Every once in a while, here in the San Juan Islands, we get an abundance of whales. We often refer to this occurrence as “whale soup”. Today, we had 24 transient orcas and two humpback whales in the area. We were watching a group of transients known as the T123s, when we received word that over twenty other orcas were spotted, not too far away. On our way to see them, we stopped off and watched a humpback show its flukes. We saw some Steller sea lions basking in the sun as well. We were even lucky enough to see a peregrine falcon and its two chicks. We then proceeded to the large group of transients and what a group. It was the same large group that has been traveling together for the last week or so. What a great trip!!

Today, May 16th 2016, was an exceptional day aboard the Odyssey. After the tour, the crew all agreed that is was probably the best day of the year. We got to spend almost and hour and a half with over 16 transient orcas. We had the T36As, 65As and Bs, 99s, 123s and T93 and 97, a pair of large, adult, male orcas that travel together. They got really active at one point with lots of porpoising, breaching and lots of very social behavior. We even got a chance to put our hydrophone in the water and listen to them vocalizing. What a day!