August 19, 2011 Friday
Very foggy this morning, limited visibility that even delayed the ferry boats! We had a special group of people; a couple marrying the next day, with family, children, and friends. Reports were the Orcas had been heading north so we slowly made our way toward Turn Point off of Stuart Island. A light ebbing tide, the water seemed like a pond. We could hear the whales breathing long before we saw any! And many passed that we didn’t see, only heard breathing out there, like J-8 Spieden, a 78 year old female who has a raspy sound. Our hydrophone picked up the delightful communicating with each other whale vocalizations! We thought we spotted J-26 Mike in the fog, J-30 Riptide, and J-2 Granny with the trailing group. There were many whales, all of J-Pod and some L-Podders! They were slowly traveling north, passing Stuart Island from about 10:30am to 11:35am. When I looked at my pictures, I saw one of L-25 Ocean Sun, 83 years old and thought to be the mother of Lolita- the last survivor of Orcas captured from this community. Lolita is still in the Miami Seaquarium, check out Orca Network to find out more about the plan to bring her home. I mention this, again, because I had just read an article about a couple, where the man used Lolita and the Miami Seaquarium, to participate in his asking his wife to marry him 25 years ago. They recently brought their children to the Miami Seaquarium to see Lolita and celebrate their engagement event. The article seemed as if the family had no knowledge of Lolita’s or wild Orcas stories, natural history, or healthy ecosystems… So it was magical today for this couple and group, to experience the wild Orcas in their natural habitat!
L-92 Crewser
L-87 Onyx
L-94 Calypso
L- 94 Calypso’s daughter L-113 Molly 2 years old!
L-25 Ocean Sun
OnBoard Tours Whales 
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