Question re orcas in the PNW

IndigoBlue · May 11, 2004

Has anyone heard of a place called Johnston Strait at Vancouvre Island? Orcas apparently congregate there in summer to feed on salmon.

Vis is supposedly cloudy and less than 15 ft, due to conditions in the strait. But with the abundance of orcas, it should be possible to freedive or scuba among the orcas.

Anyone know of any diving ops that go there for orca tours?

smay28 · May 11, 2004

IndigoBlue:
Has anyone heard of a place called Johnston Strait at Vancouvre Island? Orcas apparently congregate there in summer to feed on salmon.

Vis is supposedly cloudy and less than 15 ft, due to conditions in the strait. But with the abundance of orcas, it should be possible to freedive or scuba among the orcas.

Anyone know of any diving ops that go there for orca tours?

I know they've offered sea kayaking tours with Orcas in the past in JS and probably still do. I couldn't tell you about diving it though. It's a preserve and I'm not sure diving is permitted though I've heard it's a haven for research teams. I've also read about Orca encounters in the wild but most of these instances were in New Zealand or Norway. Not that they're scarce. JS has the highest concentration of Orca traffic on the planet from what I've read.

Do a Google search and you'll find some interesting stories about Orca encounters. They'd scare the poop right out of me. They're just huge creatures, beautiful and all but even if they were just being playful they could injure. I've stood at the observation/holding tank at Sea World for about 2 hours just staring at a big male. Awesome animal. Scary powerful.

decompression · May 11, 2004

IndigoBlue:
Has anyone heard of a place called Johnston Strait at Vancouvre Island? Orcas apparently congregate there in summer to feed on salmon.

Vis is supposedly cloudy and less than 15 ft, due to conditions in the strait. But with the abundance of orcas, it should be possible to freedive or scuba among the orcas.

Anyone know of any diving ops that go there for orca tours?

Hi Indigo, there are lots of tour companies (net search) that offer whale watching but I don't think there is an option to "dive" with them. Honestly, I don't think it's a good idea to try to dive with them. They are an amazingly powerful, wild animal. And although I'm not aware of any Orca/diver incidents we prefer to observe them from a far. I have had them swim through shortly after surfacing from a dive and it certainly makes your heart beat.

IndigoBlue · May 12, 2004

thanks everybody!

Boogie711 · May 12, 2004

I'm confused. I thought IndigoBlue was never going to step fin into Canadian waters???

archman · May 12, 2004

Boogie711:
I'm confused. I thought IndigoBlue was never going to step fin into Canadian waters???

Like many of us he probably believes that the Pacific side of Canada is merely leased from america.

MXGratefulDiver · May 12, 2004

archman:
Like many of us he probably believes that the Pacific side of Canada is merely leased from america.

I suspect you meant to say "The United States" ... Canada is part of America.

And ... FWIW ... Lime Kiln Park, on the east side of San Juan Island, is a popular site for both orcas and divers. I don't think there's ever been an incident involving the two.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

archman · May 13, 2004

NWGratefulDiver:
I suspect you meant to say "The United States" ... Canada is part of America.

Nah!

Windwalker · May 19, 2004

When I went diving up there this last Christmas, I read at the dive shop, that there were two pods that stayed in that area all year round. I personally would not like to be anywhere close to one of those guys. They can so easily accidently kill us its not even funny.

pipedope · May 19, 2004

Orcas don't like the taste of neoprene.

The only case I know of where a wild orca bit a human was a reseacher in Argentina who was studying seals and sea lions. It seems that the orca grabbed him in the mess of bodies and promptly spit him out.

Question re orcas in the PNW

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