THE REALM OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST

my encounters with Wild Orcas

I love nature because its it makes me feel that we are part of something so much bigger and more powerful than us and I have been in love with killer whales for as long as I can remember, this is where it all started.

According to me the Killer whale Orcinus orca, (also known as Orca or Blackfish), is one of the most majestic and charismatic creatures on this planet are the largest members of of the dolphin family. They live in oceans around the world, from the Pacific and Atlantic all the way to the Antartic. Orcas are very highly social creatures and stay in family groups called pods. They also hunt in groups with very sophisticated techniques and communication. Known as the wildlife spectacle of the pacific northwest, the fastest mammal in the seas and the most intelligent predator on earth is the black and white whale called : Orca.

There is no other creature on Earth with the society quite like that of these fish-eating resident killerwhales of the pacific northwest. The basic social unit is a family lead by a senior female matriarch, with her children and her daughters children. The male orcas stay in their birth family for their entire lives. (They mate when socializing with other families but are soon back by their mama’s side. ) the mother - child bonds are extremely strong and lifelong. The decision making matriarch has memorized the family s survival manual, maintaining knowledge of the region, the routes, island passes, rivers with salmon during seasons, etc. The males are about twenty six to twenty eight feet long and weigh about seventeen thousand pounds.

Growing up in India, and living on the south east coast of south India I was exposed to the Ocean at a very young age. We would see dolphins, turtles, eels, lots of shellfish, crabs, and other marine life that lived in the area. Later on, I fell in love with the blockbuster movie Free Willy and since then I have been in love with Orcas. I was 15 and my mother took me to see my first Orcas in captivity at the Sea World in San Diego. Seeing them in Captivity was beautiful yet disappointing in many ways. It sparked so much awe, inquisitivety, questions and a strong love for the species. They were just so beautiful, and intelligent. I wanted to learn more about them, and their behavior. I knew the next step was to observe them in the wild and how they fit into their environment, ate, bred, what their movement was like and lots more.

In June of 2007,  at the age of 20 I enrolled myself for a kayaking expedition along Canada’s Pacific coast to see these magnificent whales in the wild. Much of the mainland is actually made up of islands, but it is all lumped together under one term ~ an archipelago of untamed beauty. It is an area unique on the north american continent because of its geography and climate and wildlife . The coastline is rocky and irregular, cut by long deep fjords, surrounded by beautiful emerald green coniferous forests. The expedition bites off a section of Vancouver Island’s protected northeastern waters. Weaving through the tiny islets of the Broughton Archipelago by day and camp on desolate beaches near the white-shell middens of some of the continent’s first human inhabitants by night.

One night, I couldn’t sleep very well and headed out to get some fresh air. At first the night was pitch black, then as my eyes started to adjust, the beauty unveiled. Above me, the sky was a blanket of thousands of stars which mirrored the ocean’s surface with the sounds of the water calmly sloshing against the shore. I went to the edge and looked into the water to see if there were any signs of life below at night, it was dark at first, then I saw this bight blue glow from somewhere beneath the surface of the water. I realized that the there was phosphorescent life below the surface of the ocean that lit up the night.. It was like stars under the ocean and was   something extremely special: the quiet glow of bioluminescence which shines quietly in the darkness. It exists in many locations throughout the world. Sometimes these glowing waters seem like little twinkling stars suspended in the water. This phosphorescence is usually caused by algae in the water. Much like fireflies flitting through the air, the algae (of a wide variety of species) emit a glow whenever they are jostled. Sometimes that's caused by the tides rolling in and out.

I had to admit that the first time I didnt see any orcas at all, but the knowledge and beauty of the area is something that will bring happiness to me for the rest of my life. I did witness something very spectacular so I’m not complaining, hundreds of tiny star-like bioluminescent phytoplankton scintillating like a starry sky as you move through the dark water. One has to be in absolute darkness to witness the both the starry skies above and the starry seas below. The highlight of that trip was the magnificent illumination by one of our planets most dazzling phenomena- Bioluminescence.

However, the want to see the Orcas in the wild became more and more.

In July on 2016, I headed to Cowichan Bay, a unique small, seaside village in British Columbia. The Salish sea (coastal waters around Vancouver Island and Puget Sound) is one of the most diverse marine ecosystems in the world. Apart from the Orcas you will also encounter Grey, Humpback, Minke and Fin whales, Sea Lions, Bald Eagles, Harbour Seals, Dalls and Harbour Porpoise as well as a myriad of marine birds.

I understood that seeing them in the wild meant watching them, photographing them and dealing with a creature entirely on its own terms, in its environment, being as close to less than a foot away, and that I would be facing all the hazards that accompanied kayaking the northwest coast - unpredictable weather, strong winds, and tides.

I got up that morning very anxious and all set to go out and see these whales, the moment I had been waiting for a very long time. As we headed out in our little Zodiac Hurricane, I prepared and got my camera ready. It took us a while to get way out to sea and In my head I was thinking about whether I would even see them. Something in my head told me I was going to be lucky.

As the captain started to slow down, I was constantly listening and looking for the whales. My eyes were panning back and forth across the surface of the water to the horizon for the misty plume of a whale blow, a swoosh, or a 6 foot tall dorsal fin gliding through the water. One would think that you would be able to see these large whales from a distance. Somewhere out there right now were these magnificent creatures swimming around the place they call home.

Then out of nowhere the water broke as these tall dorsal fins came slicing out of the water with this large Swoosh, so graceful and beautiful, just as I imagined and dreamt about many a time but I should say just a thousand times better. In the background I could hear the captain saying “over there” which got lost in the back of my head as I watched these beautiful creatures . They were less than a foot away, I didn’t even think about picking up my camera that was secondary, I was just overwhelmed with the beauty of them, there were 7 Orcas in total, gliding through the water, straight at our boat. A big male came about a foot away, I could have touched him, took a deep breath and went under out boat followed by the 5 others. My heart was in my mouth. I looked over into the water as I could see their beautiful black and white bodies under the surface of the water right under the boat and off towards the horizon. We followed them for a while in the boat, by that time I was ready to pick up my camera and start photographing the whales. There were 2 males, 4 females and 1 baby. They looked so happy and fit in so beautifully in the wild in their habitat.

All of a sudden the skies suddenly transformed to an angry palette of dark grey and whites, whitecaps and foam appeared out of nowhere, the wind whistling in my ears, the biting cold and the sudden smooth rise of about 4 feet in the air to the crashing down as the boat was getting tossed around these huge waves. Photographing the whales in general isn’t an easy task to begin with, and even worse moving in towards a storm at sea. I was getting tossed around the zodiac and one really high wave and there were chances of me being thrown into the ranging waves. The captain said we had to rush as we were getting pulled into the heart of a storm.

I would say we headed off just at the right time, speeding over the tops of the waves, flying off the top of the waves into the air and back down, we sped off to the closest area where we could see blue sky. I was thankful that we were able to spend that time with the Orcas but I wanted to see them again…

The next day, it was a gorgeous day and I went, put on my survival suit and got into the zodiac to go out with them again. Almost 10 mins out into the ocean I see a tall dorsal fin again. It was another group of about 15 Orcas. My heart started racing. This was the time to start photographing them, as we approached closer to the whales. This group was a pod of Biggs Orcas. One of the juveniles started spy-hopping (bobbing into the air to get a better look at the above-water world) and looked extremely happy to see us. I was overjoyed to see a warm welcome.   

Orcas use echolocation and this sensory capability allows better navigation and  makes hunting more efficient. During echolocation, sound travels through the water and bounces back from the fish or any other species of interest, making such vibrations return to the orca with valuable information that will give them accurate details on the prey. The killerwhales are able to judge the size of the victim, their proximity, the depth of the water and the possible presence of other predators around. Once an orca collects such data, it decides whether hunting that prey or better looking for a less complicated food that time. Scientists have classified three types of sound communication: whistles, discrete calls and clicks. Whistles and discrete calls are usually employed in the pod communication and clicks when performing echolocation, a technique used to detect elements of their environment.

Vision does not penetrate most surfaces, but sound does. Whale sounds usually don’t make the transition from water to air. Killer whales produce whistles, echolocation clicks, pulsed calls, low-frequency pops, and jaw claps. The frequency of killer whale whistles ranges from about 0.5 to 40 kHz, with peak energy at 6 to 12 kHz.

I dropped a hydrophone into the water below the boat, I lunged for the headphones and there it was, silent at first, then it was loud and clear, a series of intense clicks and squeaks forming this complex language. Listening to orcas communicating with each other was magical.

On the way back home we spotted a medium size fin, with plumes of mist rising and falling in the familiar pattern of a breathing whale. It was a humpback lying on its side, smacking the water with its pectoral fin. The humpback disappeared under the depths of the sea and then resurfaced very far off. That was the end of my humpback encounter for the day.

I kept heading out to spend more and more time with the Orcas each chance I got. I now have an understanding of how they live, love, eat and travel. I have to admit the whales is what took me pretty much half way across the world. The Orcas, the humpback whales, otters, starfish, salmon, the phenomenon of bioluminescence are just some of the beautiful life in our oceans. More than 90 per cent of the deep-sea depths remain unexplored, so we must carefully and consciously conserve marine ecosystems to protect species we have yet to discover. I hope I do not have to watch them die out. I hope to still be making my pilgrimages to visit them throughout my lifetime. The year 2016 stands out in my memory, I feel extremely fortunate to have seen these beautiful animals in the wild. I hope that sharing these moments will help others feel inspired to protect the ocean environment for generations to come.

Orcas are highly intelligent and are breathtakingly charismatic . The big concern is that we are having impacts on their environment at a global level, and so how resilient are they for some of the threats that are down the road for them ? We’re at a point now where humans can affect the fate of all other species.