7/6-7/15 Mixed Up Whales

Monday/Tuesday, July 6-7
July 6th
...they came down in the late morning, porpoising...all of J pod and Onyx L-87, all of K pod, and the 19 L pod whales, totaling 65...that's a lot of whales!

...they came up in the late afternoon, porpoising...

...and they came back down...or at least some of them did...some said it was the J16s who had gone north...but it also looked like the K13s hadn't come back down...we would find out tomorrow just who was where...

July 7th
...by morning there were way fewer whales than the night before...the K12s (5), K13s (7), J16s (6), and Solstice L-89 and his mom Spirit L-22, for a total of 20, were the only whales seen in these waters...the rest were seen heading west in the Strait of Juan de Fuca...
...the day started with knowing that Solstice L-89 and his mom Spirit L-22 were in basically the same place as yesterday...there were a few other whales seen down there, who turned out to be the K12s...and the J16s, of all things, showed up coming across Haro Strait from the west - they were last seen several miles north last evening at about 7:30 when the disappeared!
...and the K13s were discovered coming down from the north, passing Snug Harbor at about 4:30 in the afternoon, going down island...that is where we met up with the whales late in the day on Peregrine...
...finally a few images with no orange tinge...

..Solstice is behind a swell...

...teenager Cali K-34 is often seen with other males...

...by the end of the day the J16s (with the two babies, J-50 and J-52) headed north while the rest of them stayed somewhere along the south end of the island...

...the J16s were heading up island about a half mile from shore when they disappeared!...guess we'll see where they show up tomorrow...at least they know where they are...

7-6-15 Free the Snake River Video

If you haven't seen this then it's a must watch.  
If you have, then watch it again!

The Lower Snake dams "are largely responsible for the destruction of the salmon runs that we used to see all the way up into the Rocky Mountains in Idaho." – Bruce Babbitt, former U.S. Secretary of the Interior...Watch

"Free the Snake: Restoring America's Greatest Salmon River" – an excellent short film just released by Patagonia...  looks at the effects of the Lower Snake River dams and envisions how a future without those dams might bring back a resurgence of salmon...  Snake River salmon have been trucked, shipped, sent up ladders–all costly and failed bids to stop their decline.  It's time: Remove the dams; reconnect wild fish to their watershed... 

~~

Please share this with everyone!

7-5-15 A Beer Can and the Whales

Sunday, July 5th

...it looks so very eerie out there...and it's smoke from the forest fires...
...that's why the images from today have a yellowish tinge...

...before I noticed the yellow tinge, it was early this morning when I heard one faint L pod call over the Lime Kiln hydrophones...glad I was ready and out the door fast...to the park...Matia L-77, Joy L-119 and a few others had already passed by...
...Eclipse J-41 and baby J-51...

...the morning sky had some pink to it...unusual for the morning, but I didn't notice it at the time...
...Ocean Sun L-25 passed by, alone...Granny J-2 was not far behind and she too was alone...of course there were whales up ahead and behind them, but these two seemed to be without others, at the moment...

...more whales were approaching...

...very close to shore...

...and more came along...

..then some I haven't seen in these waters since last fall...I was wondering about you!

...Mystery L-85 was mixed in with others...Solstice L-89 and his mom, Spirit L-22 were together but not with any of the other L12 family group...

...by this time I was picking up the phone to notify Dave and Ken of the Center for Whale Research that there were many more whales in here than the last several days...and I had seen Crewser L-92 - first time in these waters this year!...Racer L-71, Fluke L-105, and Ballena L-90...!!!...those were the four whales of the group of 19 Ls who travel together...that is except for this year...so glad they have returned!

...a few hours later the L12s - Ocean Sun L-25, Mega L-41, Solstice L-89, Spirit L-22, Mystery L-85, Matia L-77 and Calypso L-94 and their kids including baby L-121 call came back down island together...so somewhere along the way they 'unmixed' themselves...Spirit L-22 and Solstice L-89 stopped at False Bay area and the rest of the L12s continued on and eventually were seen heading west in the Strait of Juan de Fuca...Spirit L-22 and Solstice L-89 remained behind - I remember something similar to this occurring in 2013... 

...all J pod, K pod, and L pod except for the L54s, L-84, and L-88...have now come in at least once this year...the L54s, L84 and L-88 usually make their own entrance...and usually last...so they appear to be right on their own schedule and not on our calendar!

...out on Legacy we head up to catch up to the large group...along the way we see the J16s...so we spend some time with them...this is when my images got really strange looking...I was shooting directly east, where the sun was shining behind all the forest fire smoke...

...we left them and headed toward the large group...they had split up a bit...and we spent our time with the 19 K pod whales...this is where the Beer Can comes in to play...

...later on, on Peregrine we met up with the J16 family group...and spent our time watching them...

...they were moving along as a group...then there was some surface action  - Mike was doing inverted tail lobs...

...Echo was goofing around or so it seemed...
...Mike and I think baby J-52...

...a few minutes later, on their next surfacing Alki J-36 and baby J-52 were off and behind the other four...they stayed that way until we left except that Alki and baby J-52 were much closer...I imagine that when they got to Active Pass they were back together again and entered the Pass as a group...but I wasn't there to see what they actually did...
...so I wonder what went on with that kerfuffling?
...did it have any significance to them splitting?
...did Alki and J-52 want some alone time?
...did someone get in a huff about about someone else?
...well, all we can do is wonder!

...the smoke was the heaviest coming from the east and though a lot had dissipated during the day, a lot remained... 

7-4-15 Fireworks Whale Style

Saturday, July 4th
...another 'whale wake up call'...in the form of echolocation clicks over the Lime Kiln (3:45 a.m.) and then the Orca Sound (4:40 a.m.) hydrophones...too dark, too tired, but I got ready, just in case whoever it was decided to come back down island...I wasn't going to miss them this time!'
...at 6:17 a.m. clicks began over the Orca sound hydrophones, so off to the park I went to sit and wait and hope they were coming back down...
...quiet and calm water...the whales slowly made their way down...I haven't seen some of these whales in a few weeks - "nice to have you back'!
...out on the Peregrine for an afternoon trip, we met the whales as they were coming up island...Granny J-2 in the lead with the K14s...the salmon were still jumping and so were the whales...it was a fireworks show 'whale style' today...

...off the boat and to the park in plenty of time...the 'whale fireworks' had ended a bit earlier and they traveled on past the lighthouse going back down island...
...they were going against the tide as they came back down, which caused them to take a very long time...

7/1-3/15 Ever Changing Days

Wednesday-Friday, July 1-3
Wednesday, July 1st

...whales were coming in front the west...out on

Peregrine for an afternoon trip the whales began to disperse as they got closer to San Juan Island...as we arrived on scene Granny J-2, Onyx L-87, Samish J-14 and her family, Shachi J-19 and her family and Lea K-14 and her family all headed up island...Tahlequah J-35 and Notch J-47 surfaced right by us - "ah! so the J17s are here"...but we didn't see them after that...

...off the boat and to the west side I get there just in time to see some whales turning and going back down island...it was the J17s and Tsuchi J-31...hmmm...that was strange, I wondered where Blackberry J-27 and Mako J-39 were... I realized later if I had read the encounter reports from the Center for Whale Research (link on left column) I would have found out where those two and others were!

Thursday, July 2nd
...4:00a.m. wake up 'call' (Lime Kiln hydrophones) from the whales!...I figured it was the J17s and Tsuchi from late yesterday...but that was a guess...

...8:30 a.m. Granny and the whales who had gone up yesterday (see above) were coming back down island...
...by the afternoon trip on Peregrine both groups were south and east along the bottom of Lopez Island...just as we were arriving on scene the whales were grouping up and coming back west...when they were reaching the east opening to Cattle Pass Granny and the 4 K14s - Lea K-14, Lobo K-26, Yoda K-36, and Kelp K-42 - who were in the lead, stopped and remained at the surface.  The others continued on and now Granny and the K14s were the trailers. 
As the whales crossed the entrance to the pass and reached the west side, they turned and quickly went into the pass (strong flood tide).  The J14s, J19s, J17s, and J-31 were the whales who went into the pass.  They traveled up past Goose Island, a small island on the east side of San Juan Island, and did a sweep across to the west side going down, hugging the shore line, traveling between Goose Island and San Juan Island.  They were in the pass for about 20 minutes. Their behavior, while in there, was similar to the earlier encounter this year when they (L pod whales) went into the pass except this time they didn't stay as long.

Now J2 and the K14s were in the lead and remained that way, and a good distance ahead of the rest. Granny and a few others ended up at Kellett Bluff and foraged for a while and then turned and went back down island, meeting the others and they all went down...okay everyone in the same place -whew!

Friday, July 3rd

...well that 'whew!' didn't last very long...

...shortly after 4:00 a.m. this morning another 'whale wake up call'!...

...I waited and watched and saw some offshore...was able to ID Lobo K-26 and Kelp K-42 and I could hear others up ahead of them...all going north...

...but I didn't know exactly how many...

...a long while later I get another 'call'...more whales on the Lime Kiln hydrophones...I figured that was the second group - sort of how they had been yesterday...I waited for them...oops!...I should have gone to the park because they didn't get into my view and turned and went back down island!

...out on Peregrine in the morning to attempt to see who was where...

...Shachi J-19, Eclipse J-41, and baby J-51 were here and with them were Tahlequah J-35 and Notch J-47...what an unusual group...we left them and headed down island to see who was there...at first we saw Princess Angeline J-17 heading back down island and it looked as her other family members, besides Tahlequah and Notch, were also heading down...and then we saw the J16s!...when did you show back up?!

(...Granny and her group had evidently continued north this morning and were heading up...possibly toward the Fraser River...)

...by mid afternoon the whales had made it up to the lighthouse and passed it...or some of them did...

...Tahlequah J-35 now had baby J-50 by her side...for a while...when they reached Kellett Bluff they split up as they often do...Mike J-26 foraged along the outer side and some of the others went deep into Open Bay...when they moved on, the J16s and the J19s were in close proximity...but of course that didn't last long...

...I know 'what a saga' ...they continued to move north but the two family groups split apart, sometimes one group ahead of the other and then they would drop back...

...Tahlequah and Notch...they too came along but were well behind the others...

we left the J16s, J19s in the Strait of Georgia...Tahlequah J-35 and Notch J-47 were behind them, but we last saw them coming up toward East Pt....

...all that and then we learn of more whales on the west side in the late afternoon...

...to have Tahlequah J-35 and Notch J-47 split off from their family...well, that's just one more unusual thing to add to this season...and it's still very early...

note:  7-3-15 there were lots and lots of salmon, leaping and leaping high...heading up...it was a wild sight to see...I believe they were Pink salmon...but 'they' say that the whales don't eat Pinks...they sure are echolocating a lot with less chatter...finding food is serious business.