Wow! That's all I can say about today and that's all the customers could say too. People were so pleased as they were getting off the boat and enthusiastically shared their praise. What was so amazing about today? We saw breach after breach after breach. Orcas breaching at the same time or one right after another in perfect harmony. When calves first learn to breach they often breach 18 times in a row. Since orcas spend 95% of their lives underwater, there is still much we don't know about them. For example, we don't know why orcas breach. We do have many plausible theories though...
First of all, mammals have an instinct for play. Orcas in particular have highly sensitive skin. So they may be doing it because it's fun and feels good. They may use it as a mating display-flirting so to speak, as a hunting technique to shock and stun fish, or as a form of communication since the sound of their body slapping the water would travel for approximately 7 miles (since sound travels about 2 miles per second underwater). Or they may do it for all of those reasons. Today we saw at least fifteen breaches. In addition there were several one year olds and at least one new calf. When calves are first learning to breach, they'll often breach 18 times in a row.
Females give birth to one live young every 3-5 years (there has never been a documented case of twins). They gestate for 16-17 months and nurse their young for a similar time as humans. In a female's life she can give birth to 5-7 calves. Unusual in animals other than humans and elephants, they also have a long post reproductive life. This may be correlated to the fact that resident orcas live in matriarchal societies. The oldest female is the head of the pod and the pod consists of all of her offspring and all of their offspring. So if you're a son or a daughter (which we all are), you stay with your mother for your entire life.
Most fascinating though is that the calves are born tail fluke first rather than head first. Since their blowholes are on top if their head, if they were born head first, they could drown during the birthing process. They have to breathe. If another dolphin passes out, its pod mates will lift it to the surface so it doesn't drown. This is the same instinct that motivates them to keep unwary humans from drowning as well. There are many accounts of cetaceans saving the lives of drowning humans by gently lifting them to the surface. And that's because, we share many commonalities, one of which is the need to breathe.