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GentlewoodFarms
July 11, 2017

& Orcas

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It's not exactly a companion page to my Wind Waves & Sea layout, but these photographs were taken on the the same day and it sits side by side with that layout in my album, hence the title "& Orcas...." I've left the design very simple on purpose because the thing that is most important to ME are the photographs and I wanted them to overwhelm the layout, which I think I achieved.

The Story ~

We encountered several members of J-pod, traveling south through the north corridor channel, moving really fast, obviously on a mission to get to a particular place.

Our guides positively identified eight of the individuals, one of whom was Granny, known officially as J-2, the oldest known living Orca at the time. She was something like 102 when she passed away this last winter. It was amazing to actually SEE her in real life. That's her in the front in the photo on the left, and that's her doing the spy hop in the bottom photo.

The two big males that were identified at the time were Blackberry and Mike. Blackberry has a very large dorsal fin, thicker at the base than Mike's. His dorsal saddle patch is quite unique and makes him easy to identify. Blackberry and Mike are actually cousins, as their mothers are sisters. Blackberry is the male in the left hand photo with Granny. He's on the far right in the middle photo. Mike is second from the left in the middle photo.

We later learned that a third male was traveling with our pod. A member of L pod, Onyx, is most probably the third large male fin visible in the middle photograph, but I'm not positive as he wasn't identified at the time, just an "unknown male." That particular individual could also be Cookie - the son of Oreo, who was one of the identified females in our group.

There were four females identified for us - Oreo, Echo, Eclipse, and Slick who was traveling with her calf, J-50 (who was identified later that year as a female and named Scarlet). Our guides were really excited to see the calf, so that was pretty special to everyone on board. As we followed this little group further south, it was obvious that because she was so little, Scarlet was struggling to keep up. It was really cool to watch Blackberry, because he kept circling back to rejoin Slick and Scarlet at the back of the group. I guess his goal was to encourage her and to protect her and the baby.

I'm not sure which of the females are visible in the photos. Slick and Scarlet were way at the back, so they're not in any of the group photos. My pictures of little Scarlet aren't really very good. I kicked myself all day for forgetting my zoom lens. Trip of a lifetime, and I left my zoom lens at the hotel.

But the whole point of photographs is to trigger a memory, and this one, this day, was probably THE single most incredible experience of my lifetime. It's no wonder that Sea World is struggling to justify their Orca program. Once you see these magnificent creatures in their natural habitat, you never want to see them in a tank again.

*I had to edit my story, based on some research that I turned up while hunting for cameo photos of the identified whales in our group. Turns out the baby wasn't Nova, it was Scarlet who was born in 2014. Nova didn't arrive until the next year, but Scarlet was the first J-pod baby in 2 years, so she's pretty special. The latest research seems to suggest that Slick isn't her mom, but her grandma, based on Slick's age. Apparently, little Scarlet had a difficult delivery, and Slick was her babysitter for quite a while while her momma recovered. That's the general thinking at least.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

The image in the upper left corner is a graphic that I found on the internet that I downloaded and then just printed on an inkjet transparency. It was pretty simple, and I love what it adds to the whole page - something that isn't overwhelming but at the same time gives just a little bit of artistic punch to the project.

I also need to give a shout to Judy 2408 who provided me with the inspiration for this layout. I did a shameless lift of her Victora layout, which you can see here.



And I'll be entering this to the July "Scrap Your Faves" challenge.

Thanks for stopping by and taking a peek. And if you ever get a chance to take a whale watch visit in the Puget Sound, I can highly recommend SanJuan Safaris as a guide. They're pretty incredible, and the educational experience itself is worth every dime!


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