Orcas in the Wild

When I was very young, I vividly remember playing a soccer game and right afterwards getting in mums mini van and heading on vacation.  Destination Ohio, more specifically, SeaWorld.  Those rubbing their chins right now saying there is no SeaWorld in Ohio, there was at one time, but we art talking 20 years ago here.

We were a camping family, so we set up camp and planned out our few day long trip. An amusement park and SeaWorld were at the top and I was so excited to see Shamu! I went away from that trip with a fascination with marine mammals.  I wanted to be a marine biologist and save the whales all around the world.

These new desires ended up taking me to a place called SeaCamp in San Diego where we saw all kinds of marine mammals and of course took a trip to SeaWorld San Diego. Then as an adult I revisisited my marine mammal love with a vacation to SeaWorld in Orlando.  The idea of math and chemistry made marine biology a thing of the past but my love for these creatures were still alive.

I started researching though and watching documentaries like the Cove and realized that Shamu's home wasn't all that great of a place.  These animals were all captive, prisoners shown off to millions of spectators every day.  Sure many of them came to SeaWorld injured and were saved but how great is it to be saved when your freedom is stripped away?  So for this reason I come to my next item on my bucket list; to see Orca Whales in the wild.

Apparently some of the greatest places to see a killer whale, like Shamu, is right up in British Columbia. I've seen a few people blog about the Johnstone Strait off the Vancouver Islands being the go to place.  You actually take a few day kayak camping trip up there and see all kinds of great wild life. I've seen some video footage and it appears you get very close to the whales and some seals. It would be amazing to see a pod of whales without arched dorsal finds swimming, playing and communicating together in their natural habitat.

For those of you who don't really care to follow marine mammal stuff can I suggest you go and buy or even just rent The Cove.  It was created by the trainer for the dolphins of the original Flipper who has since seen the errors of his way which is all explained in the documentary.  This movie will change your opinions or give you an opinion on a matter you once did not know about. If you click on the link below you help me out. :-)