Afternoon adventure with L-pod! Aug 5th, 2010

Here are a few images from our afternoon adventure with L-pod off San Juan Island!

We encountered several members of L-pod just south of Hanna Heights milling and foraging (hunting for Salmon). I managed to identify a number of the Orcas including L85 "Mystery", L87 "Onyx", L89 "Solstice", L79 "Skana" and L22 "Spirit".

Toothed whales such as killer whales use echolocation clicks to "see" their surroundings. Thus they can locate fish in complete darkness. Air passages located just below the blowhole produce the clicks that are focused by the thick oil in the melon, which can be shaped to form an acoustic lens, so they can direct the clicks toward fish. The lower jaw focuses the echoes that reflect off the fish or other objects to the middle ear bones. These echoes allow the Orcas to form an acoustic image in their brain of their surroundings.