Last week I traveled to San Juan Island for the National Resource Defense Council’s magazine On Earth. I rode all day in a skiff with four scientists and one black lab trained to sniff the highly concentrated but hard to find Orca whale poop in the straight of Juan de Fuca and beyond. As we found ourselves in deep green waters and the engine was turned off, Sam Wasser, the chief scientist whispered to me ” you are a very lucky girl today” and just then I saw a huge fin coming towards the boat and the words “close approach”, I held my breath as it’s white saddle gleamed from under the water next to the boat and then she glided up so gracefully out of the water right in front of us. I had waited forever for a moment like this. It was very natural, we did not go to her, she came to us or maybe she just passed us by, but I will never forget my day with the whales and Tucker and the 4 scientists who all share my extreme love for the wild things. Thank you to Meghan Hurley for thinking of me for this amazing assignment.
