12 images Created 20 Nov 2014
Orcas
Whenever I encountered humpback whales they provided the icing on the cake on my kayaking trips, but the cherry on the icing was undoubtedly the awesome orcas. I didn’t encounter them as often as the humpback whales, but whenever I did I always knew that I was going to be in for an extreme workout , because they travel faster and farther than the whales, sometimes covering up to 200 miles a day, compared with my greatest distance of paddling 30 miles a day. Their blows are very distinctive, being more shrill and piercing than the explosive guttural blows of the whales, so I could always tell when they were approaching. On average I could expect to have 3 or 4 good encounters with orcas, and it was usually with transient pods hunting for other marine mammals comprising fewer members than resident pods that concentrate on areas where there is an abundance of salmon or other fish. I remember the trepidation that I felt when I first kayaked with orcas, but any fear was soon dispelled when I realised that their only interest in me was purely out of curiosity. In fact the orcas always seemed to be much more interested in me than the whales apart from the juveniles. Sometimes curious bulls with their huge dorsal fins towering above them would swim directly towards me as if they were going to slice me in half, which accelerated my heartbeat, and then on the verge of impact turn on their sides and slide just beneath my kayak.
During the 1980s photo identification established that there are three stocks of transient orcas that frequent Alaskan waters: one from Prince William Sound through the Kenai Fjords; one in the Gulf of Alaska, Aleutian Islands, and Bering Sea; and the West Coast transients stock which occurs between Southeast Alaska and California. An estimated transient 218 orcas occur in the waters of Washington State, British Columbia, and Southeast Alaska. The northern resident stock, which occurs from Vancouver Island to Southeast Alaska, has a minimum of 216.
During the 1980s photo identification established that there are three stocks of transient orcas that frequent Alaskan waters: one from Prince William Sound through the Kenai Fjords; one in the Gulf of Alaska, Aleutian Islands, and Bering Sea; and the West Coast transients stock which occurs between Southeast Alaska and California. An estimated transient 218 orcas occur in the waters of Washington State, British Columbia, and Southeast Alaska. The northern resident stock, which occurs from Vancouver Island to Southeast Alaska, has a minimum of 216.
