This morning I awoke to my phone ringing at 9am. It was the Interpretive Specialist at Lime Kiln State Park- a superpod was right off of Lime Kiln. Last night, on the way home from our sunset tour, Captain Craig predicted we would have a superpod because he heard from the Canadians that 50 orcas were headed this way from Victoria. On our sunset tour, we had followed Ruffles and Granny of J Pod as they headed south down the west side of San Juan Island (Victoria is only 9 miles away from the west side of San Juan Island). So we figured they'd meet up and all 90 members of the community would be together.
By the time we headed out, at 1:30pm, they were spread widely down the west side. We happened upon an especially playful mother and yearling who were breaching consistently. Today is the hottest day of the year, so it was sunny and easy to see. The water was glassy and the orcas were active. The people on the boat were outgoing and quite playful themselves. Even though all 90 orcas were in the area, they were as normal, spread out over miles, so if not for the earlier report, we wouldn't have known that all 90 were present. Sound travels 2 miles per second underwater, so orcas can communicate over quite a distance. They can also swim up to a hundred miles a day, so for them, being spread out over a 15 mile distance, is like being in the same room.
Lauren Sands,
Naturalist