8/12-14/15 They Came In Two Days In a Row

Catching up over the last few days...
J, K and some L pod whales came in from the west on the 12th and in from the west on the 13th...how's that?...they go out with a strong ebb current and then come back in or not...this time they decided to...
...out on Peregrine with Capt. Jim we met with the whales...in bound off Victoria, B.C....

...entering Haro Strait is a place they will sometimes get surface active...they know where they are and they have been coming here for a long, long time...their summer place...

...we had to leave the whales...when we came back out of the harbor the T36As and T75Bs were close by to the north, so we went to see them first...
...after a short stay we went to see the Residents only to find that some had already come part way up island and flipped and were going back down island...

...the next day (8-13), the whales came back in and came up past the lighthouse...they were spread out and the seas were rough...it's not easy to show rough seas on an image...but here is Granny J-2 foraging and ocean swells going by...

...it didn't look as rough when Kasatka and Finn passed by...

...not a good idea to throw something (stick rock, etc) into the water unless you know what it will land on and because it is going INTO something you won't know.  There are harbor seals, Steller sea lions, California sea lions, fish, porpoise...all kinds of ocean life and the adult male who threw this had no idea what it might land on...oh, yeah, and killer whales were approaching...had the whales been closer that guy would have met with my angst! 

...some of the whales went north and others stayed down island...in the mid afternoon two whales came up nearing the lighthouse, Opus K-16 and Sonata K-35 - mom and son...they were moving very slowly, not really going anywhere...their calls could be heard over the hydrophones...they sounded like they were having a bit of a conversation...there was also a whale in the distance and that call could also be heard faintly...perhaps they were communicating with that other whale...it is a great opportunity to hear isolated events such as this...though we don't know what they are saying...well it's good that we don't...let's let these whales keep some mystery to them...and let us just clean up their rivers and streams for the wild salmon to repopulate to feed these magnificent animals...

...call the President of the U.S. and ask that he: Remove the 4 Lower Snake River Dams.  202-456-1111  Monday - Friday 9-5 Eastern Time.

...oh, and 8-14...the J16s and others were seen down island during the day...I was off island getting my repaired car back...and for someone who rarely goes off island, I was very glad to return to this place that I call 'magic land'...