August 21nd-We spent a phenomenal day in Johnston Strait on our way to cordero Lodge just east of Whirlpool Rapids. The best whale watching day ever! We started seeing Orcas chasing salmon as soon as we entered Johnstone Strait.
We stopped the boat and watched for about an hour. I have read that Orcas hunt in groups, but had never observed it until yesterday. It was amazing.
Groups of three and four would begin working their way towards each other forming a circle. As they got closer together the salmon would become trapped. The Orcas were vocalizing as they were herding the salmon and we could hear them clearly. Once the circle was small enough a feeding frenzy took place. At times we had full size Orcas within five feet of the boat.
There were also groups of juveniles accompanied by one or two adults feeding. They were basically chasing salmon. The terrified fish were literally flying out of the water ahead of the charging whales. We felt like we were experiencing one of those, “once in a lifetime”, opportunities. We were a bit surprised by Max's reaction to the Orcas.
He loves it when porpoises swim up to the boat but was very upset by the whales being so close. I did get video of the herding process, very cool.
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