Started out on the skiff this morning with Pal, Sharon, and Adam.  We did 6 pods and had one very interesting one that had some interesting behaviors that looked more like what we are used to seeing in competitive groups in Hawai'i.  There were a lot of tonal blows and low farty blows as well as some very close encounters.  We worked pods from the skiff until lunch time - it was well worth it to come back and see the artwork of Nikki.  We had a beautiful array of open-faced sandwiches of salmon, crab, and shrimp.  

While we were gone, Donna went fishing and caught a very large halibut!  Quite a fishing feat!  And it was the second largest caught so far this trip - Kathleen is the current winner both the largest halibut and the number of shrimp!

We headed out in search of krill and possible lunge feeding as there is a lot of krill apparent in the waters.  We have been very lucky lately as the weather has held and the seas have been virtually flat. We found a group that were actively bubble feeding as individuals - blowing bubble rings in tighter and tighter circles, all of them in a clockwise fashion.  The sounder showed a lot of krill in the area.  The krill tend to stay much deeper during the day as they are very photophobic (sensitive to the light) and stay down deeper on sunny days.  It was overcast today but not rainy.  We believe that the lunge feeding occurs at dusk because the krill come up to the surface at that time.

We could tell where the whales were going to come up because there were a large number of phalaropes (a small seabird) in the area of the bubble ring.  They would scatter as the whales came up to feed.

One individual began breaching and pec slapping.  He had quite an impressive set of orca marks on the one flipper.

Dinner was halibut with a wonderful coconut and curry sauce.  We're all savoring each minute as we know that tomorrow is our last day and we simply do not want to go home.

Bubble feeding video

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Kathleen, Kent, and Donna on the stern as we leave to "hunt" whales.	Whale exhibiting a head lunge which is fairly common on the breeding grounds.	Bubble ring
Phalaropes in the bubble ring	Whale rolling on side showing the pec and one place of the fluke.	Breach
Pec slapping	Breach	Breach