It's a Mystery

The photo below is of L57 (Faith) by one of our guests, Herb Hartmann, aboard the Sea Lion.

The orcas were back! We had a great encounter with Ls after two days without the Residents. It's always nice to see Ks or Ls as a naturalist because it allows me the chance to get to know them better.

We began our encounter at South Beach with the L22s. We were alerted to their presence by L79 (Skana)'s large dorsal as we was playing with his little brother L89 (Solstice). Spirit (L22), their mother, followed behind them while whale researchers took ID photos for proof of presence of this matriline. Unfortunately this group has only one female in L22. She is the last producing female of this matriline since her mother and aunt passed away. We watched this subgroup frolicking along the shoreline and then branched out to see a sprouter male offshore towards Salmon Bank. This male turned out to be Mystery (L85)... who followed his namesake because he was tough to ID. We were looking at mature male photos, which he wasn't included in since he began sprouting in 2004. (We call adolescent males sprouters because they begin "sprouting" a manly dorsal fin at the onset of sexual maturity.) Mystery gave us more surprises when he went down for a deep dive and surfaced right next to our boat! (Somebody needs to teach these guys the rules... 100 yds!) After letting Mystery pass, who turns out to be Spirit's cousin, we watched Spirit's younger brother Onyx (L87) as researchers took some proof of presence ID shots of him as well. Onyx was born in 1992 and is also in the process of sprouting that tall male dorsal fin.

It's always nice to go out on the water and see the orcas as well as the researchers, which provides an opportunity for our guests to learn about the animals as well as the people who are diligently working to protect them. Many times the best way to protect something is to learn more about it so we can be better equipped to save it by understanding what key factors are in its decline. We are happy to work alongside the researchers by sharing information to keep these guys around for future generations.

Megan Young, Naturalist