The waters off Victoria today were welcoming to our whale watching trip to San Juan Island! We cruised over to the Washington state owned island to look for members of the Southern Resident Orca population. Well our efforts did not go to waste because we found SUPERPOD!! When all three resident pods are in the same area at the same time, we call it Superpod. Superpod days are few and far between most of the summer, this last week being the best time of the seasonr for superpod days. We watched with excitement as K-21 or Cappuccino passed by with several females. Cappuccino is the only mature male in K-pod and my (Rachael) adopted whale! The Whale Museum on San Juan Island has an adoption program where you can choose the whale you want to adopt, and all the proceeds go to whale research and protection efforts! Check it out for yourself at www.whale-museum.org. 

The whales were swimming fast, displaying porpoising behaviour. There were whales in all directions and we were treated to a few spectacular breaches and countless cartwheels, where the whales back end is launched out of the water, exposing their bellies and tail flukes. We moved to a different group of whales to see who else we could identify. There were several adult males in the area, including the brother duo of L-78 or Gaia and L-88 Wavewalker. Gaia was born in 1988 and his brother Wavewalker is 4 years younger. Orcas have very strong family bonds, so it is rare to see one of these boys without the other! We also saw many of the young calves from L-pod playing and fishing alongside their mothers. The chatter on the hydrophone blew up when the youngsters were close by! The sounds of orcas are amusing and amazing, each community of orcas around the world having their own language. We had a fantastic day on the water with the whales, and so many great photos were taken. Some of our guests even caught pictures of the breaches! National geographic shots for sure! Thanks to all our awesome guests for coming with us to see these amazing animals in their natural home, doing exactly what wild whales want to do!