M/V Sea Hawk headed south today on their 11AM trip in hopes to catch up to J-pod. Once out of the harbor, Captain Jim started hearing reports of a group of whales coming in from the west and a group heading west. We then started to hear that the group coming in from the west was L-pod! This is the first time for all of L-pod to come into the San Juans this season and when this occurs, a greeting ceremony occurs!
I, personally, have never witnessed a greeting ceremony and have only heard talk about it, but today changed all of that. Once we got on scene, we got there in perfect time to see J's greet L's! The orcas swam right past one another and all went under at the same time and then all of a sudden all of this surface activity started! Guest got to see several orcas breach several times, spyhopping, and tail slapping! It was absolutely incredible and touching to witness! It felt as though you were witnessing a family reunion!
The orcas started to break off into groups and I was able to point out little family groups to guests. They were impressed to hear that a calf will never leave its mother and to see an adult male orca still swimming with mom! There was also a moment where we were able to witness four orcas breach one after another, twice in a row! I just could not believe what we were seeing! After spending about an hour with this big group of whales, M/V Sea Hawk headed home. Guests on board today were lucky to be able to witness this incredible ceremony!
Aimee
Naturalist, M/V Sea Hawk