J's K's Center for Whale Research

Southern Resident Killer Whales

A couple of great tours today. I received word the Southern Resident Killer Whales were inbound yet again. On the way out we saw Harbor Seals and an immature Bald Eagle. On the second tour, we saw a mature Bald Eagle. We were with J’s K’s Center for Whale Research’s.

Split Fin and Companion

We saw many whales today. The first tour as we left the harbor I heard there were a couple of Humpbacks south of us. We went there first. I was able to ID Split Fin from his dorsal fin; you will know why when you see the pics. They stopped fluking, and I was not able to get fluke shots to ID the other whale. I felt we needed to move on to get to the orca. Later I learned that the Humpbacks went crazy. They started double breaching several times.

Center for Whale Research

We started viewing Orca, and I got some pretty cool shots. At one point I shifted down island and observed Ken Balcomb with Center for Whale Research surveying the whales. He was with one male in particular. That whale turned and jetted our direction and started horsing around or so I thought. In a couple of pics, you can make out that he had chased down and had a salmon in his mouth. I could not tell which male we had; Ken was thinking maybe J38 Cookie. He was not sure because he had not gotten a side shot to know for sure.

We saw K25 Scooter, J16 Slick, J27 Blackberry, K21 Cappuccino, J41 Eclipse with calf J51 Nova, K20 Spock, K26 Lobo among others. All in a days work. It is a hard job I have spending time with J’s K’s Center for Whale Research. A treat to capture Ken Balcomb with the male Orca. I hope I have many more “hard” days like this. 😉