After two encounters with J pod on 5/18/13, the orcas were found the next morning at Henry Island again and continued South down the West side of San Juan Island until they reached False Bay. Once the "Odyssey" (the San Juan Excursions boat I work on) met up with them, we spent the entire encounter with members of Group A of J pod.
| Group A contains:
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These orcas are known to switch between Group A and B. |
The orcas were very spread out so the only members we saw were Slick, Mike, Echo, Granny, Spieden, and Eclipse.
 Mike J26. |  Mike J26. |
Granny J2, estimated to have been born in 1911.
 Mike J26 does an inverted tail slap. |  Mike J26 does an inverted tail slap. |
Eclipse J41 surfaces unexpectedly near the boat. We had not seen her at all during the encounter until she popped up next to us.
Slick J16 shows her unique dorsal fin shape and saddle patch.
There are days when the orcas are active, with breaches, spy hops and other above water behaviors. Other times they are focused on, resting, traveling or looking for salmon to eat. Sometimes they are very spread out over miles of ocean, and sometimes they are all just feet from each other. During this encounter they seemed to be in travel mode and were very spread out.
We had met up with them as they were heading south but right before we left, Mike, Granny and Spieden tail slapped a few times and Slick breached. Once this happened everyone turned around to head back North, even the J pod members farther up the coast of the island. But how did the orcas farthest North know to turn around? I saw that when the Group A members we were with tail slapped and breached, other orcas began to do it as well, first closer orcas, then big splashes from breaches far away could be seen as these behaviors were passed up the island like that telephone game but between the orcas. Were the breaches and tail slaps used as signals to turn around? It's definitely possible and they could have also used vocalizations paired with breaches and tail slaps to tell the other members of J pod it was time to do a U turn.
J pod was last seen heading South again past Lime Kiln State Park on San Juan Island around 4:00 that evening and had disappeared on 5/20/13.
Please don't use my photos without permission. Just ask :)
We had met up with them as they were heading south but right before we left, Mike, Granny and Spieden tail slapped a few times and Slick breached. Once this happened everyone turned around to head back North, even the J pod members farther up the coast of the island. But how did the orcas farthest North know to turn around? I saw that when the Group A members we were with tail slapped and breached, other orcas began to do it as well, first closer orcas, then big splashes from breaches far away could be seen as these behaviors were passed up the island like that telephone game but between the orcas. Were the breaches and tail slaps used as signals to turn around? It's definitely possible and they could have also used vocalizations paired with breaches and tail slaps to tell the other members of J pod it was time to do a U turn.
J pod was last seen heading South again past Lime Kiln State Park on San Juan Island around 4:00 that evening and had disappeared on 5/20/13.
Please don't use my photos without permission. Just ask :)
