Tuesday, March 18, 2014

3-18-14 Interspecies Interaction Today!

Tuesday, March 18th
...I'm sure this is not uncommon in many places, but it is highly unusual for this time of year in these waters - an adult male Steller sea lion in the middle of the Pacific white sided dolphins...


...after hearing the Pacific white sided dolphins until 2 a.m. this morning I wondered where they might be when it was time to go out on Maya's Westside Charters...
...but I never thought they would be in just about the same place as they were yesterday afternoon...if you didn't know they were there you might drive right by them...

...they moved about in very large circles - sometimes up to a couple miles and other times a few hundred yards...
...we noticed at different times what looked to be dorsal fin slaps, which seemed like it was playful...
...then another time what looked like a dorsal fin slap actually seemed to be a strong tail slap (toward the end of the video)...they were in a large group, moving quickly and one dolphin repeatedly did this...we wondered if it was some kind of signal or had to do with herding fish...
...some came to the boat and rode the bow and looked up at us...and several times there were 8 to 10 dolphins at the bow...amazing stuff...they were watching us!
...the larger group was off in the distance with lots of moms and kids...sometimes there were pairs, some looking young, who rode along side the boat, but they didn't appear to ride the bow as some did...the younger ones are most likely 'in training'...
...a deep sea ship was coming down Haro Strait...the dolphins began to leave us and head for the ship...even the large group picked up their pace and headed for that fast moving deep sea...some leaping in the bow wave off that deep sea (also on the video clip)...

...after the ship passed on by the dolphins came back...
...that's when a Steller sea lion surfaced...he was was probably just out for an afternoon meal and on his way back to his Spieden Island 'hang out' he got bombarded by these dolphins!...he kept surfacing in the middle of them and ...at first he seemed irritated at the dolphins, he looked like he was trying to get around them but then he didn't move on and instead seemed to be partaking of their prey as well, because he kept surfacing in the middle of them or right next to them, changing direction with them!
...enjoy this clip of a truly amazing encounter...
...for two days these Pacific white sided dolphins have been in the same place...lots of food...



2 comments:

Samantha Kam said...

Being out on the boat with you that day was such a treat! We've been unable to talk about much else since!

Jeanne said...

Thanks Samantha! That was quite an encounter!!