catch up on their whereabouts and then Take A Moment
Monday - Saturday, September 18 - 23
...J and L pods showed up unexpectedly in Puget Sound on Monday the 18th and stayed down in Puget Sound for most of Tuesday the 19th...trending north and feasting on salmon as they went (so the word was)...
...and then at 2:45 a.m. Wednesday the 20th they woke me up over the Lime Kiln hydrophones...they continued north and were seen later in the morning and were heading toward the Fraser River by early afternoon...
...the Albion test fishery had a bump up in Chinook salmon numbers on the 18th...they are testing every other day now...so since Sept 6th, the next several counts averaged about 10 Chinook each...then a jump up to 39 on the
18th of Sept., 20 on the 20th, and 31 on the 22nd...
...39 isn't much but it's almost 4 times more than in those recent counts...
...the Chum salmon also took a jump up in count...from 11, 15,13, 13 to 46...then to 67 on the 20th and 48 on the 22nd...
and...It Rained just before those jumps in counts.
...Thursday, the 21st, the whales stayed up near and north of the Fraser River...it seemed they might be heading down but no confirmation...
...Friday, the 22nd, a bit after 8 a.m., the L12 subgroup came down island...Spirit L-22 and Solstice L-89 were the first two to pass at the lighthouse...next was Calypso L-94 and her two offspring - Cousteau L-113 and Windsong L-121...and way offshore was Mega L-41...
...I learned later that the rest of the L12s were out there with Mega...
...later in the morning the other L Pod whales, who had also been north with J Pod the day before, were located up north, but J Pod was not seen anywhere all day!
...this morning, Sept 23rd, a large group was seen coming down Rosario Strait...they made better time than I thought they would, and they actually started to come up the west side by mid-afternoon...normal, historically, but not normal for 2017.
...and Shachi J-19 (the new leader) was in the lead! Go Shachi!!
...behind Shachi were Hy'Shqa J-37 and her offspring, T'ilem I'nges J-49...
...it looked like Suttles J-40, J-37's little sister was behind then...
...and then Eclipse J-41 and Nova J-51...
...but soon they all moved offshore, appearing to be foraging, and eventually traveled back down island...
...from a couple miles south of the lighthouse house I could see whales a mile or more offshore, and several down near False Bay/Eagle...it was about 6pm...
...the only direction at the moment was from those offshore, who appeared to be heading back in and down island...
Take A Moment... and think that you are standing on a hill above the waters of Haro Strait. The water is completely calm, not a sound, no cars, no planes, no talking, just you...and you hear a blow "kerhhh".
You look in the direction, but you see nothing, just calm water.
You know the sound will not reach your ears until after the whale has disappeared from view, so...
You remain still. You listen.
"kerhhh".
This time you keep your eyes on where you heard the sound.
"kerhhh".
There! You see the orca. Yes, the whale is far away, but the sound of his/her being has drawn you in.
You wait. You hear it again and this time you know right where the whale is.
Then you hear another who sounds much farther away. "kerhhh."
You could stand there until you hear no more sounds, so you do.
Peace has taken over.
...sleep fast and rest fast...it might be an early morning...that is if they don't wake me up over the hydrophones in the night :)
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