Leaving the harbor with a full boat Captain Gabe and I were looking forward to see what Southern Residents were out on the water today. With a full boat and excited guests to get out on the water we took off South to see what we could find. There had been reports of Resident orca pods coming up the Southern tip of Lopez Island and very spread out. We headed down the San Juan Channel in hopes of encountering these animals somewhere on the south end.
As we crossed Cattle Pass, we could see a few boats in the distance- thinking they were with the boats we rounded the southern tip of Lopez towards Iceberg point. We could not have been more wrong, the J19s were right by our boat and a long ways from the other boats in the distance! As soon as we spotted the tall black dorsal fins and spouts, we turned our motor off to see how many animals were around and observe their pattern. We spotted a couple of females and a calf by the coast and more only a few yards from us. We could hear spouts everywhere around us, and as we turned around there were some more coming behind us. As Captain Gabe tried and moved out of their way, we were getting orca mugged and they were coming from all directions! All of the sudden, a big bull surfaced of our port side who was significantly larger than the rest! Blackberry it was, such a handsome male! We were able to identify these whales as the J11s & J22s Resident pods. We stayed with them for a while and watched them socialize some and travel quite fast up Haro Strait hugging the West side of San Juan Island.
Captain Gabe had heard of some other pods farther up North East and trailing down, so we headed to find them rounding the Southern tip of Lopez Island and heading up the East side into Rosario strait. Although the waters here were a bit rougher and the wind was starting to pick up, we were able to spot some members of K-pod! K-pod had only come in our waters that day and are really a treat to see since they are the Resident pod that comes in our waters the least. After about 15 minutes with them, we pulled off and took Lopez Pass to head back enjoying the beautiful view of Lopez Sound and nearby islands on the way home.
Mariana, Naturalist, San Juan Safaris