Monday, March 30, 2015

3-30-15 A Whale of a Surprise!

Monday, March 30th
...out on Legacy Charters to see if we could locate J Pod whales who I had heard earlier over the hydrophones (see prior post)...
...we met up with whales as they were just entering Active Pass...it appeared to be the J16s...
...little did we know we were in for a surprise!
...it wasn't until we had exited Active Pass and were in the Strait of Georgia that this group of whales stalled out and and we weren't quite sure what they were doing...maybe with baby J-50 they were taking a rest?..I don't know...but what I do know is what occurred when they started to move on...
...Slick J-16 and baby surface as they passed by us...I thought to myself, "there's mom and the baby."...but then right in front of us and about 25 yards behind mom and the baby, another baby surfaces!...that's when I told Capt. Spencer, "I think there are two babies here!"

...and so began our quest to figure it out...and then Suttles J-40 surfaces - huh? what?...you don't even belong in this family group...just what is going on?

...our quest was to get two calf fins up at the same time, so we could prove there were two babies here, J-50 and someone else...that took a while...
 
...when Legacy was about to leave the scene, Maya's Westside Charters arrived, so I boat hopped and was able to stay out with these whales longer - thanks captains!
...we know that J-50 is a female, and that belly marking is a female, but is this J-50?!  So many questions...the answers may take a while...
...Suttles J-40 was behind this group...an unfolding mystery...these whales could be babysitting the new calf...we've seen it before...



...The Center for Whale Research was contacted while we were on the water to let them know about this calf...then after looking at images and seeing open saddle patch on each side of the calf, they were contacted again with this information.  J-50 and J-51, the other two new calves in J Pod do not have open saddle patches.
More posts on J-52
4-1-15 We Know Who Our Moms Are

4-6-15 More About J-52


1 comment:

Sara Shimazu said...

Thank you for all you do Jeanne! I'm so glad you were there to see the new calf and that your eagle eye caught the surprise! :) Your photos are beautiful (as always!)! Hope to see you soon. Cheers!