Green with envy! What a great day! I will say the last few weeks of
December often are ripe for Orcas!
Jami LoVullo
Animal Protection Agency
818-667-0495
On Thu, Dec 23, 2021 at 5:52 PM Kenneth A. Tatro <kensword@xxxxxxx> wrote:
ORCA!!!, … that is all we had on this trip, … oh, and three Sea Lions to
chase.
Not quite a glassy sea, an over cast sky, with little to no wind, … it
was a very smooth ride all day long.
Austin MacRea and I gave our usual intro presentation covering all that we
might see, to a very interested set of guests with good questions.
Out of the harbor, it became a good while along and still no sightings.
Folks began to question where we might find some, not so subtle hinting
“Where are the Whales??”
Shortly thereafter, and getting right next to Santa Cruz Island, a
sighting, … maybe Orca, … one, … no two, … on approach we soon discovered
we had a pod of Orca, One big male, four females and a calf. … BIGGS or
Transient Orca here on the hunt.
HUNT!! Well yes, they were after a lone Sea Lion, who, naturally, was
terrified and moving very fast, frequently grabbing a breath in and instant
and outta here in a moment in an effort to get away from the Orca.
Captan Devon, for warned the guests it might get a good bit “GRAPHIC.” as
Orca are known, once caught, to play with their prey by tossing it back and
forth between one another. But tis time it turned out to be just a game of
“chase the sea lion.” The Sea Lion was not injured.
But then the Show began, *totally written, produced, choreographed,
presented and acted out* by the pod. that’s right, an ORCA pod in the
wild, putting on this outstanding show, … LIVE!!!!
We had a good hour and half show of all the antics usually attributed to
Humpbacks and then some.
“Tail Slaps,” done by several often more than once across the afternoon, …
one carried on for an easy bakers doze slaps or more at one session.
"Spy Hops,” three of them rose up and gave us “THE LOOK!”
“Tail Stand,” or “Candle Stand,” (Austin and I did not know what to call
it so we made these up)… one gave us a display of part of its body and all
of it tail straight up in the air, totally still at attention for a good
long time.
“The line up,” this display is where five of them including the Mom and
her Calf, fall into side by side formation facing the boat, totally still
and again at attention for a goodly long time, just looking at us. We
thought maybe we should charge them $5 each for “people watching.” They did
this on three occasions. They would just surface, fall into this formation
and look at us.
“Cruising the Condor,” on their side the length and right next to it, just
under water, where we all could easily see their outline and makings. Many
did this on several occasions.
Doing the same with half their body out of the water.
“Charging the Condor” as if to T-bone it, then suddenly diving under, yet
not coming up on the other side.
“Back stroking”… ever see an orca back stroke with its pectoral fins one
after the other the length of the pool and then do a U-turn and continue on
without missing a beat? We got the show here.
Vocally “clicking” high and low notes, long and short series, often
through out the show.
“Dolphin Breaching,” coming out of the water in a high arch and diving
back in.
“Humpback Breaching” coming straight up out of the water and falling back
in. Several partial and one right next to the boat, a full out of the water
tail and all breach.
Then as this started to quiet down, back to the game of chase the Sea
Lions this time it was two of them. Again, no harm, now foul.
Off in the distance we saw two more Orca, … we turned to take them in and
it turned out to be a whole ‘nether pod. Related, as per Captain Devon,
the Alpha female of the new pod was the daughter of the Alpha female of the
first “show boat pod." They were coming together, … for the holidays. Time
to see family again.
They started to interact with some breaching, but we were already over
time and needed to head for home port.
Thanks to Captain Devon and Crewman Adam for locating and narrating the
show, and to Kelley in the Galley, who did not do much cooking as there
were not many orders, the folks we all at the rails taking in this oh so
fantastic show.
As we were preparing to leave, Island Packers Explore drifted in, and
Captain Devon asked the guest to give a big thank you to the Explorer as
they had given us the tip that Orca were in the area. Boat companies of the
Santa Barbara Channel do this often, and the guest gave out a great in
unison THANK YOU! The Skipper and crew of the Explore acknowledging it with
a nice wave.
As mentioned, the ever knowledgable and smiling Austin MacRea was running
with me today. Always a fun trip with Austin.
Catchya on the water soon,
Ken Tatro 🐋 🐬
Gentle winds, mellow seas, and always,
… a fresh breath of salty air, … to each of ya.
