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Resident Orca Whale by Guest David Paris September 20, 2011

 

Ode to the Orca

In a colossal embrace matter melted with music

Orgasms of fantasy and light.
It was so that the breath of the goddess took form,
Her chants crystallized in an ocean with twilights instead of waves,
Mask of the unknown,
Uterus of the first spawned orca.

The aeons pre-universe elapsed nurturing her gestation

and it was only when she was fully grown that time could born
for the sun is just a mirage of her...

I feel like we have had a lot of great trips this summer and have been luck so far in September with a fairly high percentage of whale sightings.  Of all the trips we have had since we started in April there are a handful that stick out vividly in my memory as exceptional.  Today might have trumped them all.

The one nice thing about this cloudy weather is that it is glassy, flat, and the flat light makes for easy spotting. We left the harbor today and headed north.  Half way up the...

I thought yesterday was one of the calmest days we have seen this season, but I was wrong.  It was today.  We found some Orcas outside of Cattle Pass towards Hein Bank.  The first animal we got a good look at was L41.  He was generally traveling South, but not with any speed.  So we had some fun times hanging out with him.

After a little bit we headed farther north and came across a lot more of L41's family.  They seemed to be mostly milling and resting, but after about 10 minutes of...

Despite the chilly weather and gray skies today was another amazing day.  Whales were down south of Salmon Bank.  On our journey south we saw the usual (yet always exciting) seals, sea lions and harbor porpoise.  Once we were out in the straight we had an unexpected encounter with 2 little minke whales (and 2 more in the distance).  After the wonderful surprise Minke sighting we pressed on even farther south.  The whales were headed south and west.  The first two residents we came...

Today started off gray and rainy.  We got everyone suited up in rain jackets and blankets as we started down San Juan Channel.  We definitely took some spray over the side and the rain was getting everyone sitting up on the bow.  But we had a hardy group of people on board that were ready for the adventure.

We stopped just outside of Friday Harbor to check out quite a few Harbor Seals hauled out on the rocks and got an added bonus of a Bald Eagle perched in the middle of everything. ...

Summer seems to have left the islands as quickly as it arrived, but the animals are still around!  We headed out in to Haro Strait this afternoon and came across a group of Transient Orca.  The Residents haven't been seen in a day or two, but the Transients were a great encounter.  The mature male of the group had a huge dorsal fin which gave our passengers a very big target to photograph.

On the way home we added another cetacean to our check list when we came across a nice group of...

Ok, readers, today was my last day of the season out on the water in the Pacific Northwest and we were duly rewarded with wonderful sea conditions and one of the ocean underdogs: Minke Whales!  Sure, it was a little overcast but the sea responds well to this.  As we made our way out from the harbor and towards Cattle Pass, we saw twenty to thirty harbor porpoises and numerous swimming harbor seals and steller sea lions.  We even saw a bald eagle--my first in about two weeks! ...

We had a beautiful blustery day today heading south out of Friday Harbor. After hearing reports of whales south west of San Juan and heading further SW we blazed on out off of Hein Bank! We were kindly greeted by a group of 10-12 traveling Orcas, all members of L-Pod.  Having a wonderful photographer on board we were able to document and identify several of the whales we watched! Baba (L-26), Crewser (L-92), Ballena (L-90), Wave Walker (L-88), and the large male known as Gaia (L-78)...

L pod in all of its glory.  Our whale encounter began with Mega, my all time favorite resident.  We were just south of eagle point with no other whale watching boats in sight and out of no where a huge dorsal fin came to the surface.  We stopped and waited to see where he was headed.  He was moving south toward us so we shut down and waited.  It was glassy flat, calm and quiet until his exhalation cut the silence like a jet engine.  He meandered in our direction and then slowly...

All summer I have been thinking everyone was pulling my leg telling me that summer just gets nicer and nicer and then September is the best month of the year.  I was convinced that it would be 40 degrees and raining by now.  I seem to have been mistaken.  This week has been the warmest of the year and it has been beyond beautiful on the water.

We left and headed south out of the harbor.  Fat seals were lazing on the rocks and Steller's Sea Lions were cruising around on the prowl in...