POSTCARD N.256 - U.S.A.

Posted on 18th July; received on the 19th October 2026

Postcard image: A whale watching tour boat on the Inside Passage, Alaska, gets a close view of a pod of Orca

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A scene I would love to see one day: a pod of orca in the wild. Thanks so much, A.W., I loved the card!

Orca are no strangers to the waters of the Atlantic in the region that I live in. In fact they are frequently seen in between 2 to 5 nautical miles from the beaches where I often go (therefore,  not visible from the beach, unfortunately).

And, lately, they have become a not so welcome sight for sailboat skippers, since this year alone  88 interactions between orcas and boats have been registered in Portugal so far, with some ending up in boats with inoperationl rudders. (Last year there was even a sunken boat, in September).

Marine biologists say that the type of behaviour that orcas are exhibiting around here is not any form of aggression but only a consequence of curiosity and the playful and exploratory character of the beautiful mammals.

Since they are also good learners, the behaviour is rapidly spreading amidst the newer members of the pod, so it is foreseeable that interactions and consequential incidents occur in the future.

As far as I could investigate on the internet, this tipe of behaviour is limited to Iberian Orca and although interactions with boats do take place in Alaska, damage to boats is a very rare occurrence.

A. W. used one of the "Global Forever" triangular self-adhesive stamps celebrating Postcrossing, issued by USPS on 26MAY2026.

The stamp features a motorcyclist holding a postcard. The other three stamps in the issue feature similar images of Diver; an Astronaut and a Cowgirl... postcards can go anywhere....

The stamp was cancelled with a celebratory postmark of this year's California State Fair which ran from  July 17 through August 2, 2026, at the California Exposition & State Fair (Cal Expo) in Sacramento, California, applied at the Expo Centre Post Office.