5/2/16 Haro Strait Ts Going Up and Js Coming Down

Monday, May 2nd
...off the dock on Peregrine with Andy at the helm we head toward the T18s...they are always interesting and often very sly...today was no different...as we arrived on scene they were in travel mode...it wasn't before long when 'all of a sudden' they were at the surface making direction changes, while T19B was 'over there' T19C was a few hundred yards away...T18 and T19 were back and forth with the males...often when they start showing this behavior is because they located something to eat...but...
...for an hour they did this back and forth...not ever a sign of a kill, maybe they were just milling...no birds showed up, no smell to indicate a harbor seal had been taken...
...whatever they were doing it was a great way to watch whales - flat calm water, and whales not going anywhere so neither were the boats that were present...
...the folks on the boat...well, this was their first time to see orcas in the wild...
...here are a few pics of some very serious whale watchers...
...Kathy was watching T19c and I was looking T19B - the whale in this image who is in the distance...it was a perfect set up!...so I became the people/whale photo person of the trip :)

...T18 changed places a few times but the two males stayed in the area they started in...Josh is watching T18 as she heads over toward T19C...

...and Michelle got pictures of her from the left side as T18 came back over to where T19B was...

...

T18 has two notches and T19 has a bumpy looking trailing edge.

...T19B - aka Mr. Floppy Fin (only because I kept forgetting his alpha-numeric back when I was learning them)...T19C has a straight tall dorsal fin, narrower than T19B's, with a little kink at the top.

...T19B looks different from just about every angle...

...we left the scene after a big hello to Ron and Trev on 5 Star...

...and we headed over to Turn Pt. where the J16s were coming down. They evidently are the Residents who had been way north near Texada Island...unusual for just them to be there at this time of year, but not an unusual place for them usually much earlier in the year...

...talk about concentration!...these folks were waiting at County Park for the J16s as they came down from the north...

...the tide was ebbing, moving down quickly...the whales were also moving quickly...barely made it the the park as they came by...

...down island they continued...
...when will the rest of J Pod return...maybe the J16s will report back to Granny J-2 about the salmon situation in these waters...I wonder what they will tell her...