1-18-16 Mid January Update

Monday, January 18th
-There are never the right words to say.
The passing of Eva Saulitis, a whale researcher of the Chugach Transients, of Prince William Sound, Alaska, author of many books, most recent Into Great Silence.  From reading her account of 25 years, I felt like I knew Eva, yet met her only briefly in Friday Harbor in the fall of 2014.  There are some with whom you just connect, no understanding as to why, but you just do.  Through her writings and her work I connected.  I would like to have known her.  I am sad that I didn't. 

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Happening upon a link on FaceBook I explored more...this is stunning video from Whale Haven, the Great Bear Sea, and the place that is threatened by oil tankers...
I encourage you to watch the video in silence (turn off the volume)...the whales don't travel to our human music...they travel to the beat of their world not ours.
Enjoy that video in silence...your eyes will be totally focused to take it all in without the distraction of your ears having to work too.  Give it a try, try it both ways, see/hear what works for you.
http://pacificwild.org/news-and-resources/great-bear-blog/dispatch-whale-haven

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-as I am writing this blog I am hearing J Pod whales over the Port Townsend hydrophones... (it's about 5:30 pm)
...they were here on January 5th, in the dark...on January 16th a friend called to let me know he was hearing whales passing his place on the east side of San Juan Island...they were going down San Juan Channel...of course it was dark!...the next thing I know, two days later, J Pod is coming back up Puget Sound!
...they most likely had been way north, which makes sense for what they do at this time of year, came down on the 16th and into Puget Sound in the night to check out the food situation and were undetected until today when they were seen coming back up and out of Puget Sound...nice to hear them once again...

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...listening for those fish sounds...there have only been a few and all but a couple have been over the Orca Sound hydrophones, not the Lime Kiln hydrophones like last year...
...I find that interesting too because when the whales came in on the 5th they didn't come across Haro Strait and up passing Lime Kiln lighthouse, instead they cut through Baynes Channel and angled up toward Kellett Bluff which is north of Lime Kiln by a few miles where the Orca Sound hydrophones are located...and that's where the majority of the calls were heard...

...I have mostly relied on the signature calls from each pod and some of the subgroup specific calls...but it looks like now I'm really diving into learning them all...
I found one that sounds like a kitten call but it actually is an L Pod call!
It is crazily confusing and quite the challenge!