OnBoard Tours Whales

July 6, 2019 Here in the Salish Sea, nearly daily sightings of Bigg’s-Transient killer whales thriving and increasing their families by eating seals, sea lions, and porpoises. Along with Humpback and Minke whales coming in for the season and some Gray whales still hanging around, while we waited for Southern Resident orca to come home.

These endangered, species in the spotlight Southern Resident killer whales-orca had not been sighted in the Salish Sea, their critical core habitat for 59 days, since early May until July 5, 2019. Last year they were not sighted in May, this year not sighted in June, unheard of in 43 years of population data collection by the Center for Whale Research.

The salmon famine continues. Distinct, unique, Southern Resident orca are fish eaters, primarily of Chinook salmon which are also endangered and threatened. The management of historically major producers of salmon, the Fraser River and the Snake River, must stop this extinction of salmon and orca. Ask what you can do, and do. Your, our, actions (or lack of) matter, we can and do make a difference.  A glass of water may be collected a drop at a time, yet does fill.

We are all overcome with joy to see Southern Resident J pod and K pod orca families, who many of us consider part of our families, do the ‘Westside Waltz’ swimming back and forth throughout the days along the Westside of San Juan Island during Independence Day weekend! It filled my heart to see, and hear the powerful breaths of these sentient beings, and that they were doing the ‘dance’ we had not seen in a very long time. When I arrived to the Westside Saturday afternoon, some of the orca families were already down by the south end of the island, so I can’t help but wonder if their ‘porpoising’ high speed swimming shown in my photos was in response to a call from the others saying we found some salmon, or it’s time to go look for salmon elsewhere… Their synchronicity really struck me too. We need to synchronize, work together as these beloved, extraordinary creatures do.