Thursday, September 18, 2014

9-18-14 The J14s Just Didn't Want to Go

Thursday, September 18th
...Granny J-2, in the lead, about a half hour ahead of Onyx L-87...but her lead changed when she changed direction and met up with him off shore from the lighthouse...
...others were still down island...
...what was most interesting to me is that they most likely came down Rosario Strait last night...
...while out on the water on Maya's Westside Charters we hear there is a Pacific white sided dolphin...there have now been about a half dozen times this summer when one or a couple have been spotted...

...the white side seemed more interested in playing with the boats and less interested in harassing the whales...I wonder if the whales were too busy with trying to get enough food to eat...
...taken through the window of the boat...
...for their being only 9 whales present and spread to the extreme...the salmon must have been in short supply...
...I had heard that the warmer than usual water had caused the majority of the salmon to come in from the north and get to the Fraser River that way, leaving the southern entrance - up Haro Strait - in short supply...

...when the whales came up island in the late afternoon, Granny J-2 and Onyx L-87 were in the lead, traveling parallel but not side by side...Shachi J-19 and Eclipse J-41 were coming up as well...

...and there was the Pacific white sided dolphin again!...or maybe it was another one...it was just too fast and the seas were rolling, adding to the challenge of getting a dorsal fin shot of a zooming about dolphin!..one that I did get had the several small nicks on the trailing edge...I can't show you the top because that is the actual top of the image- how lucky is that!
...shortly past the lighthouse Onyx, Granny J-2, Shachi J-19, and Eclipse J-41 changed direction and traveled back down island close to shore...
... the J14s had not come up island and had stayed about a mile south of the lighthouse...
...and they seemed very happy when the other four came back down island...

...it is highly unusual to have just nine whales present from the Community of 79 whales...

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