Ruffles J1 of the southern resident orca population by now has father several offspring and also must be a grandfather, perhaps a great grandfather! So this shout out is to him! Almost 60 years old, he shows no sign of slowing down. We hope he is with us for many more fathers days to come!!!
In other news, today the long awaited first superpod arrived to the San Juan Island waters! I am sure it was a grand explosion of fins, pecs, breachings, spyhops, tail lops and much social activity among orcas and spectators!
(Aug 22, 2005 with 5 Star Whales and T44 at the Oak Bay gulfcourse)
From Orca Lab: A couple of days ago, the MacKays were told of a sighting of a dead orca floating near Hope Island (near Port Hardy). The DFO was alerted and with the help of a Coast Guard boat, that was in the vicinity, the whale was secured. DFO was able to identify the 31 year old transient male as T44. A necropsy will be performed in the next day or so. Finding a whale, soon after death, is a very rare occurrence and presents an opportunity to gain valuable knowledge.
Please enjoy this slide show of T44 of almost 200 images
I am often approached for the “luna & dog” video use. What has been online this whole time has only been part of the sequence. I have uploaded the entire clip, unedited. If you are interested in using this clip for broadcast please go to the shop page for pricing details. Thanks. This video was shot in Gold River 2003 using a Canon GL2, a high end video camera.
FYI: Luna was a 5 year old southern resident orca (fish eating) who lived a solitary life socializing with other species.
