(Second in the series Superpod One – Where It All Began)
Day One: From Seattle to San Juan Island
July 11, 2011: It’s all aboard the Victoria Clipper for a 7.30 a.m. departure. My dinky camera doesn’t do the Seattle skyline justice on a dark cloudy morning, but we leave Pier 69 for the three-hour journey to San Juan Island.
We’ll be meeting about a dozen of the world’s most knowledgeable scientists and whale watchers for an informal get-together. We’ll be tracking some of the orca pods (killer whales live in extended families called pods), both from the shore and on boats, and meeting up in the evenings to exchange knowledge and experiences about the orcas who live just off the coast of the islands, and about what we can do to help the ones who are held in captivity at marine parks like SeaWorld.
The ferry is full of local people and tourists, who crowd up onto the top deck at various times along the way for glimpses of dolphins, harbor seals, eagles and other animals, and then as we approach Deception Pass, where two of the many islands meet and a bridge connects them. Beyond lies the Pacific.
One of the crew, a conservation biologist, explains how this huge system of waterways, estuaries and basins that leads out to the ocean was carved out by glaciers about 15,000 years ago. The islands are all volcanic, all part of the Ring of Fire. And the whole region, including Seattle, is subject to earthquakes and eruptions like the famous Mount St. Helens eruption of 1980.
Waiting for us at Friday Harbor on San Juan Island is Candace Calloway, a marine mammal biologist with a passion for rescuing horses. It’s a short ride across the island to Snug Harbor, a small inlet with a marina and cabins, where several of us will be staying.
After a quick lunch we head over to the Center for Whale Research, where Ken Balcomb and his team of interns have been tracking various orca pods from his home and offices on a cliff overlooking the ocean.
Journalists David Kirby and Tim Zimmerman, researcher Dr. Astrid Vanginneken, Ken Balcomb, and documentarian Gabriela Cowperthwaite.
“Here they come,” shouts one of the team as she scans the water below through binoculars.
We’re about to see some orcas.