8-17-13 If There Had Been Whales...

...we never would have seen this jelly...

Friday, Saturday, August 16/17th
Friday
...it went from whales to jellyfish!...one of the largest jellies I have ever seen...and those tentacles...

...J, K and L pod had left the area during the night and were seen far to the west in the Strait of Juan de Fuca heading west...however, the L54s, L84 and L88 had evidently split off from the rest of the Community and were slowly heading back in...unfortunately for us they were well beyond our area of travel...they were out at Secretary Island...

Saturday
...I wondered if the L54s, L84 and L88 would come all the way back in with a big ebb tide (going the opposite way) in the night...and they did...they were spotted coming across Haro Strait in mid morning heading for the west side...they moved up island and spent most of the day in the area of Lime Kiln Lighthouse, sometimes relatively close to shore, but most of the time quite a distance from shore...
...Wave Walker L-88 foraging...

...it's either Wave Walker or Nyssa L-84 coming back down island...

...late in the afternoon while on Maya's Westside Charters, watching this group...2 of the 6: Wave Walker L-88 and Coho L-108...

...we got word that there were at least 15 Transient killer whales north of us, and off we went...as we arrived on scene one group was just rounding Beaver Pt. on the east side of Salt Spring Island...when they rounded the corner all the campers had quite a treat!
...T100C...

...some of the T124s...

...some moved into the middle of the channel...

...and all of them eventually moved closer to Portland Island...
...T90 and her two kids...the arrow points to the tagging wound that she still has from being satellite tagged...and she still has a big lump on her left side as well...

...just as we were about to leave T102 surfaced with somebody...

...and off to our left, one group was surfacing off Portland Island...the lighting on the Pacific Madrona trees was quite stunning...

...these four groups total 18 transients killer whales...