2-14-15 K and L Pod Whales Appeared Today

Saturday, February 14th
...out on Maya's Westside Charters today...and no sooner do we leave the dock, we find we are heading west to catch up to a large group of whales...just spotted...and thought to be transients...NOT...it was members of K and L pods!  And they were going west (away from here)...when/how far did they come in when did they turn to leave?...doubt we'll ever know the answer to that except from maybe a fisherman who might have seen them 'in the act'...

It's not uncommon for the whales to show up in February and not make it all the way to Haro Strait before turning around...they were already past Race Rocks and almost to Secretary Island...and we were on our way hoping the whales would slow their departing pace...

...the farther we went the nicer it got...more sunshine and the seas for the Strait of Juan de Fuca - fabulous today...
on scene:

...the whales were spread for miles across and were not necessarily traveling in their family groups...for example: 
Yoda K-36 and Pooka L-106 were traveling together for a while...and then Pooka and his mom, Surprise! L-86 were traveling together...

...Sekiu K-22, Tika K-33, and Crewser L-92 were traveling together...
...Nyssa L-84 and a Pacific white sided dolphin were traveling together...

...then the Pwsd moved over to Ino L-54...

...off in the distance someone started breaching...one of the kids, but too far away to get an ID of which juvenile it was...

..

...at one point the K14s seemed to be traveling together, for a while that is...then with Surprise! L-86 and Pooka L-106, who a short while ago were with Kasatka L-82 and Finn L-106...
...as they were passing us, Kelp K-42 breached...

...I thought maybe he was the one who was breaching before but the eye patches are different...

...there were whales a mile or more south of us who we never got to, but it was sure neat to see their distant blows backlit by the sunshine...and there were whales close to a mile from us, closer to shore, who we didn't ever see...
...and the last whale we saw was Ballena L-90 and in the distance the Sheringham lighthouse - check out the lighthouse via the link...some of the images are stunning.

...according to us humans the whales were all mixed up today, but according to the whales they knew exactly where everyone was, including us!