(Fourth in the series Superpod One – Where It All Began)
On July 2nd, Grandma J2 celebrated her 100th birthday. They held a party in her honor on San Juan Island, off the coast of Seattle.
So, how do they know she’d just turned 100? That’s one of the questions on my list for Ken Balcomb. Ken is Founder and Principal Investigator at the Center for Whale Research and one of several orca experts who are getting together this week.
We’ll be learning as much as possible from these great folks, and hoping to see some of the orcas as they pass by the center on one of their fishing expeditions most afternoons. (Keep your fins crossed that they’re hanging out there this week. It all depends on where the fish are.)
One of the people locally who study orcas sent an e-mail last week with some of the latest news about the three Southern Resident pods:
L pod and the rest of K pod came in yesterday. Now all three pods are all here and the superpod antics have been amazing. Apparently all 88 are present and accounted for.
And there’s a new baby in the past few days, K44.
There should be some excellent orca action out there next week, unless they run out of Chinook salmon and have to head back out.
We had a great 100th birthday party for J2 at the lighthouse and at the Center last weekend. Actually played some volleyball for the first time there in over ten years. Are you all ready for some volleyball?
Yes, indeed! Tomorrow, we head out to the islands.