J Pod & L12s and Whale Comics

 August 6, 2023

J Pod and the L12s came inland to Haro Strait at the end of June, as most are already aware.  The L12s have two calves, estimated to be a two to three months old. It was great to see all of J Pod too!  The L12s, as they have historically done, spent their time along the west side of the island and most often off the lower section of it, making it not easy to see them.  But they did come up to Lime Kiln lighthouse a time or two.  When they came in, J Pod continued north and spent time in the Strait of Georgia, as they usually do. On July 4th J Pod came back down, and the L12s were still doing their version of the 'westside shuffle'.  That evening, after dark, calls were heard on the Lime Kiln hydrophones. The next day J Pod and the L12s were seen in the Strait of Juan de Fuca heading west.

From July 5th through July 31st and continuing to August 6th, 6:55pm, (as of this writing) NO Southern Resident Endangered Kille Whales have been seen in these waters.   That is NOT GOOD.

They come here for the salmon and what the whales are telling us is that there are little to no salmon coming in, i.e. enough for them to follow them in. BUT that is only the tip of the iceberg...if you aren't aware of the importance of salmon to this ecosystem - yes, all of it...then you might want to look up -  137 Species Rely On Salmon - you might begin to think a bit differently.

Okay, enough of my rant.

Looking back through some old posts to my blog I realized I had forgotten about the 'Whale Comics' I had created, for a while, of course when all was abundant and appeared to be thriving.  So here are some of the silly text on images from years gone by. They made me smile if only for a short while. Hope they bring a smile to you.  Of course the first of these images is from years ago, but who knows maybe they will surprise us on August 7th - ha-ha!

6-11-18 Southern Residents Return

Monday, June 11th

...everyone was surprised when J Pod and many L Pod whales showed up in the early morning...it had been a long time since they were in the inland waters...
...a few came up island at about 7 a.m. to Lime Kiln and then turned and went back down island...then at 8:40 the whales started to come up again...only to turn and go back down island again!

...then at about 10:15 they came up, Shachi J-19 in the lead(not shown on this clip)...they were spread out, close to shore and moved north passing the park...

...there is much more to the day...this was only the beginning... will add to this post until I get the day completed...

 

7-19-16 Now That Was A Fast Pass

Tuesday, JUly 19th
...on the 19th J Pod, the L4s and the L47s came back down from the north zooming past the lighthouse...by the end of the day they were seen heading west...
...here are a few pics I captured from shore...the whales surprised me and I missed most of them...

...present on the 19th were all of J Pod, the L4s and the L47s...usually the L26s and the L72s are with them, but it appears they were not today...

...the L12s were in and stayed off the lower part of San Juan Island...something they often do in the summer... 

11-10-14 We Got Whales!

Monday, November 10th
...once November started, I kept thinking about several years ago - November 11, 2009 - when J pod whales showed up coming down island, passing Lime Kiln lighthouse...
...and that it could happen again...

...I was planning to go out on Maya's Westside Charters today for a noon time trip...but my hopeful memories told me to go scanning before the trip...
...maybe I'd spot a humpback whale, so when my eyes locked on the tall dorsal fin of a killer whale I about freaked!...I was so shocked I started to shake - LOL!!...and laughing at myself for trembling...and then I remembered November 11th, 7 years ago...okay, so one day off...

...back 7 years ago there had been a report several days before of whales seen to the north and they were 'swimming in circles'...all I could think of was 'baby', so when Polaris actually showed up with J-46 - yeah it was epic then too!

...okay, back to the present...November 10th, 2014...

...at first I thought that maybe they were Transients, mainly because I only saw about three whales...but then they spread out and that made me wonder, because the distance was greater than the way transients usually spread out...
...if I had been listening to the Lime Kiln hydrophones I would have known they were L pod whales!

...when I left them to head for the boat, they were heading down and were miles from shore...but when we got out there we were stretched to find them..uh,oh...
...earlier, from shore I had seen a sail boat near the whales, so we located a sail boat and the fellow let us know they had changed direction and were heading back toward San Juan Island...we headed that way...all of a sudden one of the passengers called out that something was just ahead of us...we got a brief glimpse and then nothing...
...we all wanted to see the whales and especially Noah, who had just studied killer whales in school - we just had to find them...

...Mark on Prince of Whales out of Victoria joined the search...he spotted blows up island...after seeing how far the whales were spread, the long dive times, and few surfacings in between...well, that filled in a lot of questions...

...Mystery's fin - what a hook it has!...but it doesn't always show like that...
...Lime Kiln lighthouse is in the distance on the left...the whales were at least three miles from shore when we finally saw them...

...still a puzzle to me as to which way they had come from...they might have come in, gone up so far and then back down...but what was most unusual to me was that when I saw them they were coming down from the north, at a steady pace and were miles from shore...KWDs (killer whale dots) at that time...

...they stalled out between Baynes Channel and Discovery Island and then came back towards San Juan Island, up past Lime Kiln - offshore - and then back down and headed out late in the day...

...the two moms and their little ones were spread way out...Mystery had disappeared for a while and showed up way north...

 

...then they began to come together...

...then Capt. Jim spotted some blows about two miles away...I grabbed a couple shots...it was Mega L-41 and probably Ocean Sun L-25...

 

...Dave from the Center for Whale Research zoomed over to verify who it was...


...Solstice L-90 and his mom Spirit L-22 were off from the others foraging...sort of like Mega and Ocean Sun - distance wise...

...just before Capt. Jim was about to depart I got to 'hop' (more like fall into) the Center for Whale Research boat and continue on with Dave Ellifrit from the Center...this is the last image I took from Capt. Jim's boat...

...while on the CWR boat we watched as the whales eventually all came together, Mega surprised us with a huge breach - and only once -and they continued their direction to the south and west...
...link here to the Center for Whale Research Encounter report, with images too, from today...

It was an epic November day!

NOTE:  a few days ago while out on the water a couple passengers commented a few times that they saw jumping fish - and they were big!...yesterday afternoon I saw that same thing three times...salmon leaping...and then today Residents showed up...interesting...

9-21-14 Getting To Know You

Sunday, September 22nd
...I went for a scan...they are still here!...not sure who, but I could see a couple whales way down island, foraging...
...out on Maya's Westside Charters...we come upon DoubleStuf J-34 and his mom, Oreo J-22...they were spread a quarter mile...just two whales...we knew there were more, but as we went down island there wasn't a whale in sight!
...then up ahead we saw a few...but where was everyone else?...Moby J-44 and Sonata K-35 were having a great time...

...one of the passengers asked some questions about a male whale's male parts, commonly referred to as a sea snake, and did it hang outside of their body?...so we had a few chuckles at the thought of all the things something that could be up to about five feet long could get hung up on...chuckle, chuckle...so I said something about what does hang out are the pec fins on an orca, not really meaning anything...but two minutes later Moby showed us!

...sometimes all you have to do is think it!

...we heard there was a humpback whale in the vicinity so we saved time to go see it...on our way to see the humpback we heard that the whales who had gone up north last night were coming back down and were coming fast!...
...and we heard that someone spotted a very large group of Pacific white sided dolphins...we'd try to fit that in on the later trip...that is if those dolphins were still in the area...things were getting wild!

...we watch the humpback for a few minutes but I doubt enough info for an idea as to who this humpback is...

...we were soon off to find the whales who were coming down...then we hear that they had already passed by Snug Harbor entrance...we caught up to the J14s...that's the family group that was in 'stealth mode' yesterday...

...so by the afternoon we thought that all the whales were now down south...we come upon a few whales figuring it would be some who had come down earlier...it was DoubleStuf J-34 who met up with Tika K-33, who was one of those who had come down from the north...

...Cookie J-38 was in shore with some of the J14s and Oreo J22 his mom...

...someone off shore breached four times... 

...then to the LAGS...they were feeding, going in huge circles...it was estimated there were a couple hundred but impossible to actually count them all!...here's one of the hookiest fins I've ever seen...

...then back to the whales...some were coming off shore and a large group was coming back in toward shore...we went out to meet them...first I see Blackberry J-27 and his sister and brother...and a few other whales...then I get a glimpse of something tiny - "there's the baby"!!!  I yelled out - of course!

...that was totally unexpected...but the baby is getting to meet more members of the Community, so no telling which group this little family will be with next time we see them...I just love watching this!

...off to the east of this group were Mystery L-85, Matia L-77 and Joy L-119 - I have hardly seen the L12s at all this year...

...we left them heading back in and back down island...

...until next time...

9-7-14 More Intra-Species Interaction

Sunday, September 7th
...with J and most of K pod way north at the Fraser River...we headed down island to see who was here...out on Legacy Charters we first came upon Opus K-16...Sonata K-35 was in closer to shore...all of a sudden theses gulls took off...

...since Opus and Sonata were in the area I figured it was one of them...

...Cappuccino should be around somewhere...

...we moved down a bit and saw Spirit L-22...and in closer to shore was Mystery L-85...coming up was Solstice L-89...
...then it got really exciting...a Pacific white sided dolphin was in the mix!

...this is about the third time in the last month or so that one single Pacific white sided dolphin has been seen harassing killer whales...and since a killer whale is really the largest of the dolphin family...

...so much fun to watch what goes on...the Pacific white sided dolphin was just having too much fun with Mystery L-85...

...more members of the L12s were down island...and the rest of L pod with the new baby was way down island and offshore...would not see the calf today...but how about one more pic of the little one from yesterday when on on Maya's Westside Charters...

...if you want to read about the discovery of the new calf (9/6/14) by the Center for Whale Research it's under Encounter, 2014, #53...so just imagine you are a researcher on the boat that day and live their experience through their account of the day...
(I'm not a researcher but I've had the experience of discovering a new calf and it is quite special.)

...back to 9/7/14..it was about 10:00 pm when I began hearing J and K pod calls on the Orca Sound hydrophones...and soon on the Lime Kiln hydrophones too...they lasted quite a while...interesting stuff it was...will be a good winter project...