40 Killer Whales Spotted by SFBay Whale Watchers

40! That's right, I said 40 Killer Whales ("orcinus orca", if you want to be formal about it; and while we're at it, an Orca is not actually a whale but a delphinidae, a member of the dolphin family). This astounding photo was taken March 7, 2009 near the Farallon Islands by SFBay Whale Watching passenger, David Leslie. That's what I call being in the right place at the right time (having the right camera and talent helps too - thank you David!).

Thankfully, passenger David Leslie (seen above with his daughter Jennifer) was there to capture the images, and thank goodness our Naturalist, Trish Mirabella was there to capture the story with such knowledge and enthusiasm.

Trish's story: “Last Saturday's trip was amazing. It started out with beautiful calm weather. Cobalt blue skies with marine blue ocean glittering on the horizon. We had a full boat of very enthusiastic participants. We rounded Point Bonita and headed west towards the Farallon Islands. At about 15 miles out the first spouts appeared off to the distance. The blows were bushy and heart shaped in their appearance, a tell-tale sign that they belonged to Gray Whales."

"For the next hour we were surrounded by about 12-15 Gray's. It seemed like they were feeding because they would stay at the surface 3-5 minutes and then “fluke”, sinking their tails out of the water followed by a longer 10-15 minute dive. We didn't witness any babies although some looked smaller, perhaps juveniles. These whales were definitely busy because they didn't stick around our boat long, before moving on to somewhere else.”

“We slowly approached the Farallones. The water was clear blue aqua and you could see the ocean floor near Fisherman's bay with a white bottom substrate. Because of the recent rain the island was brimming with green foliage, a native plant known as the Farallon Weed. The island glowed and had a clean air about it. Around the rocky outcropping of Fisherman's Bay were hauled-out Stellar Sea Lions with the males displaying their dominance by their astute stature. We had a Mola Mola (ocean sun fish) about 3’x3’ that approached our boat. The captain and I thought it was a plastic bag floating on the surface when we realized it had fins that were swimming our way! It came so close to the boat that you could see that it had a turquoise eye.”

“Soon we were heading back towards the golden gate when I heard the captain scream Orca! He witnessed three Orcas ahead with one breaching clear out of the water. Within 5 minutes, our boat became surrounded by black dorsal fins. Some sliced through the water at 6-7 ft high. Males, with large triangular fins followed by 3 ft falcate (curved) female fins. The whales seemed to be greeting us, saying hello."

"They were coming at us in groups of 3-5. Whales were breaching fully out of the water, slapping their tales repeatedly on the surface, a behavior known as “lobtailing”. They were laying on their sides and slapping their pectoral fins on the water, usually this signals a social display. The whales seemed to be feeding because of their social nature and abundant displays. We saw a couple of calves with their moms. Instead of having a grey saddle patch located below their dorsal fin, it was pink in appearance."

"These whales stayed with us for over two hours. We were the only boat as far as the eye could see. Surrounded in a blue soup of Orcas. I talked with Ken Balcomb principle director for the center for whale research in Puget Sound, Washington that day and he was curious to see if they were the resident population missing from those waters since February. After a few days they were positively identified as resident fish-eating Orcas from Washington State.”


Thanks also to the Marin Independent Journal for its great newspaper story of SFBay Whale Watching's big day.


Photos courtesy of David Leslie. Narration by Trish Mirabella; text by Kathleen Jacques.