Deep breath before diving for another salmon dinner
One of the (many) pleasant surprises of this trip has been the number of humpback whales we’ve seen. It’s been a rare day that we’ve been in open water without seeing at least some spouts.
Fishing near the rocks
Orcas, on the other hand, have been more elusive. We’ve had a few good sightings – we had to stop the dinghy to let a pair of orcas pass in front of us with our friends Deb and Allen in Seymour Canal, we saw a fabulous breaching orca just outside Juneau, and we had a pod on either side of us as we first pulled into the San Juan Islands at the beginning of our trip. But we haven’t seen them nearly as often as we have humpbacks.
So, we were delighted when were able to sail through a pod of 8-10 orcas recently. Several knots of tidal current were flooding into Hakai Passage just north of Calvert Island, and the orcas were likely feeding on the salmon that were taking advantage of the current.
We watched 4 or 5 pairs swimming back and forth across the passage and along the rocks. Great to see!
Orcas often travel in pairs, surfacing for a breath at the same time
