7-30-14 Rope Swings and the Whales

Wednesday, July 30th
...when the day began there were whales heading out west, whales coming down from the Fraser, and transient killer whales over near Matia Island...
...so who was still here today?
...Group B, the rest of K pod, and the L pod whales had gone out (except Onyx L87 who is back with Group A)...
...Group A and the K14s - that's who was still here...a total number of 17 whales...
...as they came down Boundary Pass even that small number of whales (17) were spread all over the place foraging and traveling but not moving very fast...some of the K14s and the J16s were together - visiting one boat and then another and being very playful as they did...
...find the dog and the whale...

...the 36s - that is J-36 and K-36...

...most of the action was off the bow of the boat, but not this one...

...this one - straight off the bow and plenty far out...

...Mike had just been foraging when he surfaced like this and just stayed hanging on the surface for several moments...

...he and others eventually moved across and were acting like they were going to head up Swanson Channel - and that's exactly what they did!...a couple weeks ago they did the same thing...
...people on boats were enjoying the whales...

...but I was concerned for the whales with the two unpredictable objects swinging across and above the surface of the water...luckily the adults must have realized and the kids stopped...
...predictability is important...the humans need to be predictable for the whales...just like we like it when the road traffic is predictable...

...the K14s continued down island and foraged along the way...

...watching them as they cooperatively foraged continues to educate me...it took them about six hours to get from Turn Pt. to Lime Kiln which is something they have commonly done in the past in two hours or less...

...there were some very weary people hanging out at 'whale waiting park'...and then when the whales got there it turned into 'whale watching park' as the K14s passed by slowly, giving the folks on shore some very nice looks at the whales...