Days are shortening here as they are everywhere in the Northern Hemisphere, and sometimes you can feel a cool, fall breeze as evening approaches. This is good since our summer here has been pretty warm and dry. Since the orcas live in the water, they experience a little bit different than we do. The water of the Salish Sea though has been experiencing weird temperatures as well. Weather reports are pointing to this being an El Niño year and we also faced what scientists call "The Warm Blob" which is a warm mass of water moving about, and it sometimes makes us wonder how the wether is down there where the orcas live.
We set off on a beautiful, cool, and sunny day over glassy waters with Capt. Pete, Mike, and myself. We headed east which isn't a usual thing and ended up just a little west of Eastsound off of Orcas Island. It was K pod! Well most of K pod and it looked like they were checking out Harney Channel and the waters in between the islands, which isn't an sight we often see. They seemed to choose this time to socialize. Orcas are extremely social and have tight knit family groups. A part of their day is spent in socializing where they just simply play with each other. This involves a lot of spirals in the water, going belly up, and splashing about with their flukes and pectoral fins. We watched two families socialize together for an amazingly long while and we managed to follow then east a little bit more with all the islands on either side of us. We eventually had to head out but had an amazing view of the sunset over San Juan Island.
Whale folks until next time,
Naturalist Erick
M/V Sea Lion, San Juan Safaris