re: Orca prowling the beach pic

There's a little road from Skagway to a NPS campground near the trailhead to the Chilkoot Trail (Dyea, maybe? It's been ~15 years...) At several points, it parallels the northern end of the inlet Skagway is on. I saw Orcas cruising around in there. The inlet wasn't that wide, maybe a 1/2 mile across, but I guess there was something to eat in there.

I took a day cruise out Resurrection Bay to see the Kenai Fjords glaciers. During her introduction lecture, the NPS guide said that for the previous 3 or 4 years, on Aug. 3rd (or 5th, or 1st, whatever day it was) that a Super Pod of Orcas had been see in that area. I made a joke that I'm sure orcas were checking their Palm Pilots to see what was on their schedule that day. I was there primarily to see the glaciers and I knew they would be there. Orcas would be a bonus.

All day, no orcas. A variety of other really cool stuff - birds of all descriptions, sea lion, and of course, glaciers - but no orcas. We're heading in at about 4:00pm and the boat turns around. The guide announces that the orcas have been spotted. We run for 15 or 20 minutes and it's the most amazing thing I've ever seen. There were orcas everywhere. Seriously, at least twenty-five. Probably thirty, maybe forty. They were everywhere, but in a big group made up of smaller groups. We stopped to give them some space, but eventually they moved closer and a couple even swam under the bow of our boat. It was incredible! We watched for a while and then left to go in.

I asked the guide if the orcas were there every day and if she just told every group there was a superpod on their particular day. She said, "No, it's a real thing. We're not sure why it's happened on the same day for the past few years." Bizarre!