Bowriding porpoises and killer whales spyhopping

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

After breakfast at Snug, the Gato Verde sailed south along San Juan Island. We heard rumors on the radio that J pod was offshore, so we headed towards Victoria. We found a tight formation of killer whales and deployed the hydrophone array. There was lots of spyhopping, as well as occasional breaches and tail slaps. We followed the group of orcas back towards shore and caught up with them again near Lime Kiln. Their formation had broken up slightly and the killer whales were more spread out. We continued south to False Bay, taking a number of different recording of killer whale vocalizations, before turning around to head back to Snug Harbor where we would meet up to head for a talk at the Whale Museum in Friday Harbor. On our way back up north along the coast, Elise spotted a small pod of Dall’s porpoises and we all watched from the bow as a number of individuals took advantage of the Gato Verde for some bowriding pleasure.

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.