A Whale Called Killer
There had been questions during the trip as to when and where the once infamous and now famous killer whales would be found. Today the answer was in the morning and near a town called Elfin Cove. Our original plan was to visit Elfin Cove and enjoy the feeling of a boardwalk fishing town with no cars, only boats. Along the way there were sightings of sea otter, bear, harbor seals, and humpback whale. Suddenly a cry of "Orca," was heard, this was followed by disbelief from onlookers as no whale except humpback were spotted. Only a few minutes later a call came from the bridge that there were in fact killer whales about.
It turned out there were many whales making there way through the fishing fleet just off shore to the narrow Inian Pass. This group was made up of a kind of killer whales known as a resident pod. Residents enjoy fish and are not the killer of whales that give orca their common name. Their Latin name Orcinus orca, can be roughly translated as "A whale belonging to the realm of the dead,". Not a name that inspires thoughts of benevolence among people. We saw no such evil in their behavior, although we did a bit of anthropomorphizing of their splashing, breaching, tail slapping, and spy hopping. They're looking at us! They're playing with each other! They're happy! They're hungry! This last one made some sense because their behavior was one of feeding on a school of salmon near the surface and close to shore. They moved in a large group at times and split up at others to drive the fish into a close group. At one point a solitary humpback whale suddenly realized it was among almost twenty killer whales and made a hasty move to get out of their way. We did end up visiting Elfin Cove and spent our time there describing the excitement of both the killer whales and ourselves.
There had been questions during the trip as to when and where the once infamous and now famous killer whales would be found. Today the answer was in the morning and near a town called Elfin Cove. Our original plan was to visit Elfin Cove and enjoy the feeling of a boardwalk fishing town with no cars, only boats. Along the way there were sightings of sea otter, bear, harbor seals, and humpback whale. Suddenly a cry of "Orca," was heard, this was followed by disbelief from onlookers as no whale except humpback were spotted. Only a few minutes later a call came from the bridge that there were in fact killer whales about.
It turned out there were many whales making there way through the fishing fleet just off shore to the narrow Inian Pass. This group was made up of a kind of killer whales known as a resident pod. Residents enjoy fish and are not the killer of whales that give orca their common name. Their Latin name Orcinus orca, can be roughly translated as "A whale belonging to the realm of the dead,". Not a name that inspires thoughts of benevolence among people. We saw no such evil in their behavior, although we did a bit of anthropomorphizing of their splashing, breaching, tail slapping, and spy hopping. They're looking at us! They're playing with each other! They're happy! They're hungry! This last one made some sense because their behavior was one of feeding on a school of salmon near the surface and close to shore. They moved in a large group at times and split up at others to drive the fish into a close group. At one point a solitary humpback whale suddenly realized it was among almost twenty killer whales and made a hasty move to get out of their way. We did end up visiting Elfin Cove and spent our time there describing the excitement of both the killer whales and ourselves.
