles in close attendance to mom J2 Granny.  J30 Riptide playing with his family.  J22 Oreo and her sprouting son J34 Double Stuff.  It was great to see the family close together and rolling around on top of each other, swimming upside down, tail slapping.  Soon a spyhop had our passengers oohing and ahhing, a perfect segueway to what the behavior was and why we think they do it.  As Ruffles came to the surface again, someone asked about him breaching, and I said I had only seen him breach 4 times in the last 13 years.  Well, he must have heard me and thought it was time for number 5, as he breached right after the comment!  It was great sitting nearly 200 yards from whales, totally relaxed as we watched them pass as if they were just out for a late summer swim.  August 2009 has been an incredible month, and I hope this bodes well for September and for years to come!