Big Fish Market

Whoa! I've only seen them from the shore or a much larger vessel. My hands would have been shaking too much to get a shot like this!

2 wks before this trip, I saw vid footage of one coming up onto wet sand to take down an elephant seal. That image was heavily on my mind this trip. I have an unartistic sequence of 4 shots of my friend starting out to shoot one coming at him - a solo cow. Ss the cow's dorsal headed down, a 6' dorsal comes up. Next shot, camera down, next shot, grabbing for paddle... The big difference is the pelagiac (migrating) versus resident Orcas. These are resident whales. I swear, they have a sense of humor. One group of non-paddlers in double kayaks were out & a bull came their way broadside. About 10' away, he rotates, lowering the dorsal, passes under them & rotates back upright on the other side. The paddlers likely had a cleanup job in their cockpits. No matter what you know - you can't help but lay furry walnuts when they come near. 1000 lbs/ft x 30' of carnivore.

Stunning shot!