K and L Pod SRKW's

Resident Killer Whales had been spotted earlier in the day west of Victoria traveling east. Since it is not legal to be viewing them from any vessel in Canada we were not able to keep track of them. The best we could do was estimate their speed and time they would enter US waters and it would be legal to view them.

As I was nearing the bottom of San Juan Channel, another vessel had spotted them on our side of the border. We were going to see Stellar Sea Lions and a Humpback Whale but hearing this we made way for the resident orca. The weather was pretty sloppy getting to them but I knew we could turn around and go with the weather viewing them and the ride would be much nicer. I am including one pic of a male in rough water, just to show the weather at the moment we met them. Later as we traveled up island the water calmed down to near zero seas.

We were seeing K27 Deadhead, she is the female that is still in rough water. K26 Lobo is the big male in the rough water. Later as we were near San Juan Island we were seeing L88 Wave Walker and L89 Solstice. We saw a few more I did not get a good shot to ID. The viewing near shore was so much better than out in the middle of the strait.

Going home the weather had calmed considerably except for Cattle Pass which was still pretty wild. The Steller Sea Lion bulls were lit up pretty good with the late afternoon sunlight.