Monday, August 21, 2006

Superpod

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Today was another wonderful superpod day aboard the Ocean Magic II. The noon trip lead us out east toward San Juan Island where we met up with the southern resident killer whales. The whales were spread out foraging in small groups. Mega / L41 and Blackberry / J27 were identified. An exciting interaction was witnessed between Spock / K20 and her young two year old son Comet / K38 chasing a baby Dall’s porpoise right beside the boat! In the evening we found the whales again further offshore near Hein Bank. They were quite active in the large ocean swells breaching, tail slapping, and performing cartwheels in pursuit of their salmon prey. An amazing display of group cohesion was seen as a female and sprouting male were logging at the surface taking a rest and waiting to group of with the other whales nearby. There were some beautiful underwater vocalizations heard at this moment, and after they joined up, they all headed back east speed proposing toward San Juan Island.

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