2-26-12 Avoiding the Daylight?

Sunday, February 26th

...this is getting to be the month of hearing whales and not seeing them!

...the other night J pod came through...they were here for hours...very nice...I could hear their calls echoing...and, once again, it was in the dark...

...they've been giving us more audio encounters - the hydrophones - Lime Kiln or Orca Sound, and not many daylight sightings...
...if we did see them at night....then maybe they might look like this...

...I've been going through images from last season - yes, still - and while I was working away all afternoon, I was rewarded at about 5pm with some Transient calls on the Lime Kiln hydrophones...

...here's a clip...their calls lasted only a few minutes...very interesting...sounds like maybe dinner was just delivered!



...and here are a couple transient images from last season...
...T19B...can't wait to see if his dorsal fin has grown more...or if it is standing taller...
...and one of my favorites, from Victoria waterfront area...

...three of the Residents who had been in Discovery Bay and then Puget Sound earlier this month were Grace L-2, Gaia L-78 and Wave Walker L-88...they are a close family group...
...how close?!

...it would be nice to see them in the daylight......they could be coming...

...or going...

...above the surface...

...or below...



...Where's the salmon?

...Think the whales know how to find it?

...After all, aren't they really smart?

2-22-12 All Audio, No Visuals

Wednesday, February 22nd

...we're back to hearing the whales again...

...at 0058 on February 19th, transient calls woke me up...they didn't last very long at all..

...that same evening at close to 8pm transient calls - again!! This time they lasted about two minutes and then all was quiet again.

...the next morning, February 20th, J pod showed up again, coming back down from the north...

...there were some very interesting calls...one of them sounds like a variation of a S46, but I really don't know...



...they headed out in the Strait of Juan de Fuca...

2-16-12 Sooke L-112

Thursday, February 16

added: (link here for a radio broadcast regarding the sonar incident)

Sooke L-112
Female
January 2009 - February 2012
She is the second offspring to Surprise! L-86.
She was full of energy.
We got a chance to know her...
Sooke and brother Pooka.
With her mother.
With other family and pod mates.
She and her brother could really make you laugh.
We last saw her on October 21, 2011.It's not known how she died.
It may take a while to find out.
An answer may never be revealed.

It's so very sad to have lost her from this fragile Community.
She was one of only two females born in L pod between 2003 and 2009.

She carried the great responsibility
of bringing offspring of her own into this world one day.

Her death has changed her role.
She will now be a teacher.
To educate researchers and scientists,
and 'whale huggers' young and old.

Usually when a whale is lost from the
Southern Resident Community there is time to prepare.
Why?
Usually, at first, a whale is not seen during an encounter.
Then, during the next encounter, all eyes are looking for that whale.
After several encounters of not being seen
a whale may be listed by CWR as missing.

In the winter L pod is not commonly seen in the inland waters.
Sometimes L pod shows up off Monterey Bay, California.
It is standard to wait until spring for L pod's return.
It is then we look for the presence of every member.
Sometimes it takes weeks to locate each member.
Sometimes only a few days.

It's not known how Sooke died.
There are enough scenarios to keep one awake at night.
But wait we must, for the test results.
The Whale Museum has announced that
Sooke's skeleton will come to reside at The Whale Museum.
link here and scroll down on their home page.

As the whales give us the opportunity to see them again,
we each will have changed from this significant event.
I only hope that her death will not have been for naught.

2-12-12 J Pod In the Daylight!

Sunday, February 12th

...it started out as 3 whales going down San Juan Channel...
...progressed to 6 or 7 whales heading west among the islands not far from the Orcas ferry landing (north of where the first sighting was)...
...by the time they reached the next small island, Crane Island, there were 12!
...we - Amy from The Whale Museum driving the boat, Dave from the Center for Whale Research and I, went north of Yellow Island and 'met' the whales as they came our way...

...the dark backdrop didn't help matters in finding them...that's actually Hy'Shqa J-37 near, and Spieden J-8 on her back, tail lobbing...
...it was about noon...they were spread out, one individual, two others surfacing together, another individual...farther back a small group - looked like kids...
...some moved out into the Channel...it seemed that a few had gone up along the shoreline...
...Shachi J-19 was in charge...looked like she had kid sitting duty today...Suttles J-40, and Eclipse J-41 and Se-Yi-Chn J-45 together...
...Granny J-2 was up ahead...
...we could see some of the big boys off in the distance...they were taking long dives that seemed to last way more than 5 minutes...

...for a while we had only seen most of Group A - Granny's group...that is until Rhapsody J-32 surfaced with Oreo J-22 - okay so the rest of J pod is around! One of the J22s...
...Cookie J-38 and his mom - mom J-22 is just under the surface on her side, you can see her eye patch......there was a lot of spyhopping...check out the eye...
...I like finding the not so common...and once again I got lucky - TEETH!
...it took quite a while to figure it out, but since they did a lot of spyhopping and by the end they had all shown their chins...these teeth belong to DoubleStuff J-34...
...and Oreo J-22 she spyhopped too - that's Battleship Island in the background...
...as the whales approached the west entrance to Spieden Channel it was time for us to turn back, but not before we got a good look at the kids...
...by this time Shachi and her 'kid group' had blended in with the J17s, J16s and part of the J11s...
...Echo J-42...
...Princess Angeline J-17 with a tail lob and her youngest, Moby J-44 surfacing next to her......and just one more...Notch J-47 next to Shachi J-19...an extraordinary February encounter...

...I am not a scientist/nor researcher, only a watcher of these whales...with that said...



I think J pod whales looked FAT!
I think the whales know where the salmon is.
It would be nice if the humans would focus on the salmon.
If you have food to eat your chances of survival are much greater - duh!

2-9-12 J Pod Heard About Open Mic Night!

Thursday, February 9th

...but first...
...here's the link to the navy sonar incident on the morning of February 6, 2012...read all the details as put together by Orca Sound - the hydrophone network.


Wednesday evening, February 8th...
...I learned that transients were headed through Baynes Channel...since they can be very quiet I didn't know if I would hear anything from them...

...but within a few moments I heard a few very faint calls..."Okay, maybe there they are." I thought to myself...and then they began echolocating - huh?



...now I've heard transients do this only one other time, so okay...but I listened more intently...the clicking continued...and then I heard...



...Oh, my, it was J pod!
...this is terrific!

...they must have heard about 'Open Mic Night' that those Ks and Ls had a few days ago, because now J pod was having their own.



...sounded like maybe an L pod whale was with them, maybe Onyx L-87...and I heard what sounded like a few K pod calls, but only intermittently during the their extended time on the hydrophones...

...this Open Mic Night was not louder but longer...close to 5 hours.

...I couldn't see them, I couldn't hear any blows this time, but I surely could hear them on both the Lime Kiln and the Orca Sound hydrophones...