Saturday, November 29, 2014

11-29-14 J Pod Left The Scene Undetected!

Friday/Saturday, November 28/29th
Friday, November 28th
...an audio whale evening...J and K pod calls over the Port Townsend hydrophones at about 10pm...they were coming out of Puget sound...

...Saturday, November 29th
...28 degrees, winds gusting big time, and whales spotted in several places not far from Friday Harbor...it was a great time to try out some of that cold weather gear...and off to Ruben Tarte Park to see if I could spot whales amongst those white caps, wind and chill...no whales...
...but later in the day they showed back up again...having gone west through Spieden Channel...it was still biting cold, but the wind had slowed a bit and the seas were actually not too bad...so....out with Capt. Jim to see who was there...
...as we approached the location we couldn't see a whale anywhere!...there were supposed to be 45 whales here...
...one group surfaced in the distance and instead of going west they had changed direction and were heading back toward Spieden Channel...

...it was J pod and Onyx L-87...Granny was in the lead...
...K pod was here too!
...their behavior was unusual in the way they moved...'almost quietly'...in a large circle and very slowly moved in closer...
...and then...zoom!...zoom!...zoom!-that's on the video clip...they were after something...I commented that it looked like they were going after herring...of course I have no idea what that looks like...
...but the whales were after fish and as my 'go to fisherman for education' told me it's winter Chinook time...maybe the whales were after the Chinook...and the Chinook were after the small fish...that makes more sense!

...and in the end J pod was nowhere to be seen and only K pod was present...
...J pod had 'quietly' left the scene while we were focused on all that zooming by the K pod whales. Amazing!...and they had so many options as to which way to go!
...K pod continued to  traveled down Haro Strait...
...it was getting late...we dropped off and went into the harbor...they continued on down and where they will be tomorrow is a good question!

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