OnBoard Tours Whales

Tuesday June 21, 2011

J-Pod Orcas in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, heading northwest from Whidbey and Smith Island toward Lopez and Salmon Bank with calm, flooding tide. At 2:50pm, I noticed J-34 DoubleStuf by himself, and many small groups really spread out. One whale breached closer to South Beach, then many whales breached all over the place! I lost count of how many breached! A calf stuck its little head up as though trying to spy hop! Some tail lobs and whales rolling around showed active behaviors! The groups came closer together as they reached Salmon Bank, slowed down swimming toward Eagle Cove, as they often do. The sun reflected off their backs, and we give them lots of room when they are spread out like that, so hard to identify. We enjoyed watching all the active behaviors until about 4:15pm and were able to ID that last group; J-16 Slick with her daughters J-36 Alki & J-42 cute little Echo, and my personal favorite- her son J-26 Mike.