Day 1 of the Study and 2 HBs show up!

The Study? Since 1990 a wonderful fella began a study regarding the Southern Resident orcas - J, K and L pods. He has retired now but the study continues.  It begins each year on May 20th and today whales showed up! It wasn't J, K or L pods but it was a mom and calf humpback!

At least the first day of the study there was something to put on the sightings board!  yay! There have been several humpbacks returning to the Salish sea in recent weeks and there will likely be more coming in. They don't come in large groups but instead sometimes there is just one humpback that passes by and other times there is a mom and calf.

Here are a few images of the mom and calf who passed by Lime Kiln lighthouse today and today they were much closer to the San Juan shore than the previous HBs!  More will likely be coming.

It is hoped that the Southern Residents return soon but it's still a bit early and they need to be where their food source is.

Two Humpback Whales Today

They were far offshore when spotted by others.  At first some thought it might be orcas but there was definitely a humpback out there.

Though distant images showed that what looked like it could be an orca it was actually the tail flukes of the adult humpback.

There was another humpback present & it might have been an offspring.

If so this might be the first of this season's mom/calf pair coming up Haro Strait.  Too cool!

The land in the distance is Vancouver Island.  That's when others began seeing the exhale of the Humpback.

This was zoomed in enough to confirm that what may have looked like an orca in the distance was actually the tail flukes of a humpback...and with a smaller HB.

The underside of the tail fluke shows there is a lot of white and the skinny thing sticking up is the other tail fluke.

These next two images indicate that one was much larger than the other....hum...mom and calf??

Difficult to see - there are 2 'things' barely on the surface that are actually the tip of the tail flukes of the larger HB.

Terribly out of focus... it is the left tail fluke & shows a distinct 'hook'.

Shows location...See the blows?

The one on the right might look like an orca but those are the tail flukes of the HB.

Great spotting of these far from shore whales today!  

Thanks everyone!

8/22-23/16 Up One Day and Down the Next

Monday-Tuesday, August 22-23rd
...no whales at the park on Sunday...
Monday the 22nd
...it was late afternoon when K and L pod whales came up island...
...J Pod had already gone north in the early, early morning...

Tuesday the 23rd

...late afternoon...

...evening...getting toward sunset...

...will they continue 'down and then out'...or will they just continue down and then back up tomorrow?...

5/26-27/15 Did J Pod Go Really Far North?

Tuesday/Wednesday, May 26-27th
...update on J pod
...J pod was last seen late in the day on May 23rd all grouped up in Swanson Channel...they had been heading north...they were not heard over the Lime Kiln or the Orca Sound hydrophones...I had mentioned before that I believed they had gone way north, there's some big water up there where they might have gone undetected, especially since they have been splitting up and spreading out...so we wait...

Tuesday, May 26th
...in the meantime out with Capt. Jim we had another encounter with T77A and T124C...two males traveling together...

...then way off in one direction...

...then back the other direction...

...and then they made the fastest kill I've ever seen...

...both whales were together when they stopped right in front of us...

...it seemed as if they were splitting up the food, mainly because one of them was thrashing his tail as if he was using it to hold his place, while they were pulling apart the animal...I would guess it was a harbor seal, but never saw exactly what is was...when they continued on each one had a good size hunk of a meal...

...the other thing that was interesting is that there were no birds...usually birds will be there immediately to get the scraps...and there was no smell...but there was a lot of blood...

Wednesday, May 27th
...out looking for the two male orcas from yesterday...we heard there were two killer whales spotted way too far away, but within range someone had located three humpbacks...

...BCY0324 - aka Big Mama was a few miles west of the other two, all up in the Strait of Georgia...

...these are humpback whales who come back each year...

...and by the end of the day...still no word on J pod...

5-2-15 Which Way Did the Whales Go?

Friday/Saturday, May 1st and 2nd
Friday, May 1st
...no scanning from shore would find the whales early this morning...they were several miles away from here...but by 11 a.m they had made their way to the west side of San Juan Island...out with Capt. Jim and Nancy at noon...
...the seas were beginning to get a bit nasty (the theme lately) so when two whales were spotted coming toward us, the Capt. decided we would turn and go up island with them and with the swells...
...it was Eclipse J-41 and her baby J-51...they appeared to be in the lead, but later we saw Eclipse's mother far up ahead...J-51 was doing some porpoising...

...then, on one surfacing J-51 showed just about how long a three month old might be...nice to have mom on the far side for added perspective...

Behind them by quite a distance were the J16s, except that Mike J-26 wasn't with them.  It's interesting to watch J-50, who I'm now calling 'CatchUp!', because no sooner does she catch up, a few minutes later she is catching up again!  Slick seems to up ahead most of the time. Often Echo J-42 has J-50 by her side or near to her.
The whales were quite a distance up ahead and in shore from us...we were moving at a crawl it seemed...just enjoying the babies...
...then all of a sudden they turned and began coming back down island, but instead of going down they changed course and aimed right toward us...this was deliberate on their part...

...we heard that the other whales had changed direction and were heading down and they all did, passing the lighthouse at Lime Kiln...but about an hour later the J16s came back up island past the lighthouse...they had a split off from the rest of J Pod!

...the J16s passed the lighthouse in a nice group and continued up island...

...the rest of the J pod whales went down island and off to the south...I watched from shore and it looked like they might be leaving - again...
Saturday, May 2nd
...so when they woke me up in the middle of the night (2:30 a.m.) it sounded like they had come back up...
...but when morning came they were no where to be seen...hummm...out with Capt. Jim for a 1:30 trip...we had several options - the J16s were somewhere up near Sucia Island to the north...the T65As were to the south at Hein Bank...and some other whales had been spotted coming down Swanson Channel...we headed that way...and were we ever glad we did - it was the rest of J Pod!...
...ah-ha! - they had gone up in the night...but based on the time frame they changed direction before getting into Active Pass and started to come back down...this is significant to me because I believe it is an indicator of the lack of salmon in these waters...

...Princess Angeline J-17 was in the lead, with Moby J-44 behind her...and she was on the move...in the distance were others...farther off to the west were Blackberry J-27 and Mako J-39...Granny J-2 was in the lead of the largest group traveling together...

..they were all heading for Turn Pt. the northerly entrance to Haro Strait...

...BCY0324 Big Mama the humpback was not far from us so we went over to see her...and a cruise ship was just entering the picture...photo op coming up!...we hoped...

...but then this cormorant stole the show!

...on our later trip we were only about 10 minutes from the harbor when one of the passengers spotted a whale - it was Shachi J-19...not sure if others had passed by while we were in the harbor...but soon we saw Eclipse J-41 and her baby J-51...behind them came others and soon people didn't know which way to look! - fun stuff - the J16 family had caught up and were actually up ahead of others...

...some of the whales went back into Open Bay...some foraging was going on and when they came out of there, they were being playful, which continued as they moved down island...here are a few images...
...a double spyhop...

...they were definitely in a playful mood...

...Granny J-2 was moving along swiftly...

...this little guy has his breach down!...

...watching closely to what they are doing will tell a lot about the abundance or lack thereof of salmon...
...like seeing the whales?...then please help the whales by helping to save the wild stocks of salmon...it matters for the humans and other species as well...
...if you haven't read about the push to get the four lower Snake River Dams removed, please click on the SOUTHERN RESIDENT KILLER WHALE INITIATIVE - TAKE ACTION in the upper right column on this blog...read about it and consider signing the petition - it matters a lot!