Orcas Cruising the Sound

While we were happy to see the humpbacks that I covered in this post, we were really hoping to see some orcas.  There is a resident group that lives in the area and transients.  We didn’t mind which ones we got.  We were just hoping to spot some.  We were not disappointed.  There were quite a few orcas out hunting.  They were quite scattered.  Our previous orca trip had followed a pod for a long period and they had stayed relatively close together.  This time we saw individuals or pairs spread out across the water.

The orcas are such cool looking whales.  The black and white coloring is distinctive and the male whales have such a large dorsal fin that they stand out clearly.  Getting shots of more than one at once is a touch tricky.  Usually they surface individually and one will be diving back under as another breaks surface.  I did get the occasional time when they were above the water together, though.

One whale was heading parallel to the shore as we went the other way.  Between us was a fishing boat.  The guys on the boat must have had a great view as it went by.  For us, our pace matched theirs and it appeared that the whale was always just in front of the fishing boat!  With the amount of orcas we saw, it was a very successful trip.

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