Probably almost everyone recognizes the killer whale or orca (Orcinus orca), thanks to Sea World and other seaquariums. Living in Florida, I have been to Sea World a number of times and have gone to the Shamu show every time. In college, I was fortunate enough to have studied marine biology with a world renowned marine mammal specialist and got to go behind the scenes at Sea World several times as well. Most of our time behind the scenes, we dealt with injured or ill manatees, but we did also get to interact with the orcas, belugas, seals and walruses, and even penguins. Getting to see those animals up close was very exciting, but getting to see them out in the wild is a whole different type of thrill.

On our Alaskan boat trip, we looked for orcas near the glacier where the harbor seals were resting (after all, seal are one of the orca’s favorite meals) and again when we stopped to see the sea lions, but it wasn’t until we were on our way back home that we finally saw a small pod of them. They were just off a very rocky stretch of coastline and several other boats were watching them as well. They seemed to just be meandering around the area not actively hunting or heading in any particular direction in a big hurry. They never got super close to any of the boats, but they were close enough that you could see them well, even without binoculars and so that I didn’t need a telephoto lens to get this image of them. Every so often one would surface and blow or you would see dorsal fins as they cruised just below the surface. I had trained the camera on this particular pair of fins and waited for them to surface. Fortunately, I had better luck or better reflexes than I did with the Dall’s porpoises and got a fairly decent shot. Even though the photo isn’t as sharp or as closeup as you would get at a place like Sea World, there is a special feeling you get when you get to observe and photograph these wonderful animals in their natural environment.