The whales are back in town! Orcas off San Juan Island!
We spent a beautiful and sunny Sunday afternoon with the Orcas! Yeahh! We were all so excited to hear that our local resident killer whales had returned after their 2 day stint out in the Pacific Ocean!
We left Friday Harbor and went out towards the south end of the island heading out into the waters where Haro Strait meets the Strait of Juan de Fuca and that's where we saw them!! Originally we just heard the J-Pod and K-Pod were seen...no confirmed sightings of L-Pod.
We were quite surprised that our first look was of L-57 (Faith)...a big male with a very large dorsal and an unidentified female, hanging out offshore. Interestingly they were both going on long dives of 5-10 minutes!! We then repositioned to another spot and got great looks of J-27 (Blackberry, a 17 year old male), his younger brother J-39 (Mako, a 5 year old male) and who we think was their mom J-11 (Blossom).
Moving inshore towards San Juan Island there were more Orcas changing direction with many boats whale watching. We were extremely upset to see a private boater go speeding through the path of whales, without even slowing down after we sounded our horn to warn them of the Orcas nearby. It was very upsetting to see they paid no attention, because just then surfaced K-14 (Lea) with her brand new baby K-42, and older brother K-26 (Lobo, who at 15 years old is getting to be a large male). Luckily the whales were fine and continued on their way. We had great looks at this group! And the baby is so cute! But it is quite worrisome that some boaters are so unaware of their surroundings, especially when our endangered pods of Orcas are around.
We kept making our way south and then got a great view of J-16 (Slick) and her 1 year old female, J-42, and another small calf who she seemed to be baby-sitting. J-16 even did a few spy hops to take a look around!! A truly amazing day of whale watching, with so many small family groups and behaviors!!
On our way back in we got to take a peek at some Hermann's gulls, Pacific Harbor Seals lounging on the rocks, and a lone California Sea Lion as well! I think this was my most favorite day on the water yet this summer!! I love when we get a chance to recognize so many of our Orcas and share their history with our guests!
-Jaclyn, naturalist
We left Friday Harbor and went out towards the south end of the island heading out into the waters where Haro Strait meets the Strait of Juan de Fuca and that's where we saw them!! Originally we just heard the J-Pod and K-Pod were seen...no confirmed sightings of L-Pod.
We were quite surprised that our first look was of L-57 (Faith)...a big male with a very large dorsal and an unidentified female, hanging out offshore. Interestingly they were both going on long dives of 5-10 minutes!! We then repositioned to another spot and got great looks of J-27 (Blackberry, a 17 year old male), his younger brother J-39 (Mako, a 5 year old male) and who we think was their mom J-11 (Blossom).
Moving inshore towards San Juan Island there were more Orcas changing direction with many boats whale watching. We were extremely upset to see a private boater go speeding through the path of whales, without even slowing down after we sounded our horn to warn them of the Orcas nearby. It was very upsetting to see they paid no attention, because just then surfaced K-14 (Lea) with her brand new baby K-42, and older brother K-26 (Lobo, who at 15 years old is getting to be a large male). Luckily the whales were fine and continued on their way. We had great looks at this group! And the baby is so cute! But it is quite worrisome that some boaters are so unaware of their surroundings, especially when our endangered pods of Orcas are around.
We kept making our way south and then got a great view of J-16 (Slick) and her 1 year old female, J-42, and another small calf who she seemed to be baby-sitting. J-16 even did a few spy hops to take a look around!! A truly amazing day of whale watching, with so many small family groups and behaviors!!
On our way back in we got to take a peek at some Hermann's gulls, Pacific Harbor Seals lounging on the rocks, and a lone California Sea Lion as well! I think this was my most favorite day on the water yet this summer!! I love when we get a chance to recognize so many of our Orcas and share their history with our guests!
-Jaclyn, naturalist
Labels: J-Pod orca whales, K-pod baby, killer whales, L-Pod Orca whales, Orcas
posted by San Juan Safaris Whale Watching at
5:42 PM
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