An Orca "spy-hopping" - having a bit of a look around! Trying to spot that famous bridge off in the background...?
It seems that every other winter, a pod of Orca's ("Killer Whales") is spotted outside the Golden Gate Bridge, somewhere near the Farallon Islands. We've seen both "transient" pods and "resident" pods - think traveling teams and home teams. Both pods enter our waters from somewhere else, either passing by on their normal vagabond feeding quest, or coming south of their home territory near Puget Sound.
Both pods enter our waters from somewhere else, either passing by on their normal vagabond feeding quest, or coming south of their home territory near Puget Sound. Usually, marine biologists are able to identify specific individuals and let us know who our visitors are and where they call home.
I'll always recall the first time I spotted those tall dorsal fins slicing through the water, and the thrill of realization that they swam less that 20 miles away from my office building in downtown San Francisco! Yesterday they were back.
Passenger Jennifer Hagerty describes her delight upon seeing the Orcas while aboard an SFBayWhaleWatching trip yesterday. She kindly provided the photos shown in this post. In addition to the Orca's, Jennifer photographed a couple of Gray Whales feeding, with the Farallon Islands in the background.
Jennifer tells her story: "Good Morning! First let me say, yesterday was AMAZING! I am still reliving the
trip in my head. I can not tell you how much I enjoyed the day, the weather, the crew and the whales! I know we had a lucky day in every aspect of weather, waves and whales, it was like all the stars lined up. Here are the pictures I told you I would send. The orca one turned out well too! I also added one of the orca on his back swimming and a few with the Golden Gate in the back. Again, a super day, top 10 ever in my life! Thank you so much again for a fantastic day!"
Photos and narration by Jennifer Hagerty. Text by Kathleen Jacques.
1 comments:
The Orcas also know as the Killer Whale and sometimes as the Blackfish or Seawolf. The origin of the word Orcinus is Orcus, the god of the netherworld in Roman mythology. Orca implies resembling the shape of a cask or barrel. This whale is included in the oceanic dolphin family – Delphinidae. It can adapt itself to all oceans on the globe and is noted to be the most widely distributed mammal after the humans.
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