6-1-17 J Pod and the Tunnel Effect at the Lighthouse

Thursday, June 1st
...J Pod and Onyx didn't stay up north for very long...today they came back down passing the lighthouse in the middle of the afternoon...

...I had heard they were coming down fast and the ebbing current was bringing them along...a few miles to the north some angled offshore while the others continued down passing the lighthouse...
...in the lead, of the whales who passed by the lighthouse, was Shachi J-19...and behind her were only moms and young kids...

...behind Shachi were Eclipse J-41 and Nova J-51...they gave an example of the 'Tunnel method' they sometimes use...surfacing before reaching the lighthouse and then not again until well past it!

...Princess Angeline J-17 and Kiki J-53 gave a better demonstration...

...offshore from them was Star J-46...Tahlequah J-35 was next and did the same as the others...her offspring, Notch J-47, was a distance offshore from her, traveling parallel...
...there were boats offshore with more than half of the whales...
...next Echo J-42 was about approaching within camera range, when she began to angle offshore...however, her mom, Slick J-16, and little Scarlet J-50 continued on, giving another tunnel demo...

...I think there were 11 whales inshore and the rest of the Js and Onyx over a mile offshore...the inshore whales continued down past Eagle Pt. ...I saw one of them, who was down by Eagle Pt., breach a couple times and a couple blows from others...I also saw three coming back up island at False Bay but then I lost them...
...the offshore whales at one point seemed to be angling back in, but then changed southwest, as best as I could tell...
~~~
Notes:
...the last three times they have come back down there has been a group inshore and a group that was offshore by a couple miles...
...and each of those times they have stalled out and spent at least a couple hours not really going anywhere yet they didn't appear to be doing much if any foraging...
...one time they went back north and twice they went out west - Strait of Juan de Fuca...

...here is what I keep picturing...

...you're doing a great job Shachi!  
...I think that maybe Slick might coaching you too!