Our whale watching tour today took our guests to the waters off San Juan Island. We had great weather and calm sea conditions to guide our trip over to the United States. We searched the surface of the sea for dorsal fins and soon discovered there were resident orcas spread out in many directions. After a few surfaces we soon identified the family as J-pod!

J-pod has approximately 27 members and we were able to easily pick out J-27 or Blackberry and his pod-mate J-26 or Mike. They are the two mature males in J-pod and were both born in 1991. We also seen Mike's immediate family consisting of his mom, J-16 or Slick and his two sisters J-36 known as Alki and J-42 or Echo.

The whales appeared to be fishing, as they need to eat between 150 and 300 pounds of fish today. Orcas do like to travel close together in their matrilines, but they will spread out to hunt for fish. Their favourite prey is chinook salmon, who are the largest and fattiest species, giving the whales the highest levels of nutrition. Guests were amazing by the 6-foot high dorsal fins of the males and the gracefulness of the whales movements. We had a fantastic time getting to know some J-pods most interesting members!