8-4-2021 Cappuccino K-21

 post date: August 4

It came as a shock to all. To see the images of Cappuccino in his last moments of life broke hearts of many humans.  What about the whales?  They know they must continue on. Opus K-16 and Sonata K-35 are who he traveled with for the the last several years. 

Looking back at audio and video and images here are a few memories of Cappuccino.  His presence will be greatly missed by his pod and their community as well as the humans who have at the opportunities to have their own cherished memories of him. 

The following all occurred on the same day a few years ago.

 

Here's what 'they said'...

a few hours later...here's what they looked like...you have to 'wait for it'...

Most often when a whale in this community has died the only determination is that they are not seen with any other community members of any of J, K, of L pods.  The Center for Whale Research makes the determination when enough time has gone by to conclude the animal is presumed to have died.

This time it's different.

Cappuccino was seen.

Horrible? Yes.

A call to action. 

Action that will make a difference.

Everything you do has an impact.

On what? THE PLANET.

Are your actions restorative? 

Are they destructive?

The cause of Cappuccino's death might not ever be known.

Age?  Not necessarily.  A nice scape-goat.

Starvation? Possible

Toxins?  released due to starvation, possible.

One leads to the other.

Will the humans ever get it right?

 Cappuccino, I hope so but I'm afraid they won't.

6-5-16 It Was a 5:20AM Wake Up Call

Sunday, June 5th

link to a Short clip of the early morning

...it was J Pod and I suspect Granny J-2 as she often will make it known J Pod is here...a very brief call, but loud, over the Lime Kiln hydrophones at 5:20 a.m....
...healing up from tooth/mouth surgery stuff last Tuesday...today was just perfect...I was well enough I could actually 'get a move on' and get to the lighthouse...
...but when I did there were no whales in sight and no calls on the hydrophones...
...after waiting a good long while instead of heading to the parking lot I decided to walk along the shoreline to 'the wall' as it is called at the south end of the park...and there in the distance, way in the distance, I saw dorsal fins!
...you'd think I'd never seen an orca before...well, it sort of seemed like it...J Pod had been gone since May 13th...
...so...back to the lighthouse to wait and hope they would come up...
...I was assuming it was J Pod...
...when they got to the light the J17s, J22s passed by...and continued on up...or so it seemed...DoubleStuf J-34 and his mom, Oreo J-22 stopped about halfway past the cove just north of the light and they turned and headed back down...huh?...they were moving very slowly...a few minutes later the J11s  and Cookie J-38 came up - that's all of Group B!...

...and then...and then...Cappuccino K-21, Opus K-16, and Sonata K-35...

...there were lots more whales coming up...
so I switched to video for a bit...
...I left and went up island and found that the lighting was much nicer but the whales were quite a way offshore...the evaporation coming off the water made for distance images to be very crinkly looking...but at least I could still see who was present...

...and it was only 7:30 a.m.

...out on Peregrine for an afternoon trip...we meet up with the L Pod whales...they had changed direction and went back down island...and then turned and came up island!...many people got to meet L-123 for the first time...this baby was first seen last November but no confirmed until December, and since then L Pod has been gone.

...and then it was only a couple hours later when they came back down island...

...it is good to have them back and we hope they are finding food...and plenty of it.
  

10-4-14 Twelve Thousand Pounds of Cuteness

Saturday, October 4th
...middle of the night calls over the Lime Kiln hydrophones...I heard a specific K pod call...so I figured it was probably the K Klik, J Pod and Onyx L-87...but one can never be sure...then, no whales seen until late morning, when all of a sudden there they showed up near Lime Kiln coming up island...
...Granny J-2 and her group were in the lead...by the time I got to the park I had missed them..but off in the distance little J-49 breached - pretty neat, eh?

...soon others approached...the J17s, the J16s, some of the Cookies...etc...and there were some Pacific white sided dolphins zooming around the whales! - that's now day 14 in a row for Lags to be here!

...off to the boat...arriving at Snug Harbor I see booms set out...uh, oh...but it was a practice drill...whew!

...out on Maya's Westside Charters to see whales...and they weren't very far...like right outside of the harbor...and the Lags were coming up too...they were zooming in and out around the whales and the boats...

...we got excited to see some Grebe's...a winter bird for around here...

...oops, almost didn't get out of Cookie J-38's way!

...in the middle of our travels Capt. Jim spotted something...upon closer look - lookie here...this might be the leftovers from the Transients' breakfast yesterday morning...not sure what animal it had been, but it sure looked pretty big...the whales don't eat the lungs or the ribs...

...we saw Tucker at work...

...the whales were moving slow but steadily up...Princess Angeline J-17 spyhopped at one point...

..whenever I see this boat I think of family I have who live in Homer...

...it poured rain for a short while...just long enough to get good and wet...and then the skies cleared...
...Cappuccino K-21 surfaced coming toward us...one of the passengers said he was 'cute'...I replied with "cute?...he's about 12,000lbs of cute...and about two minutes later he showed us how 'cute' he can be!...

...what? does he hear what we are saying??? !

...on the way back to the harbor...

...I know Jackson was amazed at the Pacific white sided dolphins as they swam along the front and sides of the boat...he then was wanting the killer whales to do that too...once explained the size of the whales in comparison to the size of the boat. I think he decided it was okay if they didn't!