The story begins with something of a disappointment before ending very much on a high. The main reason we travelled out to Vancouver from Ireland was to go on a kayaking trip around Robson Bight in the hope of getting to kayak with Orcas. While the trip was excellent and really well run, unfortunately it was very early June and the usual resident pod weren’t around during most of our three days there. We did have a great experience in hearing them in the Johnstone Strait on our final evening while camping and got to see them from a distance at the beach we were camped. Unfortunately this is as close as we got though.

When we returned to Vancouver we decided to go out on a day trip to try our luck again. The trip was skippered by the wonderfully knowledgeable Gary Sutton. He located J-Pod relatively early out at sea and we had great sightings of about 15 members of the pod during the trip. This picture shows 4 members of J-pod including J45 “Se-Yi’-Chn” who at that time was the youngest calf of the pod. 

A further picture shows a close up of J45. It was a privilege to see the large pod in playful mood sticking together as a family unit and a memory I’ll always fondly look back on.

-Graham