Spirit of Orca Whale Watching & Wildlife Tours

09/01/2024

Abundant marine life of the Salish Sea seen on our tours.

08/29/2024

Abundant marine life of the Salish Sea seen on our tours.

08/24/2024

A bit late but here is yesterdays post.

Abundant marine life of the Salish Sea seen on our tours.

08/24/2024

Edit update- I intentionally did not name this person. I received a call from a lady, “Tisa”, letting me know that many were assuming it was her. It was not. I do not know her, we may or may not agree with each other but this free for all hate spewing behind the veil of Facebook is wrong. At her, at professional whale-watch captains, at anyone.

There is too much hate spewed on facebook. I tried addressing one instance of a pattern of hate towards professional whale-watch captains, and some made an assumption it was Tisa and spewed hate towards her.

Just as the person I did not mention by name was throwing hate, which was wrong based on assumptions, not facts. It is also wrong to throw hate at Tisa or anyone for that matter with assumptions that it was her.

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I was trying to inject reason into a bias last night, but some people cannot be convinced of anything once they have made up their minds. This person in Hood Canal was viewing from over a half mile away, possibly more. Some also cannot admit being wrong but would instead shift to another claim of wrongdoing, which is what happened, claiming to "know bad behavior."

I think maybe I was invested in this dialogue because the captain being accused is one of the most cautious captains on the water I know of.

She insisted that a boat was crowding a pod of orcas and running too close to them. In addition, she attacked the only legal means of viewing orcas in motion, which is running parallel to the pod. She was shooting from opposite shoreline in Hood Canal with some kind of telephoto or zoom lens.

I tried explaining that depth perception on water is difficult. I personally have been judging distances on water since I was a teenager working as a deckhand and giving distances to the captain as we are approaching a dock or a lock on the Columbia River.

There were pleasure boaters that were running inside the legal distance right with the whales. There were speeding vessels, of which I personally used my horn to get one boat's attention, and they slowed down and stopped heading directly into the orcas. That is something we, as professional captains and professional naturalists, do every single day on the water. We do this every day. Taking a naturalist class or reading the state and federal regulations does not make you an expert on judging distances. Being out here every day, judging distances and verifying with radar and chart plotters may not make us experts either, but it sure is a heck of a lot of experience doing so.

This is not my words but from a Google search to explain what I was trying to convey.

"Focal length
Wider lenses with shorter focal lengths capture a wider depth of field, while longer, more zoomed-in lenses capture less depth of field. Photographs taken with short-focal-length lenses can appear to have more depth, while those taken with long lenses can appear compressed. For example, telephoto lenses can flatten perspective, making the foreground and background appear closer together.

"What is "depth of field", and how does changing the lens affect it?
Another way to describe it as “focus-range”, is the distance that objects can be away from the camera AND still look sharp.

In general, wide-angle lenses show the greatest depth of field, and telephoto lenses show the least."

"Lens compression is a photographic technique that can make the background of an image appear closer to the subject than it is in real life. It's also known as perspective exaggeration. This effect is more noticeable when using a telephoto lens, and the longer the lens, the more apparent it becomes."

One of my explanations was what WDFW shared with 26 of us who were being trained to document and collect evidence that WDFW could present in court in order to cite violators who were harassing whales. The officer shared that they regularly have office personnel on board their boat to share what it is like in the "field". He would ask the staff how far away a boat was from a whale. The answer given was most often about half of what the actual distance was verified by radar. That is to explain that even the human eye has a difficult time judging accurate distance on the water.

I am constantly asked, "why is that boat (boat on the other side of the orcas) so close to the whales." I explain that we are actually closer or as far away from them as the other boat is. They are dumbfounded when I show them the truth on tmy boats radar.

I know what it is to be falsely accused by a "shoreside expert" seeing what their mind wants to see. A few years ago, I received a call from NOAA in San Diego asking me about a photo someone from Whidbey shoreline took of me, turned me in to NOAA, claiming I was too close to orcas underway. I was 1.5 miles away from this person, viewing and taking photos from shore. Not only was this person viewing a mile and a half away, but a zoom or telephoto lens was used, further compressing the depth of field. The whale I was accused of being too close to was behind the boat, and well inside of me to the point we were not even watching that whale; our focus was on a couple of whales on our starboard side and of legal distance.

08/23/2024

T60s today, www.spiritoforca.com

08/23/2024

These are my first Red-necked Phalarope photos of the season. They are beautiful little birds that mate in the Arctic. She will lay a clutch of eggs and leave the male to incubate them while she goes off to mate with another male and lay a clutch of eggs for him to incubate.

08/21/2024

Abundant marine life of the Salish Sea seen on our tours.

08/20/2024

Abundant marine life of the Salish Sea seen on our tours.

08/19/2024

Abundant marine life of the Salish Sea seen on our tours.

08/18/2024

Abundant marine life of the Salish Sea seen on our tours.

08/15/2024

Orca sightings are on the rise.

08/14/2024

Abundant marine life of the Salish Sea seen on our tours.

08/12/2024

Abundant marine life of the Salish Sea seen on our tours.

08/10/2024

Abundant marine life of the Salish Sea seen on our tours.

08/09/2024

Yesterday marked 54 years since J,K, and L pod orcas were robbed of their calves and killing of 11 family members.

The decline in the population of the Southern Resident Killer Whales began in the 1960s as orcas were picked out of the waters of Puget Sound.

08/09/2024

Abundant marine life of the Salish Sea seen on our tours.

08/08/2024

Sea World sucks the life out of our seas.

Date : 8th August, Year 1970. The darkest day in humanity. On this day, 54 years ago, one of the most horrific acts in history on a single pod of killer whales took place. A large pod of 80 orcas were swimming happily and peacefully at Puget Sound, Penn Cove Washington. A team of hunters led by Ted Griffin and Don Goldsberry took advantage of the whales nature and used their pattern to orchestrate a strategic attack and capture. Deafening bombs exploded around the family of whales as boats and small aircraft attempted to herd the disoriented whales and steal the young. 11 young calves were caught and sadly 4 orcas died in drowning during the capture and was later described as the most notorious captured. The cries from these whales still haunt the hunters who know regret their horrific actions to this day. Those cries, similar to a human baby being stolen from their mother are the horrible last memories the innocent pod have of their lost children. The elders of the pod waited around the captors boats after being released from the nets and cried in agony realizing their babies were lost forever. Seven calves were caught in total, one went to Miami, two went to Japan and the rest went to Texas. By now 6 have died and surprisingly a strong 4 year old female orca survived the next 53 years and 10 days (to be exact) in one of the smallest orca tank in the world
...continuation 18th August.

08/06/2024

My favorite image from yesterday's birding tour.

08/05/2024

Abundant marine life of the Salish Sea seen on our tours.

08/04/2024

Today's tours

Abundant marine life of the Salish Sea seen on our tours.

08/04/2024

The Internet for west Anacortes was out yesterday. Here is yesterday's post.

Abundant marine life of the Salish Sea seen on our tours.

08/01/2024

Abundant marine life of the Salish Sea seen on our tours.

07/31/2024

Abundant marine life of the Salish Sea seen on our tours.

07/30/2024

cool stuff -
You're among the top 10% of things to do worldwide
Each year, we recognize travelers' favorite businesses worldwide based on reviews and ratings collected over 12 months. Thanks to their reviews, you scored a spot at the top—congrats on your win.

07/29/2024

Abundant marine life of the Salish Sea seen on our tours.

07/28/2024

Abundant marine life of the Salish Sea seen on our tours.

07/27/2024

Abundant marine life of the Salish Sea seen on our tours.