Gender Roles

Below: Orca Cartwheel taken aboard the Sea Lion by our guest Christophe Paulbert in July of 2008.

Today was yet another amazing day with all three pods!


We met up with members of J, K, and L pods just east of East Point on Saturna Island. They were spread out between Saturna Island and the middle of Boundary Pass. The interesting thing about the groups, was that they were initially divided into male groups and female groups. We got a spectacular look at a group of calf-bearing females and young females all traveling together inshore. This group had around thirteen members and included mother-calf pairs of J19 (Sachi) and J41 (Eclipse), J16 (Slick) and her two youngest calves J42 and J36 (Alki), L72 (Racer) and her son L105 (Fluke), K14 (Lea) with her two youngest K36 (Yoda) and K42. This group also included J31 (Tsuchi) and J28 (Polaris). The group was mostly comprised of females and I was happy to see J28 in the mix... could she be being groomed for motherhood by the other females? I sure hope so. She's fifteen years old and at the age of having her first calf. Perhaps her presence in this group sugests something about her reproductive condition... or maybe it's just me being hopeful.


We also saw some of the boys hanging out together: J30 (Riptide), K26 (Lobo), J1 (Ruffles) and L57 (Faith). Towards the end of our encounter (around 3:30 pm) they seemed to join up in more mixed groups. We left them in the middle of Boundary Pass toward the east end of South Pender Island.


Our guests really enjoyed getting looks at all three pods and seeing so many "mammas and babies" together. We have another trip going out tomorrow at 1:00 pm and it's filling fast! Call for reservations: 800-450-6858. Happy Adventures!

Megan Young, Naturalist