With J-Pod moving around the south end of Lopez Island and heading toward San Juan Island, Captain Pete and myself were excited to get out on the water. We motored south in San Juan Channel and met part of J-Pod in Cattle Pass. The orcas were spread out, from the south end of Lopez to the southwest side of San Juan! Captain Pete decided to motor toward a group of four orcas that had no other boats around them, which ended up being a great decision! This group ended up breaching, spyhoping, and performing tail lobes for guests to witness.
These four orcas appeared to be the trailing group but while we were with them they started to porpoise very fast and out of the water! This was interesting to see because I have never seen residents porpoise so fast on such a continuous basis. This caused them to speed up and move closer to join another group! The group that formed appeared to be a family group and the guests aboard were impressed how fast they can swim to catch up to one another! Orcas will stay with their family their whole entire life! New born calfs will swim right next to mom, practically touching sides! When a male becomes mature, they will go off and mate with a female from a different pod and then come back to its family and mom! With a slightly bigger group, they continued the playful behavior with one another!
After spending most the trip with the Orcas, on our way home we ended up seeing a Minke whale in Salmon Bank. All of our guests on board were able to see the differences between an Orca and a Minke whale, for example, their diet differences and how they travel differently. Overall everyone on board had a great day!
Aimee Kaczmarek
Naturalist,M/V Sea Lion