J Pod Returns... again... and with friends

Below: Photo by Christophe Paulbert from the Sea Lion this July.

J Pod reappeared off Victoria today after a short stint (one day) out west... only this time they came with friends.

We took off from Friday Harbor to make it to all three resident pods who were swimming towards on a flood tide from west of Race Rocks. We planned our course directly to the residents, just in case they slowed down, which they did once they got outside the city of Victoria. All together they were just about 17 miles away from us, one way. Our guests were happy to make it to them and learned about our residents, transients, general orca facts, the geology of the area, and sea birds along the way. (The long trip gave us plenty of time to answer questions and explore conversations we normally don't have time for.)

We believe we saw J14 and J30 when we came on scene, but they were a bit far away to confirm an ID. We also saw K11 plowing through the water on her way into the Haro Strait with the rest of the resident pods. K11 can be tricky to ID because she doesn't arch her back very often to expose her full saddle patch, but after looking at some guests' photos, her presence became obvious. We spent the beginning of the trip at a distance, watching the animals travel past the city, and were surprised when L85 (Mystery) and his cousin L22 (Spirit) showed up right near our boat! It appeared that some salmon were hiding near our boat and these two took advantage of that. We shut down, watching them herding and feeding on the salmon... they were either doing that or enjoying the lovely naked orca Captain Nancy painted on the bottom of our boat. LOL. We also had another close pass from L57 (Faith) as he travelled relatively alone in the group. The animals were very spread out and difficult to keep track of, but we had some really awesome looks at L Pod animals on their way back into our area. Hopefully they stick around a while.

On our way back to Friday Harbor, we stopped for a Harbour Porpoise calf who seemed to be disoriented as it leaped repeatedly out of the water. Longer observation did not reveal a predator or a larger porpoise. As far as we could tell, this animal was very small and all alone. There were reports of Ts near Constance Bank earlier in the day, but this animal was seen behaving strangely near Salmon Bank. Hopefully the little one is alright... as a guest put it, "It's probably just happy and wanting to jump around." Let's hope that's the case.

Megan Young, Naturalist